The Purchase Price

THE PURCHASE PRICE is one of ten films Barbara Stanwyck for Warner Bros. in the early 1930's when she was under non-exclusive contracts to the studio and Columbia Pictures. The Columbia films are often quite good, several of them directed by Frank Capra, but most of the Warner Bros. she made in this period are little more than potboilers, films rarely running over 70 minutes with few ambitions. This title is among Stanwyck's weakest films although it is raised immensely by a typically fine Stanwyck performance making it much more interesting and appealing than it should be.

Stanwyck stars as Joan Gordon, a sexy nightclub torch singer who is the mistress of married bootlegger Lyle Talbot. This duo apparently have quite an open relationship as Talbot isn't too bothered by the fact that Stanwyck is also seeing society boy Hardie Albright who wants to marry her. When Albright finds out about Stanwyck's relationship with Talbot he dumps her, crushing Barbara's dream of a quiet life as somebody's wife. Wanting to get away from Talbot's lair, she skittles to Montreal and begins performing under a new name. While in Canada, she befriends hotel maid Leia Bennett whom she later learns is about to become a "mail order bride" - and has used Stanwyck's picture to net her fiancée! When Stanwyck sees some of Talbot's associates she knows it's only a matter of time before he comes up to Canada to get her so she offers Bennett $100 in exchange for letting her take her place as the wife-to-be ("Wow, a $100" Leia exclaims, "I can get a city husband for that!") Stanwyck then travels to North Dakota to meet "her" groom, poor farmer George Brent. They are married but the wedding night proves to be a disaster with Barbara brushing off George's crude attempt at love making. Infuriated, Brent refuses to have anything to do with after this on a personal level, Stanwyck simply becomes a wife on all levels except romantically.

This little film moves quickly and is entertaining but incredibility is all over the film. One little forgotten tidbit is that while Leia Bennett passed off Stanwyck's photo as her own she apparently used her own name but Barbara uses her real name of Joan while in North Dakota! And just why Stanwyck would so harshly reject Brent after no doubt having been pawed by scores of men far more rougher and less attractive? It makes about as much sense as Brent's willful refusal to forgive her for this one night of rejection (wouldn't many a man in this era have found a new bride less than at ease their first night together?) when it's clear she soon wants to make amends. There's also the little fact that Stanwyck is portrayed as a straight shooter, early in the film she insists to Albright she would have told him about Talbot - yet she doesn't give Brent a clue about the relationship or her past until Talbot shows up unannounced sometime into their marriage!

Barbara Stanwyck fully earns her reputation as an outstanding actress, she always seems sincere and real even in this silly little story. She's also stunningly beautiful in scenes where she is presented "naturally" without city artifice and heavy makeup. The big surprise for me was George Brent's excellent performance. Not known for being one of the more expressive of actors, Brent seems perfectly cast as the inexpressive, reserved farmer and was seldom more attractive (although being cast as about the only non-coarse hick caricature among the North Dakotans perhaps helps). He is terrific here and I can't remember him giving a better film performance. Lyle Talbot is also very good looking and so good-natured one has to wonder just why Stanwyck keeps running away from him unless she really DOES want to be just a typical housewife. Most of the supporting roles are fairly small and in bits one can see silent favorites Snub Pollard (as one of the locals) and Mae Busch (as an earthy blonde on the train with Stanwyck also in route to her mail-order man).

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!

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.

This peculiar but interesting drama has Barbara Stanwyck as a weary nightclub torch singer with a "who cares?" attitude. To escape her underworld boyfriend, she decides to hide out in the bleak plains of North Dakota as a mail-order bride. As her shy farmer husband, the normally debonair George Brent is almost unrecognizable in a pair of overalls, but gives a sensitive characterization. The bulk of the plot follows the growing feeling between the reserved ‘country mouse' and the tough ‘city mouse', complicated by several villains. Tough guy director William Wellman keeps things moving at a clip, and uses his low budget wisely to stage several good set-pieces, including a drunken shivaree for the happy couple. In the supporting cast, Leila Bennett stands out as a plain-talking maid.

The appeal of this somewhat run-of-the-mill film is Barbara Stanwyck in an early display of her mega-watt star power and her ability to turn mediocre material into something special.

Her character doesn't make much sense: a nightclub singer from the city who wants to get away from the bootlegger boyfriend hounding her and so agrees to an arranged marriage with a farmer up in the wilds of North Dakota! The bootlegger (played by Lyle Talbot) isn't threatening or abusive, so one wonders why Stanwyck needs to go to such great lengths to avoid him -- keep wondering, because the movie never explains it. But if you can swallow that, then you can easily swallow the fact that this urban good-time gal seems to know all about how to run a farm.

Which brings me back to Stanwyck. The movie's premise isn't remotely plausible, but Stanwyck somehow makes it so through the confidence of her performance. I really think she could make anything worth sitting through just for the pleasure of watching her.

The film does provide an interesting look at what farm life in the early days of the 1930s was like, a lifestyle I've only seen recreated in more modern-day movies.

Grade: B-