The idea of mail-order brides is one that would pop up time and time again in movieland - Wellman himself explored it again much later in Westward The Women around the time that Loretta Young, Bill Holden and Robert Mitchum added a little spin in Rachel And The Stranger. This time around Wellman puts his own spin by the 'substitute photo' ploy and it's just possible that Sydney Howard 'borrowed' this for his Broadway play They Knew What They Wanted two years later. With only five and a half reels to tell his story Wellman speed-reads us from hard-boiled chanteuse Stanwyck) in New York then Montreal before winding up on the prairie in North Dakota as a farmer's wife. Of course it's no surprise that she takes to this gruelling life like a duck to water and falls head-over-heels for new husband George Brent and it's no coincidence that the first words out of her mouth in the opening minute are 'take me away', the title of the song she is warbling in the night club. Wellman is able to knock most of the rough edges off and Stanwyck and Brent give the audience their money's worth.
Review of The Purchase Price
