Le vandale

Edna Ferber had several of her novels made into films including Giant, Showboat a couple of times and Dinner at Eight among the well known. Come and Get it is based on the Ferber novel adapted to the screen by Jules Furthman and Jane Murfin. I grew up in the area where the story is set. In the story the town is called Iron Ridge but Ferber did her research for the story while staying at the Burton House hotel in the old lumber and mining town of Hurley, Wisconsin on the Michigan border with Ironwood, Michigan. The Burton House was a grand old three story 100 room wooden hotel that President Grover Cleveland once stayed at. It would burn down in the 1940's. In the character name Lotta Morgan she used the actual name of a famous Hurley saloon singer of the 1880's. Actually, the real Lotta Morgan earned her living from something other than just singing in the saloons. She was also an unsolved murder victim whose body was found floating in the river with a hatchet in her forehead. Ferber put together her romantic tale of the north woods and it's many lumber camps. This is a good movie set in the late 19th century. Frances Farmer plays dual roles of mother and daughter in the fourth leading role of her career and maybe her best. She would go on to star in only six more lead roles before being relegated to supporting actress in four more films and then her film career was over. Edward Arnold, Joel Mcrea, Walter Brennan and Mary Nash round out the fine cast. Howard Hawks directed and this was his project until an argument with the studio boss caused his dismissal and William Wyler was called in to finish the film. Excellent Cinematography from Rudolf Maté and Greg Toland. One of the last films of famed costume designer Omar Kiam. Walter Brennan won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor in his role of the Swedish logger Swan Bostrom. The first of three career Academy Awards he would win. Come and Get it also received an Academy Award nomination for Edward Curtis for editing which was well deserved being that he had to put together the work of three directors, Hawks, Wyler and Richard Rosson who directed the logging scenes. Farmer should have been nominated for Best Actress but was over looked by the Academy for Irene Dunn, veterans from silent film days Gladys George, Carole Lombard, Norma Shearer and German actress Luise Rainer who won. The studio in promoting this film had Farmer signing the book Come and Get it at autograph opportunities. She once found it exceptionally strange that she would be signing a book she had not written when she was doing a signing at the Bon Marché department store in her hometown of Seattle where she had been fired from a few years before. I've seen this several times in television over the years and it's worth a look. I would give it an 8.0 out of 10.

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.

COME AND GET IT has a very strange cast. Having the reliable and talented supporting actor, Edward Arnold, in the lead is strange--especially since this rotund and rather doughy guy is cast as, believe it or not, a lumberjack when the film begins! Seeing him supposedly fight and beat up tough guys seemed pretty funny--especially since Arnold looked as if he'd have had a hard time beating up Frances Farmer--let alone burly lumbermen!! Additionally, having him play a very flawed hero who has a penchant for a very young lady (Frances Farmer) make it an unusual film.

The film begins with Arnold being made the foreman of a logging company. However, his ambition is huge and he immediately has his sights set on running the entire company. So, to do so he agrees to marry the boss' daughter even though he could care less about her. Additionally, he'd just fallen in love with a spunky saloon singer (Frances Farmer--in a dual role). Regardless, his ambition is primary and he dumps farmer on his pal, played by Walter Brennan (who received an Oscar for his performance as a nice Swedish guy).

Years pass. You see that Arnold's wife is a bit of a cold fish, though they did have some kids and they now own the company. Arnold just happens to visit his old pal Brennan and finds that through the magic of Hollywood clichés, Brennan's daughter (played by Farmer again) is the spitting image of her deceased mother. Arnold is an old lecher and takes her under his wing--with the intention of recreating the relationship he'd had with her mother. When his oldest son (Joel McCrea) finds out, he goes to confront the lady but falls for her instead. Naturally, this sets the son and hard-driven father against each other.

Considering that this is based on an Edna Ferber novel, it isn't surprising that the film is about a man building an empire as well as infidelity--recurring themes I've noticed in several of her other films that were filmed during the era (such as CIMARRON, GIANT, SHOWBOAT and SO BIG). As a result, the film has a big and rather sweeping quality about it but is also a study of a hard-driven man who is deeply flawed.

Overall, the movie is exactly what you'd expect from such a film--good acting, big scope and a lot of romantic tension. Nothing extraordinary here, but it's enjoyable and competently made. I can't, however, understand how Brennan got an Oscar, as this was far from one of his best performances. Perhaps it was a slow year.

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.

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!!" (***)