The Purchase Price ** (1932, Barbara Stanwyck, George Brent, Lyle Talbot) – Classic Movie Review 6723

‘She took another woman’s place on her wedding night..!’ Well, that does sound interesting, doesn’t it? Director William A Wellman 1932 pre-Code American drama is adapted from the novel The Mud Lark by Arthur Stringer, with a screenplay by Robert Lord, and stars Barbara Stanwyck, George Brent, and Lyle Talbot.

Stanwyck stars as attractive New York nightclub torch singer Joan Gordon, who leaves her wealthy criminal boyfriend Eddie Fields (Lyle Talbot) and travels to Montreal, Canada, where she changes her name and begins performing again.

But one of Eddie’s men recognises her and she trades places with her hotel’s maid (Leila Bennett), who by improbable coincidence used Joan’s picture to correspond with a North Dakota farmer looking for a mail-order bride. So Joan sets out to become the wife of humble farmer Jim Gilson (George Brent), unaware of all the hardships of farm life in the Great Depression.

Fifteen writers worked on the story without consulting each other, and, if the plot feels contrived and lacks credibility, and the characters feel fake, the unstoppable Stanwyck makes it work, even though she is not ideally cast and she is working against the odds. Brent is his usual dull, loyal self (though that is exactly the part here), while Talbot gives quite a lively turn. The script starts off interesting, but turns out to be a dull, conservative-minded thing as a lame and mundane toast to working hard, being loyal and the simple country life, conceived as a morale booster for gullible audiences in the Depression era.

The Purchase Price is a Warner Bros film, it runs 68 minutes, is shot in black and white by Sidney [Sid] Hickox, is scored by Leo F Forbstein, with Art Direction by Jack Okey.

The main cast are Barbara Stanwyck as Joan Gordon, George Brent as Jim Gilson, Lyle Talbot as Eddie Fields, Hardie Albright as Don Leslie, David Landau as Bull McDowell, Murray Kinnell as Spike Forgan, Leila Bennett as Emily, Mae Busch as Queenie, and Anne Shirley as the daughter Sarah Tipton.

Stanwyck’s legs were badly burned when she went too near the flames of a burning wheat field while filming.

Stanwyck’s performance of ‘Take Me Away’ is the first time she ever sings on screen.

In his fight scene with Brent, Talbot flew back against a wall as planned but his head struck a nail. ‘It just bled like mad,’ he recalled. ‘They had to take me over to the infirmary and sew me up.’

The source novel was first serialised in The Saturday Evening Post from 28 November to 26 December 1931.

© Derek Winnert 2018 Classic Movie Review 6723

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