The Purchase Price

Sometimes I think you just have to be in the mood for certain films. This may have been one of those times. "The Purchase Price" from 1932, largely thanks to Barbara Stanwyck, is actually a very sweet film.

Stanwyck plays Joan, a torch singer, unhappy with her present life and the racketeer, Eddie Fields (Lyle Talbot) with whom she's involved. When she finds out that someone has used her photo and sent it off to be a mail-order bride, Joan decides to show up in person and takes off.

She ends up in farm country with Jim Gilson (George Brent) who's in debt up to his eyebrows. However, over the years, he has developed an excellent grain seed - if he can stave off the creditors until the next planting season, he'll be okay.

To Joan's credit, she settles in, determined to make him a good wife and to be a good neighbor, and she falls in love with Jim. When her ex-beau shows up, Jim jumps to some wrong conclusions.

Barbara Stanwyck is great in this, giving a warm, sincere performance. She is glamorous in the first few scenes (though boy, she can't sing), and she remains sexy and pretty even plainly dressed on the farm, causing a lot of men to notice her and make dumb old Jim jealous.

This is a different kind of role for George Brent, who soon would be well-dressed, mustached, and sophisticated as he played opposite Bette Davis. Here he's an oaf.

The movie is short and moves quickly. Stanwyck's performance helps give a freshness to a story that was old even back in 1932.

This is sold as "pre-Code," as if there will something risqué or shocking, but certainly by today's standards -- or lack thereof -- and even by those of the era, there is nothing to bother your grandma or even your (reasonable) preacher.

There is something, though, to excite the movie-lover: Barbara Stanwyck's performance.

Apparently in real life she was a pretty tough cookie, and certainly she played some hard women in many of her films.

In "The Purchase Price" her character refers to herself as having maintained some sort of a reputation and in fact she comes across as a very nice, even admirable person.

She certainly looked good, with a gentle strength, or strong gentleness, poking out of the chorus girl/mistress persona.

The story, though, never does make much sense, and why the people did what they did, except for the character played by Lyle Talbot -- in a great role for him, and excellently played -- is not clear.

One more glaring error: North (brrrr) Dakota doesn't have any hills, and the shots of snow-capped peaks showed that wherever this film was shot, it sure wasn't North (brrrr) Dakota, you betcha.

One scene of plowing showed the genuine agoraphobic look of that state, where neither hills nor even trees are native. Except for cottonwoods along the creeks and rivers, what trees there are in North (brrrr) Dakota have had to be brought in from the real world.

Plus North (brrrrr) Dakota drunks and brawlers are not Irish and Scots, as this movie implies, but Poles and Czechs and Germans, sometimes even Norwegians, unless they are Lutherans then, of course, they don't drink or brawl. And if you don't believe me, ask their preachers.

Anyway, watch this for Stanwyck and suspend your disbelief about all the rest. She is worth spending your time.

If you stop to think about the actual story you'll realise that it's the most ridiculous thing you've ever seen. Fortunately William Wellman directs this at such breakneck speed you don't have time to stop - you're whisked along on the Wellman express.

That all this can happen in 68 minutes is crazy but this was Warner's specialty in the early thirties. They were brilliant at it and this is a great example. It's not a fantastic picture but it is so typical of those fast moving features of pure entertainment Darryl Zanuck knew his audiences would lap up. If good quality early thirties movies are your thing, this will tick your boxes. Even though the setting isn't the usual mean streets of New York, it's still got all the usual ingredients.

A common ingredient of pre-code films that's present in this is the overriding importance of marriage. Although in pictures like this it's the single most vital thing in the world for a girl - which must have reflected reality, it seems completely unimportant who they marry as long as they can provide food and shelter. It's irrelevant whether he's a gangster, a decrepit pensioner or in this case, a complete stranger who advertised for a wife (essentially a housekeeper) in an agency. Disturbingly, mail order brides are still around today. Anyway...

One of those other usual key ingredients is George Brent. He's his usual dull self but for a change, that bland personality is suited to this role. Fortunately 'the other man' in the love triangle is Lyle Talbot who always adds some slightly shady charisma. These two however are definitely second fiddle to the absolute star of this picture, Barbara Stanwyck.

She effortlessly melds her gangster-moll persona to devoted farmer's wife as though it's the most transition in the world. Were this role be played by a lesser actress (and directly a lesser director) it could have been a joke picture because the premise is so stupid but she (and Wellman) make it seem completely believable and therefore thoroughly enjoyable.

As in all her thirties pictures (apart from the monstrous Stella Dallas) despite not having the classic Hollywood looks, she inexplicably oozes enough sex appeal to fuel the planet for a hundred years. She certainly had 'it.' This isn't one of her best films but it's still pretty decent - and she's absolutely lovely in it.

Of course this delicious tour-de-force is totally incredible... but WOW! You can't take your eyes off the screen in case Wellman gives his heroine whiplash as she moves from plushly-kept woman in Manhattan to mail-order farmer's bride in North Dakota. From take-out at Tiffany's to hauling coal nuggets 20 miles through a blizzard. From igniting the lust in men with her daring chanteusing to putting out the fire villains set to her and hubby George Brent's last-hope crop of wheat. All in just over 60 minutes!

This film deals with Stanwyck, who works as a singer in New York. She has been working the nightclub circuit since she was a teenager and is romantically involved with the leader of the underground crime world. Fixture of the pre-code world, Lyle Talbot, portrays the underground kingpin. Because breaking up with such a powerful man, like Talbot, may prove to be difficult, Stanwyck opts to escape to Montreal. In Montreal, she resumes her career under a new name. Stanwyck is spotted by one of Talbot's henchmen. In lieu of returning to Talbot, Stanwyck hatches a scheme with the maid at her apartment building. It seems that the maid has been corresponding with a North Dakota farmer, George Brent, who is looking for a mail order bride. In one of her letters, the maid mails Stanwyck's picture instead of her own, because she finds the youthful Stanwyck more attractive than herself. Sensing the perfect plan, Stanwyck offers to pay the maid two month's worth of wages if she can go to North Dakota in her place. The maid agrees.

Stanwyck and Brent marry and soon it's Stanwyck's turn to learn about life on a farm during the Great Depression. On their wedding night, Brent tries to make advances on new wife Stanwyck to consummate their relationship, but she turns him down and forces him to sleep elsewhere. I know they're married and all, but I don't blame her, she literally just met and married him that same day. I imagine however, that sex probably comes with the territory as a mail order bride. But I digress.

For most of the film, Brent is aloof to Stanwyck and keeps his distance. She genuinely begins to embrace life on the farm and learns how to sew, cook, clean, etc. She is friendly with the neighbors and even helps a neighbor who has recently given birth. Stanwyck helps out with the baby and even instructs a young Anne Shirley how she can help her mother who is recuperating from the birth.

The main conflict in the film, aside from Brent's unhappiness with Stanwyck, is that he is broke and will lose his farm if he cannot pay his back bills. His saving grace however is that he owns a strain of wheat that grows well and is of high quality. He's sure to sell his wheat if he grows and harvests it. Brent and Stanwyck are finally on the same page and work together to save the farm.

This was an okay film, definitely not among one of Stanwyck's best. It definitely doesn't rank up there with my favorite Stanwyck pre-code, Ladies They Talk About. She gives the part her all, even though the plot is somewhat absurd. Brent is just there. He doesn't do much except give Stanwyck the silent treatment. But then this strong silent type was probably Brent's interpretation of a farmer of Scandinavian ancestry living on the Great Plains.

There were definitely some pre-code elements in the film, like Stanwyck walking around the bedroom clad in only a short slip and knee high stockings. She also lays a negligee out on the bed for George Brent to see and get excited, but he's mad at Stanwyck, and won't take the bait.