Walter Brennan was the winner of the Best Supporting Actor in 1936, the first year in which a separate category was created in order to honor secondary and characters roles.
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Based on the popular novel by Edna Ferber, Come and Get It is a colorful, well-acted melodrama about a Wisconsin lumber dynasty, spanning over 60 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 could become a partner 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 had rejected her. Swan is now a widower raising a daughter, also named Lotta (also played by Frances Farmer), who resembles her mother in many ways.
Attracted to the girl, Barney hopes to recapture the love he had abandoned and offers to pay for the girl’s education.
Melodramatic complications ensue when Richard falls for Lotta, much 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!”
Come and Get It is better known now for its behind-the-scenes facts and scandals than for its artistic merits.
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 played by Frances Farmer, who is cast in the dual part of a mother and a daughter.
As is well known, Farmer had a tumultuous personal life, as recorded in the 1982 movie Frances, starring Jessica Lange in an Oscar-nominated turn.
In this picture, Farmer sings the song “Love Me Tender,” which Elvis Presley would turn into a very popular tune in the 1950s.
Oscar Winner: Walter Brennan
Walter Brennan received the very first Supporting Actor Oscar for playing an honest, devoted Swede named Sawn Bostrom.
It was Brennan’s first of three Oscars in that category, the others being Kentucky in 1938 and The Westerner in 1940.
Brennan received his fourth and last supporting actor nomination for Sergeant York, starring Gary Cooper, in 1941.
My Oscar Book:
Come and Get It received 2 Oscar Nominations
Supporting Actor: Walter Brennan
Film Editing: Edward Curtiss
Oscar Awards: 1
Supporting Actor
Oscar Context
The best editing Oscar went to Ralph Dawson for the biopic, Anthony Adverse.
Credits:
Directed by Howard Hawks/William Wyler
Written by Jane Murfin, Jules Furthman, based on Come and Get It, 1935 novel by Edna Ferber
Produced by Samuel Goldwyn
Cinematography Gregg Toland, Rudolph Maté
Edited by Edward Curtiss
Music by Alfred Newman
Production: Samuel Goldwyn Productions
Distributed by United Artists
Release date: November 6, 1936
Running time: 99 minutes
