View source for Come and Get It (1936 film)

{{short description|1936 American drama film directed by Howard Hawks and William Wyler}}
{{For|the silent film of the same name|Come and Get It (1929 film)}}
{{Infobox film
| name           = Come and Get It
| image          = ComeAndGetItFilm.JPG
| caption        = 
| director       = [[Howard Hawks]]<br>[[William Wyler]]
| producer       = [[Samuel Goldwyn]]
| writer         = [[Jane Murfin]]<br>[[Jules Furthman]]
| based_on       = {{based on|''[[Come and Get It (novel)|Come and Get It]]''<br>1935 novel|[[Edna Ferber]]}}
| narrator       = 
| starring       = [[Edward Arnold (actor)|Edward Arnold]]<br>[[Joel McCrea]]<br>[[Frances Farmer]]<br>[[Walter Brennan]]
| music          = [[Alfred Newman (composer)|Alfred Newman]]
| cinematography = [[Gregg Toland]]<br>[[Rudolph Maté]]
| editing        = [[Edward Curtiss]]
| studio         = [[Samuel Goldwyn Productions]]
| distributor    = [[United Artists]]
| released       = {{Film date|1936|11|06}}
| runtime        = 99 minutes
| country        = United States
| language       = English
| budget         = 
| gross          = 
}}
'''''Come and Get It''''' is a 1936 American [[lumberjack]] [[Drama (film and television)|drama film]] directed by [[Howard Hawks]] and [[William Wyler]]. The screenplay by [[Jane Murfin]] and [[Jules Furthman]] is based on the 1935 [[Come and Get It (novel)|novel of the same title]] by [[Edna Ferber]].

For his performance as Swan Bostrom, [[Walter Brennan]] became the first recipient of the [[Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor]].

==Plot==
Ruthless [[lumberjack]] foreman Barney Glasgow ([[Edward Arnold (actor)|Edward Arnold]]) will stop at nothing to achieve his goal, to someday become the head of the [[logging]] industry in 19th century [[Wisconsin]]. His determination to succeed leads him to end his relationship with [[Western saloon|saloon]] singer Lotta Morgan ([[Frances Farmer]]) and marry Emma Louise Hewitt ([[Mary Nash (actress)|Mary Nash]]), the daughter of his boss Jed Hewett ([[Charles Halton]]), in order to secure a partnership in his business.

Over two decades later, a wealthy and successful Barney and Emma Louise's son Richard ([[Joel McCrea]]) strongly objects to his father's practice of destroying forests without planting new trees. Barney visits his old friend Swan Bostrom ([[Walter Brennan]]), who married Lotta when Barney rejected her. Swan is now a widower raising a daughter, also named Lotta (also played by Frances Farmer), who bears a striking resemblance to her mother. Barney finds himself attracted to the girl and, foolishly hoping to recapture the love he abandoned as a young man, offers to finance her education. Complications arise when Richard meets Lotta and takes a strong interest in her, which is reciprocated, much to Barney's displeasure and jealousy.

==Cast==
* [[Edward Arnold (actor)|Edward Arnold]] as Barney Glasgow
* [[Frances Farmer]] as Lotta Morgan/Lotta Bostrom
* [[Walter Brennan]] as Swan Bostrom
* [[Joel McCrea]] as Richard Glasgow
* [[Mady Christians]] as Karie 
* [[Mary Nash (actress)|Mary Nash]] as Emma Louise Glasgow
* [[Andrea Leeds]] as Evvie Glasgow
* [[Charles Halton]] as Jed Hewitt
* [[Frank Shields]] as Tony Schwerke
* [[Edwin Maxwell (actor)|Edwin Maxwell]] as Sid LeMaire 
* [[Cecil Cunningham]] as Josie
* [[Heinie Conklin]] as Barfly (uncredited)
* [[Harry Tenbrook]] as Lumberjack (uncredited)
* [[Fred Toones]] as Snowflake (uncredited)

==Production==
[[Samuel Goldwyn]] paid $150,000 for the screen rights to the Edna Ferber novel, who sold it to him confident he understood she had intended it to be "primarily a story of the rape of America . . . by the wholesale [[Robber baron (industrialist)|robber barons]] of that day." Goldwyn was attracted to the [[melodrama]]tic ''[[Barbary Coast (film)|Barbary Coast]]''-like aspects of the story, which prompted him to hire that film's director, [[Howard Hawks]], to bring ''Come and Get It'' to the screen. He also was intrigued by the fact Hawks' grandfather had served as the basis for the character of Barney Glasgow. Ferber had approved Jane Murfin's script, which Hawks found wanting, and he persuaded her and Goldwyn to allow him to bring in [[Jules Furthman]] to work on a rewrite.<ref>Berg, A. Scott, ''Goldwyn: A Biography''. New York: Alfred A. Knopf 1989. {{ISBN|0-394-51059-3}}, p. 275</ref>

Goldwyn announced [[Miriam Hopkins]] would play the dual roles of Lotta Morgan and Lotta Bostrom, but Hawks was not happy with his choice. He looked at numerous screen tests of aspiring starlets and finally settled on [[Andrea Leeds]], who previously had played minor or uncredited roles in a handful of films. Eventually he replaced her with the even less experienced [[Frances Farmer]] and cast Leeds in the supporting role of Evvie Glasgow, Richard's younger sister, instead. Goldwyn tried to borrow [[Spencer Tracy]] from [[Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer|MGM]] for the lead role of Barney Glasgow, but [[Louis B. Mayer]] refused to let him work for his chief rival, so contract player [[Edward Arnold (actor)|Edward Arnold]] was assigned the role.<ref>Berg, pp. 275-276</ref>

Soon after filming began, Goldwyn underwent two major surgeries that incapacitated him for a lengthy period of time, keeping him away from the studio and the [[Dailies|daily rushes]]. Hawks took advantage of the situation and allowed Furthman to change completely the tone of Ferber's original story; cast slender [[Walter Brennan]] as Swan Bostrom, a man Ferber had described as "the strongest man in the North woods;" and arrange a shooting schedule and budget Goldwyn never would have approved.<ref>Berg, pp. 279-280</ref>

Upon returning to the studio, Goldwyn viewed a rough cut of the film and was shocked to discover Hawks had shifted the focus from the unbridled destruction of the land to a love triangle in which brawling Barney Glasgow and Swan Bostrom vied for the affections of lusty Lotta Morgan. The character of Richard Glasgow, intended to be the second lead, barely was in the film, which was cluttered with Hawks-like improvised bits of business. When the director refused to comply with Goldwyn's demands for major changes, the producer fired Hawks from the project.<ref>Berg, p. 282</ref>

[[William Wyler]] had begun post-production work on ''[[Dodsworth (film)|Dodsworth]]'' when he was summoned to Goldwyn's home and told he would be completing ''Come and Get It''. Wyler was loath to take over a film started by someone else, but Goldwyn threatened him with suspension if he refused to accept the assignment. He did so reluctantly, and in later years he recalled, "I was talked into doing it, and I've been sorry about that ever since. The picture wasn't very good." Wyler spent two weeks filming what amounted to about the final third of the completed film. He strongly objected to Goldwyn's desire to give him sole directing credit, and preferred his name not be attached to the film at all. He finally relented but only when Goldwyn agreed to give Hawks top billing. Wyler never considered ''Come and Get It'' a part of his filmography and disowned it whenever he could, although it greatly pleased Ferber, who praised Goldwyn "for the courage, sagacity, and power of decision" he demonstrated by "throwing out the finished Hawks picture and undertaking the gigantic task of making what amounted to a new picture."<ref>Berg, pp. 283-284</ref><ref>Herman, Jan, ''A Talent for Trouble: The Life of Hollywood's Most Acclaimed Director''. New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons 1995. {{ISBN|0-399-14012-3}}, pp. 161-163</ref>

Exterior scenes were filmed along the [[North Fork Clearwater River]] in [[Idaho]].

The soundtrack includes "[[Aura Lea]]" by [[George R. Poulton]] and [[W. W. Fosdick]] and "The Bird on Nellie's Hat" by Alfred Solman and [[Arthur J. Lamb]].

==Adaptations==
Edward Arnold and Walter Brennan reprised their respective roles of Barney Glasgow and Swan Bostrom in two radio adaptations of the Ferber novel. The first aired as a one-hour production on ''[[Lux Radio Theatre]]'' on November 15, 1937,<ref name="Pittsburgh Press">{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=uU0bAAAAIBAJ&pg=6559%2C6266868&q=Iux+Radio+Theatre |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |title=Lux Radio Theatre (advertisement) |page=24 |newspaper=The Pittsburgh Press |date=1937-11-15 |access-date=2021-06-08 }}</ref> and the second was a half-hour version broadcast by ''[[The Screen Guild Theater]]'' on March 15, 1942.<ref name="Pittsburgh Post-Gazette">{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=WrxRAAAAIBAJ&pg=4052%2C6040935&q=Features+Screen+Guild+Edward+Arnold+Brennan+Laraine+Day+Come |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |title=Sunday's Features |page=2 (Daily Magazine) |newspaper=The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette |date=1942-03-14 |access-date=2021-06-08 }}</ref>

==Critical reception==
[[Frank S. Nugent]] of ''[[The New York Times]]'' felt compressing Ferber's saga spanning fifty years into the story of a single generation "arrested the panoramic sweep of the story, converting it from a mural of the American scene into a vividly toned portrait of a man. But the transformation is readily excusable, for Barney was the heart of the novel and we felt it had stopped beating when he died." He added, "Although there is nothing new in the theme, it has been simply and powerfully expressed by a number of admirable performances, and it has been played against an interesting background. There are several extraordinarily graphic scenes of logging operations, the atmosphere of the late Eighties and early Nineties has been reproduced handsomely in the settings and costumes and . . . it never fails to reward your attention. There's nothing static about this one, thanks to Howard Hawks and William Wyler, the directors; to Gregg Toland's photography, and to the work of a uniformly fine cast." He concluded, "You won't find ''Come and Get It'' a thoroughly Ferber work, but enough of her has been retained and enough good Goldwyn added to make it a genuinely satisfying picture."<ref>[https://movies.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=980DE2DB1E39EE3BBC4A52DFB767838D629EDE ''The New York Times'' review]</ref>

British [[Channel 4]] observed, "It's a minor Hawks, to be sure, and the action does tend to lag at times, but the fine performances from Farmer, Brennan and McCrea are what make it."<ref>[http://www.channel4.com/film/reviews/film.jsp?id=102224&section=review Channel 4 review]</ref>

==Awards and honors==
For his performance, Walter Brennan became the first recipient of the [[Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor]]. Edward Curtiss was nominated for the [[Academy Award for Best Film Editing]] but lost to [[Ralph Dawson]] for ''[[Anthony Adverse]]''.

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
* {{IMDb title|0027459}}
* {{TCMDb title|71266|Come and Get It}}
* {{AllMovie title|10399|Come and Get It}}
* {{AFI film|id=4165|title=Come and Get It}}
* {{rotten-tomatoes|come_and_get_it|Come and Get It}}
* [https://archive.org/download/Lux02/Lux_37-11-15_Come_and_Get_It.mp3 ''Come and Get It''] on [[Lux Radio Theater]]: November 15, 1937

{{Edna Ferber}}
{{William Wyler}}
{{Howard Hawks}}
{{Samuel Goldwyn}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Come And Get It (Film)}}
[[Category:1936 films]]
[[Category:1930s historical drama films]]
[[Category:American historical drama films]]
[[Category:Films based on American novels]]
[[Category:Films set in the 1880s]]
[[Category:Films set in the 1900s]]
[[Category:Films set in Wisconsin]]
[[Category:Films shot in Idaho]]
[[Category:American black-and-white films]]
[[Category:Films featuring a Best Supporting Actor Academy Award–winning performance]]
[[Category:Films directed by Howard Hawks]]
[[Category:Films directed by William Wyler]]
[[Category:Films scored by Alfred Newman]]
[[Category:Samuel Goldwyn Productions films]]
[[Category:United Artists films]]
[[Category:Films with screenplays by Jules Furthman]]
[[Category:Films with screenplays by Jane Murfin]]
[[Category:Films based on works by Edna Ferber]]
[[Category:Films set in forests]]
[[Category:Films about lumberjacks]]
[[Category:1936 drama films]]
[[Category:1930s American films]]
[[Category:1930s English-language films]]
[[Category:English-language historical drama films]]