L'indomptée

Viewers will recognize Charles Coburn from Gentlemen Prefer Blonds & Monkey Business. Here he plays Burton Fulton, successful businessman, father to Polly (Barbara Stanwyck). Co-stars Van Heflin, Keenan Wynn, and Spring Byington round out the familiar faces in "BF's Daughter". Polly falls for Tom Brett (Heflin) and they talk about "eating in speak-easys" and "the depression", but this was made in 1948, and it sure looks like 1948 throughout. This was written by John Marquand, who had also written some of the Mr. Moto books. The film feels a lot like the Magnificent Ambersons, which had come out six years before -- story of a rich family, and how the offspring deals with changing times. Very serious storyline... the only humor is the ongoing joke of repeatedly calling one of the locals by the wrong name. When Polly tries to help Tom with his career, things don't work out as she wanted. Stanwyck also made "Sorry Wrong Number" right after this in 1948 - THAT role got her nominated for an Oscar... but not THIS one. The script needs some spicing up, or something. Everything and everyone is technically competent, but there's something lacking.

The original book about a tycoon's daughter marrying a left-wing economist was one of John P. Marquand's less cheerful novels. The plot had the economist taking a high-ranking civilian job in World War II while his one-time "establishment" rival joined the military and was given a dangerous assignment. Some critics attacked the book as a smack at liberals' love of country, while its defenders saw it as an antidote to wartime stories that celebrated the "common man" as the only true patriot. The movie glides over all that serious business, changing the class conflicts from serious issues to mere impediments to true love. While preserving a considerable number of the book's situations and even large chunks of its dialogue, the movie changes everything that's important, turning the couple's serious marital problems into simple misunderstandings. The result is a mostly dull romance, with Heflin and Stanwyck showing little chemistry. It would have been better if the filmmakers had gone further and turned the story into a comedy.

Glossy, slow-moving and inconsistent soap opera with heiress (Stanwyck) marrying college professor (Heflin), but they realize their true love for each other years later. Performances are good, except Heflin, who seems out of place. Also, the script is a mess, to say the least. *1/2 out of **** for this one.

Barbara Stanwyck is "B.F.'s Daughter" in this 1948 film, with Charles Coburn as B.F., Van Heflin, Keenan Wynn, and Spring Byington.

This film is based on a controversial novel with a different, more political emphasis and turned into a romantic soap opera by MGM.

Stanwyck plays Pauline, from a wealthy family, who is engaged to marry Bob Tasmin (Richard Hart), someone she's known for years. However, she meets a good-looking and interesting left-wing economy professor, author, and lecturer, Thomas Brett (Heflin) and falls in love with him. They get married right away and move to a cabin in Minnesota. Polly, or Paul as she is called, takes an allowance from her father with Tom's blessing - however, he's made it clear he's not interested in B.F.'s money or B.F.'s interest in his career.

Unbeknownst to him, Pauline uses her father's connections to get Tom started on the lecture circuit. He becomes very successful, and Pauline is determined to help him be a great man and furnishes a fabulous house in Connecticut - which he hates and announces that he won't be returning there. He becomes a big mucky-muck in Washington as war approaches. Meanwhile, Pauline sees her marriage falling apart.

One of the points of the book was that the common man was the true patriot and true American, and Marquand, the author, took the liberal approach of resentment toward the rich. Some of this is softened in the film, though it's obvious that B.F. and Tom come from very different places ideologically. In MGM's hands, this is a clash of ideologies that gets in the way of a marriage.

I found the performances terrific from everyone, but especially Stanwyck, who is lovely and sincere, and Heflin, a wonderful actor who left us too soon, and a fine leading man or character actor, whatever the role called for.

The story certainly held my interest, but I felt that the Heflin character was too rigid. It's a tougher world today in which to make a career than it was in the '40s, okay, and it's admirable to want to "make it on your own," but even with connections, if you can't cut the mustard, you won't have success. Obviously Tom was a talented man and good speaker and once he got started, did very well. There is nothing wrong with getting help at the bottom of the ladder - I took issue with this and found it naive. Also, knowing the relationship his wife had with her father, to disrespect him as he did in the party scene was wrong.

I think just about anything with Barbara Stanwyck in it is worth seeing, and I also feel that way about Van Heflin. And the supporting cast of Coburn, Byington, Wynn, and Margaret Lindsey are very good. The script is a little problematic, but the cast elevates it.

Barbara Stanwyck gets to turn the faucets on for three different men as well as model some pricey threads in BF's Daughter. While clearly a star driven vehicle the storyline itself is a paean to American capitalism summed up in the benign performance of Charles Coburn as a fair minded captain of industry and the abrasive wrongheaded muck wracking of an agitator commentator played by Keenan Wynn.

Polly is the spoiled daughter of industrialist BF Fulton. Engaged to be married she has her head turned by a progressive man of the people, Tom Brett ( Van Heflin ) who has little use for the money of men like BF. She marries Brett who rejects her lifestyle even though it is her money that brings him exposure and fame. The two drift, BF gets ill and the ex-paramour flies off on a dangerous mission giving Polly plenty to fret about.

BF suffers from too much comparison to other works involving the cast. Stanwyck's spoiled rich girl doesn't seem to dig as deep as she does in Sorry, Wrong Number. Her father daughter reprise with Coburn worked better when they were on the other side of the law in The Lady Eve. The same can be said with Heflin in The Strange Love of Martha Ivers.

Robert Z. Leonard's direction is sound and cinematographer Joseph Ruttenberg delivers some stunning compositions but the story itself is a soapy melodrama that ultimately turns to sap.