Howard Hawks was one of three directors who had a hand in COME AND GET IT (1936) a historical drama in which 19th century lumber baron Edward Arnold dumps Great Love Frances Farmer so that he can marry rich. Arnold’s BFF Walter Brennan marries her instead, has a lookalike daughter and years later Arnold wonders if he has a shot at turning her into his mistress … or will Arnold’s son Joel McRae win her first?
As Donald C. Willis says, this film is a mess. The Brennan/Farmer marriage comes out of nowhere, but has to happen to set up the next generation. The younger Farmer isn’t drawn sharply enough to be a character — she’s opportunistic but not quite, doesn’t have any feelings about Arnold’s treatment of her mother, etc. And the ending is feeble: Farmer simply tells Arnold he’s too old for her and he deflates.
That said, I’ve been curious about Farmer ever since watching her biopic, Frances, and she’s the best thing in this movie, with a strong screen presence. Worth the watching for that. “Who wouldn’t pick up a million dollars lying at their feet?”
A lecherous judge trying to pressure a young girl into becoming his mistress is just a subplot in 100 MONSTERS (1968), a bizarro Japanese film in which a rapacious developer tears down a village shrine to build a brothel — what do you mean, a curse on the shrine site? Only superstitious fools believe in such nonsense! While the consequences are predictable, the weird variety of monsters makes this memorable “You fellows have no idea of the horrors of being cursed.”
Preston Sturges was a master of screwball comedy and THE PALM BEACH STORY (1942) is easily his screwiest. After a madcap opening which only makes sense later, Claudette Colbert divorces architect Joel McRae because she loves him so much — once she’s free, she can hook a rich sugar daddy who will underwrite McRae’s plans to build the airport of the future. She takes off, McRae pursues and they become entangled with William Demarest’s drunken gun club, the crotchety Weenie King and rich siblings Mary Astor and Rudy Vallee. This was our date movie for last weekend and TYG thoroughly enjoyed it. “Sex has everything to do with it, darling — you realize that when you’re 15 and start noticing how arch your girlfriends’ fathers are becoming.”
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