Come And Get It (1936)

A callous but ambitious lumberman (Edward Arnold) is in love with a bar girl (Frances Farmer) but abandons her to marry the boss's daughter (Mary Nash, THE PHILADELPHIA STORY) which allows him to inherit the company. His best friend (Walter Brennan) marries the heartbroken girl. 23 years later, now the head of the corporation, he revisits his old friend, now a widower, and immediately falls in love with his daughter (also played by Farmer). Based on the best selling novel by Edna Ferber (GIANT), the film was begun by Howard Hawks who was fired after completing 2/3 of the film by the producer Samuel Goldwyn and replaced by a reluctant William Wyler. Surprisingly, unlike other films with a turbulent history, it doesn't show in the final product. The film is decent enough soap opera but I don't think either Hawks' or Wyler's acolytes could make much of a case for it. Arnold, who rarely played leads, isn't bad but he's simply miscast. He's just not the kind of man a young girl would pine over till the day she died. The two most memorable things about the film are the appealing Frances Farmer and Walter Brennan in the first of his three Oscar winning supporting roles. With Joel McCrea, Andrea Leeds (STAGE DOOR), Mady Christians and Cecil Cunningham (despite the male name, she's a woman).