Watch The Farmer's Daughter For Free

A lot of fun.

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

This is a gorgeous movie made by a gorgeous spirit.

I didn’t really have many expectations going into the movie (good or bad), but I actually really enjoyed it. I really liked the characters and the banter between them.

Loretta Young was the surprise winner of the 1947 Best Actress Oscar for her performance in "The Farmer's Daughter". It's not much of a performance in dramatic terms but it's a very likeable one in a very likeable, if somewhat silly, film. It's a political fairytale with the good guys naturally coming out on top, (neither of the two parties is actually named), as well as a romantic comedy with the maid (Young) falling for the master of the house, (Jospeh Cotten), who happens to be a congressman. Twenty minutes in and you can see exactly where the film is going; the only real surprise is just how well it did. If the central theme is much too cloying there is at least a decent supporting cast headed by Ethel Barrymore, (Cotten's overly sweet mother), and Charles Bickford, (the gruff butler with a heart of gold). H C Potter was the director so you knew not to expect too much.

This is a Horatio Alger story. Loretta Young, as immigrant farm girl Katie Holstrom, plans to go to nursing school now that her brothers have returned from the armed services to help run their farm. But, her plan is altered when the painter of their barn offers her a ride to her school, saving her bus fare. But, he has a bad idea with her, wrecking his jeep in front of a motel so that they have to stay at the motel until his car is fixed. Since he is broke and has no insurance, she must pay the damages to the other car. This takes all her money, so after hitchhiking the rest of the way to school, she immediately looks for a job as a maid(with no references,). By luck, she immediately gets a job as a maid for the wealthy, politically influential, Morley family, consisting of the matriarch Agatha(Ethel Barrymore), and her son and US congressman, Glenn(Joseph Cotton). We don't discover their background, but presumably the absent father was/is an important political figure, leaving Agatha an important political powerbroker. Initially, Katie is met by the house majordomo Joe Clancey(Charles Bickford). She initially planned to work only a few months, to get back on her financial feet. However, she is so talented at household chores, they want her to stay longer. She gets involved with a political campaign to fill a congressional seat left vacant by the death of a local congressman. She digs up some shady dealings by the man favored by Agatha: Finley(Art Baker)and tells them at a political rally. This catches the attention of the opposition party, who decide to run her as their candidate. Of course, Katie has no prior political experience, so she runs on a platform of honest and fair dealing, without bias toward financial supporters of her campaign. She champions certain liberal policies, such as a living minimal wage. Presumably, this would include unemployment insurance, programs that support living prices for agricultural products, the rights of organized labor, and various safety net programs. She seems to have good practical organization skills, as well. Finley, her opponent, says he believes in "Americanism". By his, he seems to mean policies that favor businesses, the status quo, smaller government footprint, WASPS(White, Anglo-Saxon Protestants) and which minimize welfare programs, and opposes subversive political parties(Communists, included). Eventually, it's realized that her platform encompasses some goals that both parties subscribe to, hence, she is endorsed by both parties, and including Agatha. After it's revealed that Finley tried to smear her private reputation by false evidence, she wins the race by a landslide. Along with the political aspects, there is a growing romantic attraction between Katie and Glenn, despite their sometimes political differences. There's even an exciting brawl between Glenn plus her 3 brothers vs. Finley's goons plus the painter.So, what are the apparent take home messages?1)Political campaigns should stress specific issues, general philosophy and character, rather than personal wealth or conformity to a political machine.2) Policies that promote the general welfare, whether they involve strengthening or maintaining safety nets and livable wages, or promotion of meaningful job-creating businesses, should be favored. 3)Women, even immigrants, can make useful politicians. They are less likely to be involved in scandal or corruption, tend to have more practical experience in certain specialties, and tend to be more compassionate toward the disadvantaged and children issues. In 1947, when this film was released, women made up only 1.5-2.0% of the House of Representatives, and there were no women senators. As of the recent election, women made up about 20% of both the House members and senators. This shows the great increase in women involved in national politics since this film was released.(I'm not claiming that this increase was substantially promoted by this film).

I love the premise of this movie - not only is a woman running for Congress, but she's the daughter of an immigrant, and on top of it, she is currently employed as a maid! Talk about aspirations and dreaming big! Not too bad considering women just won the right to vote in 1920 and this movie was released in 1947. "Women's participation in national political life remained low long after the right to vote was gained in 1920. No more than two women served in the Senate at any time until 1994, and fewer than a dozen were Congressional Representatives until 1955. Current representation is 16 senators and 67 representatives, around 15% of the United States Congress." (Wikipedia - History of Women in The U.S.) And here we are some 60+ years since this movie and we have a woman running for President!But I think this film was ahead of its time showing a woman running for Congress in the 40's. I'm sure it must have raised a few eyebrows in spite of its success and awards. I'm sure there were detractors in its day that dismissed the premise as foolishness or pure Hollywood fantasy. Either way, it is a great movie that stands the test of time and is just as relevant today (especially being an election year).Happy viewing!

I have read all 16 previous reviews containing glowing admiration for Loretta Young in this film. While I enjoyed watching Cotton and Barrymore, I felt uncomfortable watching and listening to Ms. Young. Firstly,she appears to be so much older than her brothers. In fact, if someone said that Ms. Young was the mother of Peter, Sven...it wouldn't have been too much of a stretch to imagine just that. Secondly, are we to believe that two weeks worth of robust projection lessons would decrease her accent to the point of making Ms. Young sound like no stranger to Toastmasters? If anything, her accent would be more pronounced during such high pressure activities, such as speech-making in front of potential constituents. Finally, sometimes, one heard a decrease in accent, only to hear a full come back in the following scene. I would have preferred my accent in one of the following three ways:1)a lessoning of accent in direct correlation with the length of the movie; 2)a complete absence of accent; or 3)include in the movie something explaining away the accent, such as diction lessons with Barrymore during the six months of waiting for Cotton's return, The accent grew so annoying after awhile.