The Farmer Takes a Wife *** (1935, Janet Gaynor, Henry Fonda, Charles Bickford) – Classic Movie Review 10,667

Director Victor Fleming’s sweet 1935 1820s-set romance The Farmer Takes a Wife stars Henry Fonda,  who impresses in his film début (already 30) as the nice farmer Dan Harrow, who courts bargee’s cute housekeeper Molly Larkins (Janet Gaynor) around the banks of the Erie Canal in New York.

Sweet-faced Dan Harrow (Fonda) goes to work as a driver for Samson ‘Sam’ Weaver (Roger Imhof) on the Erie Canal, but his heart is set on buying a farm and settling down, puzzling Molly Larkins, the girlfriend and cook of villainous, wily, burly canal man Jotham Klore (Charles Bickford).

Dan Harrow dislikes fighting, but eventually has to take on Jotham Klore to prove that he isn’t a coward and get the girl. This is a charming love story with good star chemistry matched by the quality of the period atmosphere, plus strong performances by the three principals and by Slim Summerville as Molly’s friend Fortune Friendly.

Fonda got his movie chance after he had starred in the hit 1934 Broadway play (by Frank B Elser and Marc Connelly) version, based on Walter D Edmonds’s novel Rome Haul.

Spencer Tracy was cast as the heavy, but he refused to do a supporting role and was dismissed by the studio and was replaced by Bickford.

It is remade in 1953 as The Farmer Takes a Wife, a musical rehash with Betty Grable and Dale Robertson.

Also in the cast are Andy Devine, Margaret Hamilton, Jane Withers, Roger Imhof, John Qualen, Sig Ruman [Siegfried Rumann], Kitty Kelly, Robert Glecker, Louis Mason, Dick Foran, and Wade Botelier, as well as Erville Alderson as Wagon Father (uncredited), George ‘Gabby’ Hayes as Lucas (uncredited), J.M. Kerrigan as Angus (uncredited) and Mitchell Lewis as Boatman in Office (uncredited).

The film was released by Fox Film Corporation on 2 August 1935.

The Farmer Takes a Wife is directed by Victor Fleming, runs 91 minutes, is made by Fox Film Corporation, is released by Fox Film Corporation (1935) (US), is written by Edwin Burke, based on the play by Frank B Elser and Marc Connelly and Walter D Edmonds’s novel Rome Haul, is shot in black and white by John F Seitz, is produced by Winfield R Sheehan and is scored by Oscar Bradley (musical director), with Art Direction by William S Darling.

It was shot in Sonora, California.

CBS/Fox released it in 1991 (US) on VHS and laserdisc and 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment released it in 2013 (US) on DVD (20th Century Fox Cinema Archives).

Fonda in his first film appears with Bickford. They did not appear together again until Big Deal at Dodge City (1966), Bickford’s last film.

The original play opened on Broadway on 30 October 1934 and closed in January 1935 after 104 performances. The cast included Henry Fonda and Margaret Hamilton.

© Derek Winnert 2020 Classic Movie Review 10,667

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