Come & Get It [DVD] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC]

Seeing "Come and Get It" in the 21st century is every bit as sad and heart-wrenching as it was in 1936. That is the test of a classic. The fine directing by Billy Wilder and Hank Hawks still comes through and a cast of fabulous actors includes not only Frances Farmer but also the venerable Edward Arnold, the latterly-famous Walter Brennan and pretty boy Joel McCrea. They all deliver fine performances.

Burly lumberman Barney Glasgow (Arnold) is forced to make a heartbreaking choice. Should he marry Frances Farmer, the woman he madly loves, or marry the lumber company owner's daughter to get the partnership he has dreamed of and earned. He chooses the latter, gets all he has dreamed of, and spends the rest of his life miserable.

Meanwhile Barney's best chum, Svon Bostrom (Brennan) is a gentle and slightly simple fellow who marries Farmer instead. Barney stays away for decades and doesn't realize that his old friend and old flame have begat a daughter (also played by Farmer) who is mom's virtual clone, except more wholesome and angelic. Can and should Barney chuck it all and become a fool for love once he meets her or is he doomed to just be "an old man" and a sugar daddy?

A touching story, indeed, and full of great small performances (like the Pullman Porter and the Band Conductor). Great acting is complemented by a good sense of place and time, and a haunting sound track largely based on civil war romance tune Aura Lee. Yes, the one Elvis stole for 'Love Me Tender.'

In short, a truly great film and a must-see. You don't need to be a Frances Farmer obsessive to find this film delightful!

This film resurfaced briefly about 15 years ago when the movie "Frances", detailing the fall of actress Frances Farmer, was released and did so much for the career of Jessica Lange. I saw "Come and Get It" around that time, and while I appreciated the double role played by Farmer, the performance that impressed me most from this excellent movie was that of Edward Arnold. Why so? Because Arnold is a stout middleaged man, but so powerful that he rivets your attention to himself. Arnold plays Barney Glasgow, an ambitious logger who schemes to become the richest man in Wisconsin through the lumber business--partly by planning to marry the boss's daughter. He is almost derailed by a barroom singer, dark wigged Lotta/Frances Farmer. He stays around long enough to earn and throw away her love before setting off to achieve his object and leaving her to marry his sidekick, Walter Brennan in an Oscar-winning role. All Barney's plans come to pass, except that he's not happy in his marriage and has a rocky relationship with his handsome son, Joel McCrea. A trip back to logging country brings him in contact with Lotta's daughter and namesake, blond wigged Frances Farmer. He becomes obsessed with trying to recapture the love he spurned years ago by pursuing the young girl, with serious ramifications for all involved. I'm glad that Edward Arnold, usually seen only in supporting roles as in "The Hucksters", gets the chance to display his full range here in "Come and Get It". He really runs the gamut from bare-knucked fighter to tender lover to distant father to passionate old fool. Few roles offer so much variety to an actor in one movie, and Arnold rings true in every scene. The expression on his face in the final confrontation he has with his son as Lotta makes a crushing remark about his age is dynamite. In my opinion, Edward Arnold really ought to have won an Oscar himself for this superlative performance. I also thought they had a really good idea for this "through the generations" movie: Rather than cast a young man to play a young man at the beginning and then wear old makeup for the rest of the movie, they opted for the opposite approach. Edward Arnold has a little shoe polish in his hair for the first part, and then a title card announces that 20 years have passed and he's now 50. He then proceeds to perform a part that is written for his own age. (This same trick was used a few years ago in "The Mask of Zorro" with Anthony Hopkins to great effect.) Take my advice about this movie and "Come and Get It' as soon as you can.

I first saw this movie at a Frances Farmer film festival at UCLA back in the 1980's. Although I considered myself a classic film buff, I had never heard of her. I was awed by Ms. Farmer's breath-taking dual-role performance. They don't make 'em like that anymore. The supporting cast, Edward Arnold, Walter Brennan, and Joel McCrea, were also instrumental in making this movie the true classic it is. As noted by other reviewers, unfortunately for Ms. Farmer, apparent mental illness cut short a brilliant film career. A bio-pic of her life, starring Jessica Lange, showed Ms. Farmer's rocky life -- short as it was. For those who have no idea what this movie is about, Ms. Farmer plays a bar girl in a logging town in the late 1800's. She meets Edward Arnold ("Barney"), a brash and savvy logger, with plans to become the boss's partner and marry his daughter (why not -- it would help the plan along). This plan is upset when he meets this tough, yet, angelic bar girl, Lotta. The "throwing the trays" scene is unforgettable after Lotta tells Barney, who has just won a large amount of money on a game of chance at the bar, that the owner plans to have him mugged in order to get the money back. They have a whirlwind romance and plan to marry. He receives a telegram from his boss, who reminds him of his plans. Now Barney must make a difficult decision. Should he marry this girl he's madly in love with and perhaps throw away the opportunity to make partner or marry the boss's daughter for a chance at becoming the richest man in Wisconsin? He decides, leaving his best friend to break the news to her as she is getting dressed for their wedding. Fast forward 20 years. His best friend has married her, they have a daughter, and, after a few years, Lotta dies. The friend persuades Barney to come visit him. When Barney sees the daughter, who is the image of her mother, he falls for her, too. He persuades her to come with him to the big city (with her aunt as chaperon), and tries to seduce her. She understands what he intends all along, yet, she tries to get as much out of him as she can without giving anything in return. After all, this could be her ticket out of the small lumber town she's stuck in. Eventually, she falls in love with his son, Joel McCrea. After a few months, the son realizes what a fool his father has been making of himself, not to mention a nuisance (today we'd call it sexual harrassment), and they almost come to blows at Barney's company's annual picnic. Barney's dream is shattered when Lotta's daughter shouts to his son, "You can't hit him -- he's your father! He's an old man!" The ending of the movie still gives me goosebumps -- I have them now just remembering it -- as we see a sobbing Barney banging the triangle outside to call everyone over for dinner, who now realizes what an old fool he's been and what he's lost: his old love, his wife, the love and respect of his son, and his best friend.