The Farmer’s Daughter **** (1947, Loretta Young, Joseph Cotten, Ethel Barrymore) – Classic Movie Review 1333

Director H C Potter’s 1947 appealing vintage comedy stars the largely forgotten Loretta Young, who beat the odds and won the Best Actress Oscar for her role as the Swedish farmer’s daughter Katrin Holstrom, who ends up working as maid to politically powerful Washington socialite Agatha Morley (Ethel Barrymore). Young also beat both Joan Crawford in the much fancied Possessed and Rosalind Russell for her Lavinia in Mourning Becomes Electra to the Oscar, in a win that was quite an upset.

Young’s character Joan opposes Barrymore’s Agatha’s nominee for Congress, her own son Glenn Morley (Joseph Cotten). So Joan stands against Glenn and wins both the seat and eventually the man too.

From the director of Mr Blandings Builds His Dream House (1948), this is a highly pleasingly done and often very amusing romantic-political comedy, with the three charismatic star performances to the forefront. Oscar nominated for Best Supporting Actor, Charles Bickford also scores as Joseph Clancy, the butler, and there’s a long roster of jolly character actors doing their enjoyable turns familiar to old movie buffs.

If a tad self-congratulatory, The Farmer’s Daughter is very cheery stuff with some really sharp wit in screen-writer Allen Rivkin and Laura Kerr‘s dialogue balancing the cosy predictability of it all.

Rose Hobart, Rhys Williams, Harry Davenport, Lex Barker, James Arness (in his first cinema film), Tom Powers, Anna Q Nilsson. John Gallaudet, Charles McGraw, Jason Robards Sr, Cy Kendall, Frank Ferguson, William Bakewell, Keith Andes and Charles Lane are in the support cast.

It was adapted by Rivkin and Kerr from the play Juurakon Hulda by Hella Wuolijoki, using the pen name Juhani Tervapää. The screen rights to the play were initially bought by producer David O. Selznick, planning it as a vehicle for Ingrid Bergman. She declined the role, due to rumours of her having an affair with Cotten, so Selznick tried to cast either Dorothy McGuire or Sonja Henie, but when that didn’t work out, sold the rights to RKO Radio Pictures.

http://derekwinnert.com/mr-blandings-builds-his-dream-house-1948-cary-grant-myrna-loy-melvyn-douglas-classic-film-review-1227/

http://derekwinnert.com/possessed-1947-joan-crawford-van-heflin-raymond-massey-classic-movie-review-1331/

(C) Derek Winnert 2014 Classic Movie Review 1333

Link to Derek Winnert’s home page for more film reviews: http://derekwinnert.com/