You need to see this film for Barbara Stanwyck. She is always good. The looks and reactions she gives are always worth the price of admission. She can truly take a one dimensional character and give it life, dimension, and depth.
Now Hollywood likes to make a film sound more "scandalous" than it really is. The caption they used "She Took Another Woman's Place on Her Wedding Night!" is not shocking at all. Stanwyck needs to get away where no one knows her, so her housekeeper is about to leave for North Dakota to a remote wheat farm as a "mail order" bride but the housekeeper used Stanwyck's photo. Stanwyck convinces the housekeeper to let her go in her place since that is who the groom/farmer is expecting. She even pays her $100 to convince her. Nothing really naughty there.
Then the title, "Purchase Price" makes it sound like Stanwyck is up for sale! Not in the least. As she and her new husband, George Brent, struggle to make the farm work, they are counting on a good crop of wheat and the "purchase price" when time to sell being high.
So if you want a "scandalous" film, keep looking. This one is far from such a theme. But the theme of hate turning to love, and the eternal struggle to make a living, works beautifully in this film.
Stanwyck is perfection. And such a Classy Classic!
Now Hollywood likes to make a film sound more "scandalous" than it really is. The caption they used "She Took Another Woman's Place on Her Wedding Night!" is not shocking at all. Stanwyck needs to get away where no one knows her, so her housekeeper is about to leave for North Dakota to a remote wheat farm as a "mail order" bride but the housekeeper used Stanwyck's photo. Stanwyck convinces the housekeeper to let her go in her place since that is who the groom/farmer is expecting. She even pays her $100 to convince her. Nothing really naughty there.
Then the title, "Purchase Price" makes it sound like Stanwyck is up for sale! Not in the least. As she and her new husband, George Brent, struggle to make the farm work, they are counting on a good crop of wheat and the "purchase price" when time to sell being high.
So if you want a "scandalous" film, keep looking. This one is far from such a theme. But the theme of hate turning to love, and the eternal struggle to make a living, works beautifully in this film.
Stanwyck is perfection. And such a Classy Classic!
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