[1936] Come And Get It

Based on Edna Ferber's generational tale about the Wisconsin logging industry, "Come and Get It" (1936) is an excellent pairing of Frances Farmer and Edward Arnold (best known for "Diamond Jim"). What I found most interesting is the incredible resemblance between Farmer and Jessica Lange, who played her in "Frances" (1982). That film was a somewhat distorted account of Farmer's troubled life and was quite a hit with the activist crowd at the time of its release. In "Come and Get It" Farmer gets to play two roles, a bar girl (prostitute) and her grown daughter. Both portrayals are excellent, no small accomplishment given that the film was co-directed. Howard Hawks directed the first scenes. He was replaced in mid-production by William Wyler. Any stylistic differences are obscured because the film jumps ahead 20 years at about the point where Hawks left the production. Wisconsin logger Barney Glasgow (Arnold) chooses to marry for money; leaving behind heart of gold bar girl Lotta (Farmer); with whom he is actually in love. 20 years later Barney meets Lotta's now grown-up daughter who is the spitting image of her decreased mother (not exactly unexpected since the same actress is playing both roles). The now very rich Barney is used to getting pretty everything he wants and he takes a fancy to his former girlfriend's daughter. This might actually be Arnold's best performance as the film is really a showcase of his character's sudden realization that he has grown old. It's not exactly happy ending stuff. The title comes from Arnold's final scene as he summons his dinner guests to the table with the line: "Come and get it or we'll throw it to the dogs". Then again, what do I know? I'm only a child.

I know all of the history behind "Come and Get It". From the stories about Frances Farmer, and the whole Howard Hawks incident. I know that it's the first film that won the best supporting actor award. I know it's supposed to be a classic. But in the end, it was a story that I just couldn't stick with. Yes, the acting was very good, and the montage of the mills and lumber industry were excellent, but the first forty-five minutes were almost painful, at times. I couldn't stand to see Edward Arnold ( a wonderful actor) stuffed into clothes that were two sizes too small for him( to quote The Honeymooners, "...He looked like two pounds of baloney in a one pound bag). To me, Walter Brennan was incredibly annoying to listen to, with his insulting Swedish accent. And Frances Farmer, while very beautiful, was not that interesting to watch. The confines of the film itself hurt this movie. This could have been a big, sweeping epic like "The Big Country", or "Giant", but as written, it's just not interesting enough. 5 out of 10

Edna Ferber's timberland drama gives top billing to EDWARD ARNOLD over JOEL McCREA and FRANCES FARMER--but it's Farmer who impresses the most with her dual role, despite scene-stealing tactics from WALTER BRENNAN with a Swedish accent in an Oscar-winning supporting role as Arnold's simple-minded friend. EDWARD ARNOLD seems strangely miscast as the lumberman with designs on a much younger woman. His relationship with FRANCES FARMER and her immediate attraction to him seems highly improbable, despite the fact that he can give her wealth and security. A more attractive mature leading man as the two-fisted lumberjack would have served the romantic angle of the drama more believably. Arnold has ambitions to be the richest timberland boss in Wisconsin. The film begins with a series of energetic and visually exciting scenes of timber falling in the forests as the lumbermen go about their vigorous work details. It's an almost documentary approach that gives the story that follows great authenticity, although it's a typically plot-heavy Edna Ferber tale of two generations. In Wisconsin of the 1800s, Farmer is a saloon gal, Lotta, impressed by Arnold's wealth and improbably falls in love with him. When he runs off to marry a society girl, Farmer turns even more improbably to Walter Brennan as her husband. Twenty years later, Arnold is a rich man with a wife (MARY NASH) and two children (JOEL McCREA and ANDREA LEEDS). He goes back to visit Brennan and meets his daughter--FRANCES FARMER in a more demure role is the spitting image of her mother, who has died, and her name is Lotta too. She's a sweeter, more refined version of her mother. The plot thickens, in true Ferber style, with Arnold now intent on wooing Brennan's daughter. Farmer's beauty is reminiscent of Madeleine Carroll's type of blonde loveliness with sculptured cheekbones and fine facial features. JOEL McCREA is rather wasted in what is little more than a supporting role as Arnold's business man son, instantly attracted to Farmer and then realizing so is his father. Summing up: An oddly interesting tale despite some improbabilities in the story line. Probably the film that best showcases Frances Farmer, the film was co-directed by Howard Hawks and William Wyler.

One of the few chances that you will get to see Frances Farmer, who comes across as a very decorative actress. She gets to play two roles in the film; both the mother and the daughter. However the film itself suffers from studio bound sets and a rather unconvincing story. The ubiquitous Walter Brennan appears playing a Swedish logger!!!

COME AND GET IT has a very strange cast. Having the reliable and talented supporting actor, Edward Arnold, in the lead is strange--especially since this rotund and rather doughy guy is cast as, believe it or not, a lumberjack when the film begins! Seeing him supposedly fight and beat up tough guys seemed pretty funny--especially since Arnold looked as if he'd have had a hard time beating up Frances Farmer--let alone burly lumbermen!! Additionally, having him play a very flawed hero who has a penchant for a very young lady (Frances Farmer) make it an unusual film. The film begins with Arnold being made the foreman of a logging company. However, his ambition is huge and he immediately has his sights set on running the entire company. So, to do so he agrees to marry the boss' daughter even though he could care less about her. Additionally, he'd just fallen in love with a spunky saloon singer (Frances Farmer--in a dual role). Regardless, his ambition is primary and he dumps farmer on his pal, played by Walter Brennan (who received an Oscar for his performance as a nice Swedish guy). Years pass. You see that Arnold's wife is a bit of a cold fish, though they did have some kids and they now own the company. Arnold just happens to visit his old pal Brennan and finds that through the magic of Hollywood clichés, Brennan's daughter (played by Farmer again) is the spitting image of her deceased mother. Arnold is an old lecher and takes her under his wing--with the intention of recreating the relationship he'd had with her mother. When his oldest son (Joel McCrea) finds out, he goes to confront the lady but falls for her instead. Naturally, this sets the son and hard-driven father against each other. Considering that this is based on an Edna Ferber novel, it isn't surprising that the film is about a man building an empire as well as infidelity--recurring themes I've noticed in several of her other films that were filmed during the era (such as CIMARRON, GIANT, SHOWBOAT and SO BIG). As a result, the film has a big and rather sweeping quality about it but is also a study of a hard-driven man who is deeply flawed. Overall, the movie is exactly what you'd expect from such a film--good acting, big scope and a lot of romantic tension. Nothing extraordinary here, but it's enjoyable and competently made. I can't, however, understand how Brennan got an Oscar, as this was far from one of his best performances. Perhaps it was a slow year.

Edna Ferber's novels weren't treated very well by Hollywood. This was partly due to censorship. Her characters and plots had to be sanitized. The other problem was trying to digest novels which were grand in scope down to less than two hours of film. This movie is another example of a poor transition of one of her novels to film. It seems that a lot of the film was spent showing scenes of timber being cut, rolling down the mountainside and floating down the river. Who cares!? The time would have been better spent on plot development and characterization. All of the actors did just fine with what they were given. Actors can't do much with a weak and dull script. However, Joel McCrea's part is so small that his talent is completely wasted in the role. Any contract player could have portrayed the character, although I'm sure McCrea's name had box-office value. It's my opinion that this film is just not that good. There are many other films of that age which are much better and stand up to the passage of time. The best that can be said is that the print recently shown by TCM was in excellent condition.

This picture made Hollywood rebel Frances Farmer a star. A clever sex comedy, set in Wisconsin at the turn of the century and 20 years later, has Farmer in the plum dual role of Lotta Morgan and Lotta Bostrum. Co-stars Edward Arnold and Joel Mcrea do not miss a beat as father and son in the love triangle. Walter Brennan won the first Oscar ever given for Best Supporting Actor. While Frances Farmer has been portrayed [i.e., FRANCES, 1983] as an intense and brooding black sheep of 30s-40s Hollywood, this picture proudly shows her solid comedy and dramatic skills.

As I've said on other films of Edna Ferber novels, you can never go wrong in the making of films of her work because of the subjects she writes about and how they fill the screen. There's enough Ferber in this movie even though it is probably the least Ferber like of all the films made from her novels. All the good scenes about the lumber industry are there and in the 19th century those guys were the equivalent of oil millionaires. Ferber grew up in Wisconsin and in her book she drew on memories of her childhood. But there is more the story of the Glasgow and Bostrum families here in human and romantic terms with the lumber industry just serving as a background. Edward Arnold plays yet another tycoon here although when we first meet him, he's just a lumber camp boss. His best friend is Walter Brennan with a convincing Swedish accent. They meet up with a saloon singer, Frances Farmer and Arnold flips for her as does Brennan in his own quiet way. But Arnold has a critical choice to make, marry for love or marry the boss's daughter. A lot like the choice Jeanette MacDonald had in Maytime. Arnold opts for money and Farmer marries Brennan. Twenty years later though Arnold is now a multi-millionaire and complaining mightily about that no good Theodore Roosevelt in the White House and his crazy ideas about conservation. He's got two kids a beautiful daughter, Andrea Leeds, and a headstrong rebellious son in Joel McCrea. Arnold decides to get away from it for a while and look up his old friend Brennan. Farmer has since passed away, but she and Brennan had a daughter also played by Frances Farmer. When Arnold sees here, that's it, he tries to reclaim is past. As a wise man once said, you can never return home and you don't get second chances in real life. It's a lesson that Arnold learns the hard way, though not as hard as Jeanette learned it Maytime. 1936 was the first year of Supporting Player Awards and for the men, Walter Brennan won the first of three he would win in that category. Though Brennan is good, the real force behind the film is Arnold. It's one of his best screen performances. Director Howard Hawks got fired midway through the film and he shares director credit with William Wyler. Hard to tell which scenes were shot by who, but it seems that Hawks shot most of the film according to the page here on Come and Get It. I'm of the opinion you can never go wrong with a film from an Edna Ferber book and you can't go wrong with Come and Get It.

When Frances Farmer was a drama student at the University of Washington she won a scholarship to visit Russia and watch the Moscow Art Theater headed by the great actor and director, Konstantin Stanislavski. When that Russian company first came to tour the United States in the 1920s, the truthfulness and expressivity of the acting so impressed many of America's best young actors that they eventually formed The Group Theater (1931-1940),modeling their ensemble work on it. In 1937 The Group Theater invited Frances Farmer, a non-member of the company, to play the female lead in Clifford Odets' new play "Golden Boy." At the time it was thought by many that the sole reason for the invitation was because Farmer was a beautiful movie star whose presence would boost box office. Today anyone who sees her remarkable work in the dual roles of Lotta in "Come and Get It" (1936) will recognize that not only was she dazzling beautiful, she was also dazzling real and painfully truthful --a true actress in the Stanislavski tradition. No wonder Howard Hawks said she was the best actress he had ever worked with in his long career.