That anyone involved in this maintained a career after it is startling. But the credits are filled with stars: Nannualy Johnson wrote the preposterous, very violent plot. John Cromwell directed. Helen Westley plays an old country grandmaw sitting in a rocking chair, smoking a pipe and cackling. Walter Brennan made a career of playing hayseeds like this, and he isn't too bad.
What ever possessed anyone to star the two leads, though, is beyond comprehension. Neither is generally associated with this studio. And of all people to play an illiterate Southern country girl: Barbara Stanwyck! Only Tallulah Bankhead could have been more implausible. (Being of Southern ancestry, she might actually have been better suited than the classic New Yorker Stanwyck.) Stanwyck's romantic interest is the usually suave Joel McCrea. He is constantly starting fights. Poor Walter Catlett takes a beating routinely. That's funny? Not only are most of the players implausible but the characters they play are also thoroughly unappealing. They are wooden and not remotely believable.
This came out the same year as "Show Boat." Possibly it was meant as competition. It includes quite a lot of music. Most of it is forgettable to awful. The only exception is a black woman's rendition of "St. Louis Blues." Temporarily, as she sings, we are lifted out of the back-lot swamp.
What ever possessed anyone to star the two leads, though, is beyond comprehension. Neither is generally associated with this studio. And of all people to play an illiterate Southern country girl: Barbara Stanwyck! Only Tallulah Bankhead could have been more implausible. (Being of Southern ancestry, she might actually have been better suited than the classic New Yorker Stanwyck.) Stanwyck's romantic interest is the usually suave Joel McCrea. He is constantly starting fights. Poor Walter Catlett takes a beating routinely. That's funny? Not only are most of the players implausible but the characters they play are also thoroughly unappealing. They are wooden and not remotely believable.
This came out the same year as "Show Boat." Possibly it was meant as competition. It includes quite a lot of music. Most of it is forgettable to awful. The only exception is a black woman's rendition of "St. Louis Blues." Temporarily, as she sings, we are lifted out of the back-lot swamp.