Come and Get It

An aging lumber tycoon tries to relive his youth after meeting the hauntingly beautiful daughter of an old friend.

Based on the sprawling novel by Edna Ferber, COME AND GET IT is a fascinating love story, filled with action & tenderness and some very good acting. The production values are on a high order, with the authentic logging sequence especially exciting.

Boisterous, brash & bold, Edward Arnold portrays the brawling two-fisted lumberjack who pushes himself to the top of the heap, trampling on his one great love in the process. Although completely unbelievable as a young man during the first three-quarters of an hour, this is not a problem as he is never anything less than enjoyable in the role.

Miss Frances Farmer, playing a tenderhearted floozy and her own ambitious daughter, has the best film of her career. She is nothing less than radiant and her obvious talent makes her bizarre personal history all that much more tragic.

Wonderful Walter Brennan plays Arnold's jovial Swedish pal, in a performance that would catapult him out of cinematic anonymity and earn him the first of his three Oscars for Best Supporting Actor. Seemingly able to play any kind of part - as long as the character was middle-aged or elderly - during his 46 years in movies & television Mr. Brennan would become one of America's most beloved character actors. He died in 1974 at the age of 80.

Almost obscured by the oversized talents around him, Joel McCrea wisely turns in an understated performance as Arnold's quiet, intelligent son (he invents the disposable paper cup!). His years of solid successes in front of the cameras were adding up and he would soon become a major Hollywood star.

A quartet of fine actresses fill smaller roles: Mary Nash as Arnold's neglected wife; Andrea Leeds as his adored daughter; Mady Christians as Brennan's sturdy, sensible niece; and Cecil Cunningham as Arnold's intuitive, sharp-tongued secretary. That's porcine Edwin Maxwell once again playing a bad guy, this time the crooked owner of a lumber camp saloon.

The song which is used as the theme for Miss Farmer's characters is ‘Aura Lee,' (written in 1861 by W. W. Fosdick & George R. Poulton) a very popular strain on both sides during the War Between The States. Decades later, in the 1950's, Elvis Presley would use the tune for one of his biggest hits, ‘Love Me Tender.'

No need to repeat the plot. Fortunately Arnold delivers a rousing performance. His big personality as the lumber tycoon helps distract from certain paunchy shortcomings as a screen lover. Seeing him in passion clinches with a nubile young Farmer takes some getting used to. Happily, Farmer also shines, especially in the saloon girl part, before giving way to a more routine turn as the daughter.

According to film historian David Thomson, Farmer's performance was affected by Hawks' replacement by Wyler as director. Apparently, she and Hawks were more than sympatico off the set. So, Thomson's account goes, Hawks brought on writer Furthman to slant the film towards his beauteous blonde, thus causing novelist Ferber to complain to head honcho Goldwyn, resulting in Hawks' departure and a feud between Farmer and Wyler. I mention these behind-the-scenes shenanigans to maybe account for some of the plot's half-digested elements and Farmer's noticeable downturn.

Nonetheless, it's still a compelling movie, thanks mainly to Arnold's dominating presence that holds the various threads together. I also like the logging footage, which lends a dramatically realistic air to Glasgow's empire. Then there's Lotta's haunting rendition of "Aura Lee", which evidently Farmer herself crooned. However, I'm still trying to figure out the title that appears to have little resemblance to the storyline. But however you cut that or the purported intrigues, it's still a dynamic movie.

Old fashioned to be sure, but this film version of the Edna Ferber novel boasts some great film acting by Edward Arnold and Frances Farmer (in a dual role).

Story has the ruthless Arnold working his way up in the Wisconsin lumber business, grabbing at everything in sight, including saloon gal Farmer. He seems to care about nothing but getting ahead. When he gets the chance to marry the boss' daughter (Mary Nash), he dumps Farmer and moves on.

Twenty year later, he has it all plus two children: Joel McCrea and Andrea Leeds. By chance he runs into old pal (Walter Brennan in his first Oscar win) who married Farmer. She's dead but her daughter (Farmer again) lives with him along with a niece (Mady Christians). The daughter is a dead ringer for the mother, and Arnold decides to move in on her (in a last gasp at youth).

But when the daughter meets McCrea, it's all over for Arnold. The father and son have a confrontation and the old man sees the light.

This film offers some of the best acting of any 30s film. Edward Arnold is superb, and his final scene is just plain chilling. Farmer is glorious in her dual role, her best chance at film stardom (that never happened). Also solid are McCrea, Brennan, Leeds, and Nash. Supporting cast offers Cecil Cunningham as the wise-cracking and wise secretary.

The film may set a Hollywood record in listing THREE directors. Both Howard Hawks and William Wyler are listed as co-directors while Richard Rosson is credited with the timber scenes (which are great).

Worth a look for Frances Farmer and Edward Arnold!

COME AND GET IT (United Artists, 1936), directed by Howard Hawks and William Wyler, is another winning drama from producer Samuel Goldwyn, whose previous 1936 efforts, THESE THREE and DODSWORTH, remain true classics. Adapted from the popular novel by Edna Ferber, author of "Cimarron," COME AND GET IT can be summed up as a soap opera for men, or best categorized as a "guy flick," in which the story centers upon lumbermen, particularly two best friends and their love for one woman. Of the major actors to enact the lead, Edward Arnold, a robust 200-pound plus actor, became the chosen one. Arnold, a veteran character performer with some leads to his credit, gives a sincere and brilliant portrayal in what's regarded as his very best role. While this is Arnold's showcase from start to finish, his co-stars have turned out to be winners in the end. First there's Walter Brennan in his first of three Academy Award wins in the supporting actor category; and Frances Farmer, on loan from Paramount, a newcomer with three films to her credit, in a challenging but rewarding role as a saloon singer and later, her daughter. Joel McCrea, whose name is billed second following Arnold's, has a few scenes, and comes close to being overshadowed, however, his part is crucial to the story.

In true Edna Ferber tradition, COME AND GET IT is set during a passage in time. It opens in Iron Ridge, Wisconsin, 1884, where Barney Glasgow (Edward Arnold) is introduced as the overseer of a group of lumbermen. After a couple of brawls showing Barney is a fighter and natural born leader, enter his best friend, "Swan" Bostrom (Walter Brennan), a lumberjack whom Barney affectionately calls "that crazy Swede." Barney, who is ambitious enough to prepare himself to marry his employer's (Charles Halton) daughter, is quite a ladies man. After meeting Lotta Morgan (Frances Farmer) and winning a bundle of money at the roulette table, he takes a sudden interest in her. The two get acquainted as Lotta agrees on getting the money back for her employer (Edwin Maxwell) by placing something into Barney's drink. Lotta changes her mind as she gets to know him, and following a now classic saloon brawl involving metal serving trays, Lotta runs off with Barney and Swan. However, in spite of Barney's true affection towards Lotta, he breaks away without a word of goodbye to follow his ambition to go into a loveless marriage in order to become a very rich man. Upset over the rejection, Lotta in turn marries Swan. Shifting to 1907, Barney is now president of his lumber company, father of two children, Richard (Joel McCrea), who acts as his assistant in the plant, and Evvie (Andrea Leeds). His marriage to Emma Louise (Mary Nash) is relatively unhappy mainly because he is unable to forget Lotta, who has since died. When Barney takes time away from his business to be with Swan, all of his cherished memories and love for Lotta are brought back when he is introduced to Swan's grown daughter, also named Lotta (Frances Farmer), thus, falling in love all over again, and doing everything possible to spend much time with the Bostroms, especially Lotta. Conflict arises between father and son as Richard has now fallen in love with Lotta and wants to marry her.

The supporting players include Mady Christians as Karie, Swan's spinster cousin; Frank Shield as Tony Schwerke; and Cecil Cunningham as Barney's nosy and acid-tongue secretary, Josie.

While not strong on marquee names, the strength of the movie relies on the characters they play, especially Frances Farmer. In enacting the role as mother and daughter (although they never share the same scenes), Farmer is introduced 16 minutes from the start of the story as the tough, gum chewing saloon singer with a throaty voice memorably singing a popular Civil War song titled "Aura Lee," immortalized in the 1950s by Elvis Presley as "Love Me Tender." This is Farmer at her finest. The second portion of the story in which she plays her daughter, Farmer's hairstyle is lighter blonde, naive but ambitious to want to break away from her dead-end surroundings, and speaks as well as sings in her slightly higher toned voice. Her second character doesn't come off as strong as her first, but there's a dramatic change in the story after she comes to realize that Barney, her father's best friend, is coming on to her. Farmer ranked COME AND GET IT as her personal favorite performance, and rightfully so. A pity she seldom got more chances to play stronger characters such as this. She and Arnold reunited once more in another period setting drama, THE TOAST OF NEW YORK (RKO Radio, 1937) opposite Cary Grant and Jack Oakie in support. As with COME AND GET IT, Farmer's character is torn between her love for an older rich man and a much younger one, but without the father/son conflict.

At one point in time during commercial television revivals, COME AND GET IT used to be overplayed. Today, it's not shown often enough. Available on video cassette during the 1990s and later DVD, COME AND GET IT made its introduction to cable television on Turner Network Television in 1991, followed by frequent showings on American Movie Classics from 1993 to 1995, and on Turner Classic Movies where it premiered February 6, 2007. To get a real eye-view on the career of Frances Farmer, COME AND GET IT is a good introduction to the actress whose personal and professional career has become overshadowed by her years committed into a mental institution. For a really good tear-jerker for guys, simply "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.