Heaven on Earth

Heaven on Earth is a 1931 American dramatic film directed by Russell Mack, based on the 1929 novel, Mississippi, by author Ben Lucien Burman. The film stars Lew Ayres as the estranged son of a Mississippi steamboat captain. Plot In 1927, Captain Lilly (Harry Beresford) is a steamboat captain who pilots a boat on the Mississippi River, with the help of his son, States (Lew Ayres). Along their route is a shantytown made up of houseboats, the residents of which often fight with the steamboat crowd. After a shooting match between States and shanty-boater Chicken Sam (John Carradine), Sam reveals to States his true heritage: Captain Lilly killed States' real father - a shanty-boater - and adopted States as his own son. States confirms this fact with court records, and after leaving Captain Lilly, becomes a boarder on Aunt Vergie's (Elizabeth Patterson) houseboat. Vergie's daughter Towhead (Anita Louise), falls in love with States and, understanding that he's homesick, sneaks onto Captain Lilly's steamboat and takes his dog, Shoo-Fly. States tries to get the dog to return to Captain Lilly, but Shoo-Fly insists on staying by his side. Later when Captain Lilly approaches States to ask him to come back, he sees Shoo-Fly and - believing that States kidnapped the dog - denounces him. States then builds his own shanty-boat with a breakwater protecting it, only to have Captain Lilly drive his own steamboat into it, thinking it is creating a bar in the river. Unknown to Captain Lilly, Towhead, was in States' boat at the time, and she is injured during the crash.