It's a lusty, strapping, multigenerational American history in Edna Ferber's patented style, a look at the Wisconsin lumber industry from the 1880s to about 1910, with a surprising-for-its-time sidebar on the environmental cost of lumbering. A scrappy, ambitious lumber foreman brawls, barks and blusters his way to the top, in the process falling for Frances Farmer's saloon barmaid-singer. What's implausible is, Edward Arnold is playing him. He's in his mid-40s and not remotely credible, or attractive, as our flawed hero, and you wonder why on earth someone as beautiful and accomplished as Frances Farmer would ever fall for him. He runs off to marry the boss's daughter, leaving Farmer to wed Arnold's best pal Walter Brennan, who at least isn't as Walter Brennan-like as usual, but does have to exclaim "Yumpin' yimminy!" a lot. Flash forward 20 years, and Farmer has died, leaving a lovely daughter played by... Frances Farmer, and Arnold, now a more plausible 50, sees in her a chance to recapture his youth. His son, Joel McCrea, second-billed but not having much to do, also falls for her, and which one she's going to end up with doesn't generate a whole lot of suspense. There is one lovely scene between Arnold and his daughter, Andrea Leeds, and some good actors on the periphery-Mady Christians, Mary Nash, Richard Shields, Cecil Cunningham. It's lavish, with some striking Gregg Toland/Rudolph Mate montages, and capably directed by Howard Hawks and William Wyler, though their styles do clash, with Hawks presiding over the outdoorsy-action stuff and Wyler handling the domestic drama of the third act. Entertaining, and the best chance Frances Farmer ever had, but you'll see why Arnold, a reliable character actor who mainly played tycoons and villains, seldom got top billing again.
Review of Come and Get It
