She took another woman’s place on her wedding night..!
The early 1930s were a prolific time for Hollywood as the wonder of sound wowed audiences and industry insiders alike, resulting in a tremendous output of films. Many of these are very short and formulaic, but there’s also quite a few gems.
1932’s The Purchase Price falls somewhere in between, being far from a gem yet also nowhere near boring, though the comedy it’s advertised as containing never really materialized for this viewer. Starring Barbara Stanwyck and George Brent, The Purchase Price is definitely a product of the age.
Stanwyck is a lounge singer who has tired of the scene and everything about it- including her boyfriend and small time hood Eddie (played by Lyle Talbot). To escape she switches places with another woman and becomes a mail order bride in North Dakota, marrying the man who ‘ordered’ her, Jim Gilson (George Brent).
The scripted material is a bit lacking as one can only imagine the trouble in getting folks interested in the life of a mail order bride in North Dakota, but director William Wellman does a fine job getting great performances from his stars and doing a lot with an extremely limited budget.
Barbara Stanwyck really comes into her own here, expanding on the scripted material with a sincerity and we can feel her slowly begin to love her new farmer husband. It does a great deal to suspend some of the ludicrousness of the other goings on. Touted on release as the first time Stanwyck sang on screen, she’s clearly the reason to check out The Purchase Price.
Ironically, it is George Brent’s traditional weakness that makes him such ideal actor to play troubled farmer Jim Gilson as his somewhat hard and stoic characterizations work wonderfully. After his clumsy wedding night overtures are abruptly shut down by his new wife, he detaches and has little to do with her. It’s only over time as they learn they have to work together- he stands up for her once or twice and she secretly helps him prop up the flagging finances of the farm and also pitches in planting seed and putting out the climactic wheat field fire.
Yes, I said climactic wheat field fire. There’s a bit of a side story of another farmer offering to buy the Gilson’s farm and pay Jim to work it, with the caveat that Stanwyck has to ‘keep house’ for the both of them. Their refusal of this offer ultimately results in the great fire. As the fire goes out, they finally embrace tenderly for the first time and the curtain falls. The ending might leave you wondering what ever happened to the feud. If someone torched my field I’d be pretty torqued, but that’s me. The movie was always about those lovable Gilsons anyway.
The Purchase Price only runs a bit over an hour but is mostly worth your time. Good production values given a tight budget and some outstanding performances from the leads mostly overcome an inane plot.
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