So Big!

So Big! (1932)

** (out of 4)

Disappointing adaptation of Edna Ferber's novel about a young woman (Barbara Stanwyck) with big plans who have to put them on hold after the death of her father. She ends up traveling to a small town where she fulfills her dream of becoming a teacher but she then puts this on hold to marry a farmer. After he dies the woman makes her life goal to raise her son the best she can and make sure he has a place in the future. SO BIG! was apparently one of Stanwyck's favorite roles and I think it's easy to see why but the end result is a real mess and never has any spark or imagination. I was really surprised to see how flat the movie was but I think it's safe to say that this material certainly wasn't right for Wellman. I know he worked in many different genres but it really seems like he's struggling to get any of the emotions on the screen and I'm sure sure of this has to do with the screenplay. The screenplay is a major mess because it never really gives the viewer any time to get to know the characters or start to feel for them. The first forty-five minutes of the movie just seem to go on and on and for no reason because at the end of them you realize that everything you've just seen could have been told in less than twenty. The problem is that everything happens so quick that you simply don't have time to connect with any of it. One minute Stanwyck is married and the next thing you know the husband is dead. One moment Stanwyck is going to live her dream of teaching but then that falls apart without any explanation. Stuff happens at various times without any reason so one has to wonder if the film had a lot taken out before being released or perhaps the screenplay was simply trying to capture various aspects of the novel and just came out very sloppy. Another major problem is that Stanwyck ages about a total of forty-years but there's never an added wrinkle to her. The only thing that changes is her hair color and this simply doesn't work because she looks very silly at age 70 or whatever and seeing that she pretty much looks the exact same as when she was a teenager. Stanwyck is good in her role but the screenplay lets her down. George Brent, Dickie Moore and a young Bette Davis have small parts scattered throughout the film. Stanwyck and Davis appear in the final sequences yet they're never shown in the same frame, which should tell you something. SO BIG! isn't a complete disaster but at the same time there's very little to recommend.

"So Big!" has been filmed three times, once before this version (a lost film from the original flapper Colleen Moore) and once after. But this is the treatment that rings true; this is the "So Big!" that really is so big.

Barbara Stanwyck successfully ages from schoolgirl to aged mother in this film. The story is beautiful (based on Edna Farber's novel) and the acting is superb. You can't help but cry at the end! Don't miss an early screen appearance from Bette Davis!

"So Big!" is shown on Turner Classic Movies at times, but make sure it's the Stanwyck version and not the Jane Wyman re-remake. It's worth the effort.

My favorite Barbara Stanwyck movie is her turn as a self-sacrificing mother in Stella Dallas. So Big! feels like her audition for her 1937 Oscar-nominated role.

Once again, Barbara is a poor woman who longs for a better life. She gets a job tutoring a wealthy boy, and then marries a poor farmer and starts a family. Her son becomes the light of her life, and she nicknames him "So Big!" because he's her only reason for living. She sacrifices, scrimps, and saves, in order to give him a better chance at life. If you liked Stella Dallas, you'll probably want to rent So Big! on a weekend. It's a Pre-Hays Code film, so there will be some moments when you gasp and ask, "How did they get away with that?" before you remember the release year of 1932. And you'll get to see a young Bette Davis and George Brent, as well as Alan Hale, who joined Barbara Stanwyck in Stella Dallas. While I like the later film infinitely better-because it's hard to compare any film to the tearjerker-this one is fun to watch because it's very obviously a precursor. If you like Barbara, add this to your list!

Showcase for Barbara Stanwyck who gracefully ages from a young woman to a mother in her late 40s. Barbara stands for hard work (on the farm) and the recognition of beauty in life (even cabbages are beautiful). Her understated portrayal shines as one of her best works. Story of her son, (who Barbara said was "So Big" with hands spread wide apart) is that of a privileged offspring who ignores his mother's advice and takes the easy way to money, ignoring the beauty in creativity, and hides his mother's career from society ladies. When he finally meets a good woman (a good Bette Davis) who appreciates someone with "bumps," he reveals his past but it is not bumpy enough to impress her. Instead Bette goes off to Paris and meets with celebrated sculptor George Brent who as a boy had lived with and loved the older Barbara. Interesting portrayal of two contemporary actresses with one playing the part of a woman old enough to be the other's mother and neither obviously updating the other. Good messages, good role models, with Barbara staying down on the farm as a success without having taken the easy road. A quiet gem to inspire depression-era audiences.

SO BIG! (Warner Brothers, 1932), directed by William A. Wellman, based on the Pulitzer Prize novel by Edna Ferber, is a story of a woman, a woman named Selina Peake. First filmed as a silent for First National Pictures (1925) starring Colleen Moore and Ben Lyon, this latest edition, which could have been Warners' contribution to their own version to a two hour epic production to RKO Radio's Edna Ferber based novel of CIMARRON (1931), this "passage through time" story, falls short to becoming nothing more than an abridged screen treatment where much of its basic characters and chaptered selections are either discarded or presented for a few brief minutes. The only character of main importance is Selina Peake. Overlooking an off-beat title that has nothing to do with the Jolly Green Giant, this is her story, a story of a woman.

Opening title: "Chicago - in the 80's, booming, prosperous, surging with life - the gateway to the Great West." The five minute prologue introduces Selina Peake (Dawn O'Day, the future Anne Shirley), a motherless child whose father, Simeon (Robert Warwick), is a compulsive gambler but dedicated to his little girl. While dining at the Palmer House, he tells Selina something to remember, "This whole thing called life is just a grand adventure." Moving forward about ten years. Selina Peake (Barbara Stanwyck), having graduated from the Select School for Girls, is best friends with classmate Julie Hemple (Mae Madison). After Peake is shot dead at Mike MacDonald's Gambling House, Mrs. Hemple (Eulalie Jensen), refuses to have her daughter associated with Selina and her father's gambling reputation. Through the kindness Julie's father, August (a character initially played by Guy Kibbee whose scenes don't appear in the final print) secures Selina a school teaching position in a Dutch community for farmers at High Prairie outside Chicago. While boarding in the home of the Poole's, Klaus (Alan Hale), Maartjie (Dorothy Peterson), and three children, their eldest son, 12-year-old Roelfe (Dick Winslow), with a quest for knowledge and talent for drawing, spends most of his time helping his father on the farm rather than acquiring an education. Selina, who finds "cabbages are beautiful," gets an education of her own when learning that fertilizer is dried blood. Roelfe, who has grown fond of Selina, becomes jealous of her marriage to Pervus DeJong (Earle Foxe). Because of his mother's death and father marrying the Widow Parrenburg (Blanche Frederici), Roelfe, who has always hated his existence, leaves home to make something of himself. The recently widowed Selina would do the same thing, seeking a better life for both her and her young son, Dirk (Dickie Moore), whom she affectionately calls "So Big." Move forward twenty years. Dirk, a young man (Hardie Albright), is torn between pursuing his mother's dream of becoming an architect or assuming the advise of the married Paula Storm (Rita LaRoy) by becoming a Wall Street businessman. During the course of the story, Dallas O'Mara (Bette Davis), an ambitious artist, not only enters the scene, but Rolfe Poole (George Brent), a famous artist, returning home from Europe to reunite himself with someone who's been an inspiration in his life.

For Barbara Stanwyck, SO BIG shows how she can be more than just one of the LADIES OF LEISURE (1930), THE MIRACLE WOMAN (1931) or NIGHT NURSE (1931), but an actress going through the aging process from young woman in her twenties to mother in her fifties, who curtsies every time she meets new people. In its present 82 minute format, SO BIG, with so much material crammed into so short of time, is one of those ambitious projects that should have been expanded by more than a half hour to allow more time for viewers to become better acquainted with both characters and story. Yet, even through its tight editing, the pacing is slow and characters undeveloped. Although it's difficult to compare this with the now lost 1925 edition, its easy to compare this with the existing 1953 remake of SO BIG starring Jane Wyman, Sterling Hayden and Nancy Olson. On a personal level, the newest of the three improves over the 1932 effort on a plot developing level leading to a satisfactory conclusion. The similarity of both versions contains that of Selina Peake repeatedly asking her son, "How big is my baby? How big is my boy?" Son replies, "SO Big!" hence the title of the book.

Aside from being relatively known to film scholars as the one where future superstars Barbara Stanwyck and Bette Davis appear in the same movie, but barely the same scenes, the film itself had been unavailable for viewing for many years, with the possibility of never to be seen or heard from again. It took a cable station such as Turner Classic Movies to bring this long unseen edition back from the dead, making its long awaited television premiere of clear picture quantity on November 18, 1999. In spite of few highlights of interest, and having to wait eternity for the appearance of Bette Davis and George Brent, SO BIG, with Stanwyck's ability to hold audience's attention throughout, still ranks one as worthy of both rediscovery and recognition, even if this story of a woman is not so big. (***)