Based on the popular novel by Edna Ferber, Howard Hawks’ Come and Get It is a colorful, well-acted melodrama about a Wisconsin lumber dynasty over a span of 50 years.
The story focuses on ruthlessly ambitious Barney Glasgow (Edward Arnold), who rises in rank from a lumberjack to the head of the logging industry in 19th century Wisconsin.
His determination to succeed leads him to end his relationship with saloon singer Lotta Morgan (Frances Farmer) and marry Emma Louise Hewitt (Mary Nash), the daughter of his boss Jed Hewett (Charles Halton), so that he can become a partners in his business.
Cut to two decades later, when Barney and Emma Louise’s son Richard (Joel McCrea) objects to his father’s destroying forests without planting new trees.
Barney visits his old friend Swan Bostrom (Walter Brennan), who married Lotta after Barney rejected her. Swan is now a widower raising a daughter, also named Lotta (also played by Frances Farmer), who resembles her mother.
Attracted to the girl, Barney hopes to recapture the love he had abandoned and offers to pay for the girl’s education. Melodramatic complications arise when Richard falls for Lotta to his father’s displeasure and jealousy. The story concludes when the father smacks his son on his face, precipitating the latter’s declaration of love: “I’m in love with her and there is nothing you can do about it!”
The film is better known now for its behind-the-scenes facts and scandals. Producer Samuel Goldwyn replaced the initial director, Howard Hawks, after shooting began with William Wyler, and tried (to no avail) to remove his name from the credits.
This is one of the few good roles assigned to actor Frances Farmer, who is cast in the dual role of mother and daughter.
As is well known, Farmer had a tumultuous life, recorded in the movie Frances, starring Jessica Lange in an Oscar-nominated turn.
In this picture, Farmer sings the song “Love Ne Tender,” which Elvis Presley made very popular in the 1950s.
Oscar Winner: Walter Brennan
Walter Brennan received the very first Supporting Actor Oscar for playing faultlessly an honest, devoted Swede, Sawn Bostrom.
It is Brennan’s first of three Oscars in that category, the others being Kentucky in 1938 and The Westerner in 1940. Brennan received a fourth and last supporting actor nomination for Sergeant York, starring Gary Cooper, in 1941.
Oscar Nominations: 2
Supporting Actor: Walter Brennan
Film Editing: Edward Curtiss
Oscar Awards: 1
Supporting Actor
Oscar Context
The editing Oscar went to Ralph Dawson for Anthony Adverse.
