The Cabin in the Cotton

In the deep south, the Blakes are a poor tenant farming family picking cotton for wealthy landowner Lane Norwood. The father sends his only son, Marvin Blake (Richard Barthelmess), to school and works himself to death. Lane's daughter Madge Norwood (Bette Davis) hires Marvin for her store and keeps him with his studies.

This is a pre-Code drama. I would like a more specific time and place to nail down the situation. There are some brutal subject matters although this movie is not about the black folks. I've seen Barthelmess before. He retired after the war. His acting style in this reminds me of the silent era. It stands out from the others and is a little awkward, but that does fit his character. Of course, the bigger name is Bette Davis. Sometimes, I do wonder if screen presence is more recognition than acting power. In this case, Bette is playing the sassy flirt which allows for some big acting.

Interesting film about the plight of planters vs. share croppers in 1930s South. Richard Barthelmess plays a share cropper's son who is good at school and is sponsored by a planter (Berton Churchill). Although the boy becomes a bookkeeper for him he 's caught between the two worlds and the two girls from each side of town: the planter's daughter (Bette Davis) and a share cropper's neighbor (Dorothy Jordan).

As the war between the planters and croppers increases, Barthelmess is caught in a moral dilemma. He knows the croppers are stealing cotton and he knows they burned down the local mercantile (owned by the planter) because they think they've destroyed the the records. But Barthelmess has an extra set.

The film is a little slow and maybe too old fashioned but the subject matter is interesting and of course the film features Davis' famous line, "I'd like to kiss ya, but I just washed my hair. Bye!" Aside from that the film offers Barthelmess in his last starring role and good performances by Churchill and Henry B. Walthall as a crippled cropper.

Also co-stars David Landau, Virginia Hammond, Russell Simpson, Tully Marshall, Dorothy Peterson, Hardie Albright, and Clarence Muse.

Worth a look

For those who are looking for a thoughtful and socially relevant Hollywood film, Cabin In The Cotton is it. The movie is rather quaint, even compared to other films of its time, but that's part of its charm.

The subject matter is unusual, in that both the struggling sharecroppers, and the wealthy land owners are portrayed as flawed individuals. Bette Davis performance as Madge gave her an early career opportunity to impress critics. Unlike her future roles, though, it isn't large or challenging. There is enough there to allow her to be a vulnerable,spoiled, and sexy minx. She also has eccentric dialogue and a glamorous wardrobe. Richard Barthelmess, in the lead role, as well as the supporting players, give very authentic performances. The cinematography is striking,giving the film a realistic rural atmosphere. A powerful and intelligent scene near the end reminds us that, in any profession, the necessary relationship between labor and management will always be a difficult battle.

This film is probably most important because it showcases two stars - Bette Davis and Richard Barthelmess - whose careers are traveling in opposite directions. Barthelmess actually headlines here, but he is a silent star whose career is on the decline, and he has a hard time getting parts after 1934. Bette Davis is a star on the rise, in only her first year of her contract with Warner Bros. where she will become a major star.

Unlike many silent era stars, Barthelmess' problem was not his voice but his acting style. He was just a little too wooden to turn in a truly dynamic performance, and this film is no exception. The story is pretty interesting - Barthelmess plays Marvin Blake, a sharecropper's son who is educated by the plantation landowner and ends up keeping his books. His loyalty is torn between the planter who is sponsoring him, and whose daughter attracts him, and the sharecropper families with whom he grew up. The planter owns everything and is always charging high fees and interest via the company store and thus cheating the sharecroppers out of what they need. The sharecroppers have cooked up a plan to short the planter some of their cotton and sell it themselves and reap the rewards.

It's really hard to take sides in this film because everyone seems so unsympathetic - both sides are stealing from the other without any remorse or much redeeming value for that matter. It is worth a look if you can find it, although it is not yet on DVD.

Corny Pre-Coder about a peckerwood (Richard Barthelmess) on a Southern plantation who is torn between the poor cotton pickers and the greedy plantation owner, all while falling for the owner's seductive daughter (Bette Davis). Davis is the whole show here, giving a fun performance that borders on camp. Even her straight lines seem humorous thanks to her risible Southern accent. The movie's most memorable scene is when Bette drawls "I'd like to kiss you but I just washed my hair" and runs away while a sexually frustrated Richard Barthelmess stares after her. Barthelmess is just short of terrible in this, doing all of his acting in close-ups of his constipated face. Berton Churchill, Erville Alderson, and Russell Simpson are all good in supporting roles.

It's a film that's hard to take seriously at times but, if you stick with it, there is a decent 'message movie' here, the kind Warner Bros. excelled at in the 1930s. The interesting thing about the movie's pro-labor rights message is that, while the plantation owner is a villain, so are the poor workers. They include a slimeball who forces Barthelmess' widowed mother into marrying him in an unsettling scene. Their leader's another piece of work, gleefully planning to blackmail Barthelmess into helping them. So no "white hats and black hats" here; just different shades of despicable. But it's not a movie you watch for the story as much as for the performance of a young and attractive Bette Davis. She's really a treat to watch. My favorite scene is when Bette invites Barthelmess up to her room to seduce him. It's both sexy and unintentionally funny. Which pretty much sums up Bette Davis in this movie and why you just have to see it for her.