Heaven with a Barbed Wire Fence

The scenario is amusing and primed for storytelling, and all throughout the small length is sufficient mild humor to provide entertainment. There are also dubious recurring themes of sexism, racism, xenophobia, and the inhumanity of established law - all generally glossed over with equally questionable casual indifference, only partly repudiated, and capped off with bizarre (dimwitted and unintentional) gaslighting. The movie is scarcely over one hour long, and is so generally modest in craft and content that it's difficult to find words for discussion without betraying narrative details. Both for better and for worse, 'Heaven with a barbed wire fence' is a bit of a curiosity.

Like everything else here, plot development is very moderate - coming at its own pace, and no sooner. There's not a great deal to the narrative, but it's suitable enough to keep us watching. The performances aren't terribly striking overall, seeming like little more than straight repetition of lines. Only Jean Rogers and Raymond Walburn give any meaningful personality to their characters in their portrayals - it's not much, but I suppose it will do.

And... that's about it.

This isn't a bad movie. But it's hardly remarkable, and not truly noteworthy in any way; it's not really worth taking time to consider writing, direction, or technical aspects, because by the time you do, the movie's over. There's no reason to seek it out, but I guess it's marginally worthwhile if you chance upon it. Keeping in mind firstly that it's not particularly engaging, and secondly the inclusion of some suspect substance - 'Heaven with a barbed wire fence' is a little middling, and a little iffy, but slightly better than not. Take that as you will.

Glenn Ford made his feature film debut, fourth billed, but in the lead in Heaven With A Barbed Wire Fence. Another one making his debut and fifth billed is Richard Conte under his real first name of Nicholas. Both were under Jean Rogers, Raymond Walburn, and Marjorie Rambeau.

It's a B picture programmer from 20th Century Fox so no great care was taken with this. It's a simple story of a young man who quite the New York City rat race, who has spent his savings on 20 acres of Arizona real estate sight unseen and has decided to be a farmer there, because it means he's his own boss. Most of the film is Ford getting to Arizona to claim his dream and what happens along the way.

Among other things he meets Jean Rogers who is in the country illegally as a Spanish refugee from their civil war. I'm still trying to figure out how illegal she could be if in fact she does have an American mother. Ford also meets Richard Conte who I have no doubt 20th Century Fox saw as their answer to John Garfield. These three make an interesting trio of vagabonds even after they're joined by Raymond Walburn as a hobo professor. In fact Walburn was a paleontology teacher at one time and in his performance he leaves you tantalizing hints about his background before he took to the road. Walburn steals the film in every scene he's in and that's not unusual.

Ford had only made one short subject before being cast in Heaven With A Barbed Wire Fence. Peter Ford's biography of his dad says that director Ricardo Cortez treated him like garbage on the set increasing his insecurities. Ford had nothing but contempt for him and vowed he'd never treat a fellow performer as Cortez treated him if and when he reached stardom. Oddly enough Ford who essayed many roles playing shy and diffident young men probably had his very nervousness working for him. Right after this when Fox didn't sign him after this film, he got his long term contract with Columbia Pictures.

Another winning part here is that of Marjorie Rambeau as a dance hall owner who renews an acquaintance with Walburn who isn't quite sure when and how he met her the first time. They played great off each other.

Heaven With A Barbed Wire Fence is a B film and sloppily put together, but the cast is fine and Glenn Ford's future was assured.

Heaven with a Barbed Wire Fence (1939)

*** (out of 4)

A poor New Yorker (Glenn Ford) saves all of his money for six years so that he can buy a ranch in Arizona. Once he has the deed he sets off by train for Arizona where he also meets a hobo (Ricardo Conte) and a Spanish immigrant (Jean Rogers). This film was the debuts of Ford and Conte and both men turn in winning performances but the real prize here is Rogers who is simply delightful and carries the film. When I first saw Ford I didn't recognize him due to how small he looked. The story is pretty good, if standard stuff and the 62-minute running time keeps things moving along. The sappy ending doesn't really work but there are plenty of laughs and nice moments throughout. However, this is another film rotting away in Fox's vault.

Glenn Ford, a New York boy who has been saving his cash, thumbs and hobos his way to the Arizona ranch he has bought, where he hopes to find HEAVEN WITH A BARBED WIRE FENCE.

A film with a Dalton Trumbo script and story, directed by villain extraordinaire Ricardo Cortez, and starring the frequently twitchy Glenn Ford and the restless Richard Conte just shouldn't be so bloody nice. Though the system -- mostly seen as mean cops and railroad bulls and real estate con men -- is as awful as one might expect from the leftish Mr. Trumbo, every single proletarian is just so sweet and nice and salt of the earth that one feels nausea. It doesn't help that the heroine -- a sweet blonde thing who is an illegal alien refugee fleeing Franco's Spain -- is annoying for reasons of both scripting and acting.

So why watch? Richard Conte, in his first role, already has his persona and a pretty good part. And there are some moments of 30s leftist camp that are pretty astonishing. (Did Dalton absolutely have to set a major portion of the movie in the Russian Worker's mission? All that was missing was a portrait of a beaming Joe Stalin!) Also, this is Glenn Ford's first substantive role (though his performance isn't good).

Why not watch? Essentially, the movie offers an unconvincing vision, is wedded to a political viewpoint that is risible, and the two leads have made much better movies. Also, the strengths of Dalton Trumbo as a screenwriter are nowhere in evidence. Instead, we get a film that the Coen Brothers Barton Fink could have written in a flash (and avoided that hellish bout with writer's block).

As entertainment value this is no great shakes. A store clerk, Joe (Glenn Ford) has worked six years in New York to save up enough money to purchase a 20 acre ranch in Arizona, and now that he has purchased it he's quit his job and on his way there. But apparently, he didn't think ahead enough to save up for a train ticket there. But if he had a tidy comfortable trip across country in a train we would have no movie. Thus he ends up hitch-hiking and freight-hopping, with all of the dangers and complications that arise from such activities at the very tail end of the Great Depression. Along the way he meets up with an illegal alien from Spain (Jean Rogers) and a hobo, Tony (Richard Conte).

This was Richard Conte's and Glenn Ford's feature film debut, and they are fifth and fourth billed respectively behind Jean Rodgers, Raymond Walburn , and Marjorie Rambeau even though Glenn Ford is the real center of attention. It's strange to see Glenn Ford speaking like a gangster - I think they were going for a Humphrey Bogart or James Cagney style performance here - a city slicker out of his element. Richard Conte seems to be Fox's answer to John Garfield with his "dust be my destiny" attitude, even though John Garfield just showed up on screen the year before. This was directed by actor Ricardo Cortez in the few years that he tried his hand at directing, and written for the screen and from and original story by famed screenwriter Dalton Trumbo early on in his writing career. Spartacus it is not.

The road portion of the film takes up almost all of its short running time, with Ford arriving at his ranch only at the end. So if you are thinking this is a western from the title, you would be wrong. It's probably worth it just to see Ford and Conte so early in their careers.