Watch Come and Get It For Free

Wow! Such a good movie.

Admirable film.

A Disappointing Continuation

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

"Come and Get It" has an unusual story and seems ahead of its time in taking a stance about the environment. It is also a chance to see Francis Farmer at her best in the only one of her movies she actually liked. Proving that blondes don't always have more fun, Francis Farmer had more drama off-screen than any character she ever played on-screen. But as "Come and Get It" reveals, she projected a strong presence and possessed beauty that would have attracted attention in any decade of cinema. Star of the film was Edward Arnold who plays entrepreneurial lumberman, Barney Glasgow, over a period of twenty years, from age thirty to fifty. Unfortunately Arnold had the sex appeal that one would expect from a balding, thick-waisted and double-chinned man of 46 – his real age. For him to convincingly play a virile thirty-year old was quite a stretch.Set in Wisconsin in 1884, Barney takes a shipment of lumber to the sawmill in Iron Ridge with the help of his friend Swan Bostrom. Walter Brennan plays Swan. Unlike Edward Arnold who always looked middle-aged, Walter Brennan always looked old. Here he looks positively ancient, despite the fact that he was only 42 at the time. The boys meet Lotta Morgan, played by Francis Farmer, the resident chanteuse at a nearby saloon. Her portrayal of Lotta, especially in her early scenes is bizarre. Chewing gum and talking out of the side of her mouth, she sings two versions of the same song. Francis Farmer had a surprisingly deep voice and the song is so slow and dirge-like that she sounds like an old Gramophone record playing at the wrong speed. Fortunately her performance becomes less affected as the film progresses.Barney and Swan fall for Lotta but she falls for Barney – thick waist and multiple chins notwithstanding. However, Barney is already engaged to the daughter of a powerful timber tycoon, Emma Louise Hewitt played by Mary Nash. Barney leaves to marry Emma, an act that will cement a financial partnership with her father, leaving Swan to break the news to Lotta. She is hurt but now also unemployed. Swan offers to marry her. Lotta accepts although Swan looks old enough to be her grandfather.Twenty years later, Barney now owns a huge paper mill, and has a son Richard, played by a youthful Joel McCrea. Barney accepts an invitation from Swan to visit him in Iron Ridge. We learn that although Lotta died some time before, Swan has a daughter who is the spitting image of her mother, also named Lotta. Francis Farmer plays both roles, bearing out an enduring Hollywood maxim that the grown-up child of a parent who dies earlier in the film should be played by the same actor. Barney falls for Lotta Bostrom, and tries to recapture the feelings he had for the mother through the daughter. Barney is ardent in his pursuit of her while Swan seems amazingly accepting of Barney's inappropriate advances towards his daughter. After Barney convinces Swan and Lotta to accompany him back to the city, she falls in love with Richard Glasgow, Barney's son. Events come to a head when Barney catches Richard with Lotta. Eventually Barney receives the long-delayed reality check he needs to bring him to his senses.Although "Come and Get It" doesn't quite fit into the mainstream of Hollywood films of the 30's, it holds up much better than most of them, and offers a rare glimpse of an intriguing and ill-fated star.

A very wonderful film showcasing the talent of Edward Arnold. The latter was usually a supporting player but this film belonged to him all the way.He is the 1936 answer to Jean Brodie. This guy still thought 20 some years later that he was still in his prime. I can never forget the vivid scene when he finally realizes that his prime has long since passed him by when he is literally vying for the affection of his late girlfriend's daughter, who has fallen for his dashing son, played to the hilt by Joel McCrea.In the double role of the girlfriend and her daughter, Frances Farmer showed that awesome vulnerability that she had in her brief career. Too bad that her years were marked by mental anguish. She would have been a wonderful star of the screen.Walter Brennan put on an authentic Swedish accent and was rewarded for it with the Academy's first Oscar for best supporting actor. 11 years later, Loretta Young went Swedish as well, and that helped her garner a surprise best actress win for "The Farmer's Daughter."It's basically the old story of marrying into wealth rather than what would make you happy, but the film was done remarkably well.

As I've said on other films of Edna Ferber novels, you can never go wrong in the making of films of her work because of the subjects she writes about and how they fill the screen.There's enough Ferber in this movie even though it is probably the least Ferber like of all the films made from her novels. All the good scenes about the lumber industry are there and in the 19th century those guys were the equivalent of oil millionaires. Ferber grew up in Wisconsin and in her book she drew on memories of her childhood.But there is more the story of the Glasgow and Bostrum families here in human and romantic terms with the lumber industry just serving as a background. Edward Arnold plays yet another tycoon here although when we first meet him, he's just a lumber camp boss. His best friend is Walter Brennan with a convincing Swedish accent. They meet up with a saloon singer, Frances Farmer and Arnold flips for her as does Brennan in his own quiet way. But Arnold has a critical choice to make, marry for love or marry the boss's daughter. A lot like the choice Jeanette MacDonald had in Maytime. Arnold opts for money and Farmer marries Brennan. Twenty years later though Arnold is now a multi-millionaire and complaining mightily about that no good Theodore Roosevelt in the White House and his crazy ideas about conservation. He's got two kids a beautiful daughter, Andrea Leeds, and a headstrong rebellious son in Joel McCrea. Arnold decides to get away from it for a while and look up his old friend Brennan.Farmer has since passed away, but she and Brennan had a daughter also played by Frances Farmer. When Arnold sees here, that's it, he tries to reclaim is past.As a wise man once said, you can never return home and you don't get second chances in real life. It's a lesson that Arnold learns the hard way, though not as hard as Jeanette learned it Maytime.1936 was the first year of Supporting Player Awards and for the men, Walter Brennan won the first of three he would win in that category. Though Brennan is good, the real force behind the film is Arnold. It's one of his best screen performances.Director Howard Hawks got fired midway through the film and he shares director credit with William Wyler. Hard to tell which scenes were shot by who, but it seems that Hawks shot most of the film according to the page here on Come and Get It.I'm of the opinion you can never go wrong with a film from an Edna Ferber book and you can't go wrong with Come and Get It.

Edna Ferber's timberland drama gives top billing to EDWARD ARNOLD over JOEL McCREA and FRANCES FARMER--but it's Farmer who impresses the most with her dual role, despite scene-stealing tactics from WALTER BRENNAN with a Swedish accent in an Oscar-winning supporting role as Arnold's simple-minded friend.EDWARD ARNOLD seems strangely miscast as the lumberman with designs on a much younger woman. His relationship with FRANCES FARMER and her immediate attraction to him seems highly improbable, despite the fact that he can give her wealth and security. A more attractive mature leading man as the two-fisted lumberjack would have served the romantic angle of the drama more believably.Arnold has ambitions to be the richest timberland boss in Wisconsin. The film begins with a series of energetic and visually exciting scenes of timber falling in the forests as the lumbermen go about their vigorous work details. It's an almost documentary approach that gives the story that follows great authenticity, although it's a typically plot-heavy Edna Ferber tale of two generations.In Wisconsin of the 1800s, Farmer is a saloon gal, Lotta, impressed by Arnold's wealth and improbably falls in love with him. When he runs off to marry a society girl, Farmer turns even more improbably to Walter Brennan as her husband.Twenty years later, Arnold is a rich man with a wife (MARY NASH) and two children (JOEL McCREA and ANDREA LEEDS). He goes back to visit Brennan and meets his daughter--FRANCES FARMER in a more demure role is the spitting image of her mother, who has died, and her name is Lotta too. She's a sweeter, more refined version of her mother. The plot thickens, in true Ferber style, with Arnold now intent on wooing Brennan's daughter.Farmer's beauty is reminiscent of Madeleine Carroll's type of blonde loveliness with sculptured cheekbones and fine facial features. JOEL McCREA is rather wasted in what is little more than a supporting role as Arnold's business man son, instantly attracted to Farmer and then realizing so is his father.Summing up: An oddly interesting tale despite some improbabilities in the story line. Probably the film that best showcases Frances Farmer, the film was co-directed by Howard Hawks and William Wyler.