The Purchase Price

source: The Purchase Price

Trailer—The Purchase Price

The Purchase Price

Barbara Stanwyck had me from the beginning, as she crooned "Take Me Away" so seductively in the movie's first scene, and she could do no wrong from then on. Those eyes, that voice. She's so beautiful, and so natural as an actor. She plays a nightclub singer who becomes a mail-order bride to a farmer (Jim Gilson) in the middle of nowhere after wanting to get away from city life. It all moves a little too quickly for her as she has a rapid civil ceremony practically after stepping off a long train ride, and that evening she rebuffs her new husband's advances. He's the sensitive sort and can't forget it, even after she comes around and makes it clear she wants to consummate their marriage, talking to him sweetly and sincerely, and later beckoning him with lingerie. The movie is not all that well regarded, but I found it sweet, and Stanwyck captivating.

Found on 'Forbidden Hollywood Part 3', this tale of mail order bride Barbara Stanwyck and her farmer husband George Brent meanders a bit but is a typical example of a pre-code drama. There is liquor, sex, semi-nudity, suggestions of slavery ... and that's just for starters. Let down a bit by its weak ending and a lack of focus amongst its clichéd minor characters (all of which seem taken from the 'stereotypes manual'), 'The Purchase Price' stands as an OK film, but nothing special. George Brent here plays something of a muttonhead who doesn't really deserve the luminous Stanwyck (who'd been in the chorus line before turning farmer's wife); but Stanwyck is very good and well worth watching.

While Barbara Stanwyck is great as the singer turned farmer's mail-order bride, everything else in The Purchase Price (1932) is not up to par in terms of quality. The plot is a slapdash effort at conflict and titillation, and the characters haven't a brain cell to their name, doing things because they serve to move the plot forward, not as a natural extension of their personalities and thought process. George Brent has next to no chemistry with Stanwyck, and also no charisma or charm. You have a hard time believing she'd ever grow fond of this guy. There are a few interesting scenes here and there, but overall, The Purchase Price feels twice as long as its seventy minute run time. No need to bother with it unless you're a completionist for any of the cast and crew involved.

Of course this delicious tour-de-force is totally incredible... but WOW! You can't take your eyes off the screen in case Wellman gives his heroine whiplash as she moves from plushly-kept woman in Manhattan to mail-order farmer's bride in North Dakota. From take-out at Tiffany's to hauling coal nuggets 20 miles through a blizzard. From igniting the lust in men with her daring chanteusing to putting out the fire villains set to her and hubby George Brent's last-hope crop of wheat. All in just over 60 minutes!

This peculiar but interesting drama has Barbara Stanwyck as a weary nightclub torch singer with a "who cares?" attitude. To escape her underworld boyfriend, she decides to hide out in the bleak plains of North Dakota as a mail-order bride. As her shy farmer husband, the normally debonair George Brent is almost unrecognizable in a pair of overalls, but gives a sensitive characterization. The bulk of the plot follows the growing feeling between the reserved ‘country mouse' and the tough ‘city mouse', complicated by several villains. Tough guy director William Wellman keeps things moving at a clip, and uses his low budget wisely to stage several good set-pieces, including a drunken shivaree for the happy couple. In the supporting cast, Leila Bennett stands out as a plain-talking maid.