Barbara Stanwyck is a singer in Montreal who is mixed up with a small-time hood, Lyle Talbot. Tired of the louche life, she becomes the mail order bride of George Brent and moves to his North Dakota farm. She gradually adapts to the hardships of hardscrabble farming in a brutal climate but Brent, a pessimist, doesn't think she can shake off her old identity. Well, if she's going to give it all up, he reckons, no sense developing an emotional bond with her, so he is curt and doesn't bother her at night, not even when she's laying out her sexiest nightie in his view.
Brent may be making a mistake here, strictly from a hedonistic point of view. This is early Stanwyck and she's terribly cute -- delicate and winsome, and always smiling.
Even from a practical standpoint, she pitches in and helps him with all the chores, and she takes care of their nearly destitute neighbors as well. In the climactic scene, a fire threatens to consume their crop and she is at his side beating the flames until the fire is out and she collapses from exhaustion -- still smiling. This woman could look like an aardvark and still be of value.
The general atmosphere of the farm is pretty ragged and it's in pecuniary straits. This probably is a reflection not on Brent's ability to manage his acreage but on the Great Depression itself, when just about every farmer was in a similar bind.
It's almost all told from Stanwyck's point of view, which suggests a soap opera, but it's rather better than that. Obviously it was shot on a modest budget by director William Wellman, but within the strict financial limits imposed by circumstances, it's a nice job. Yes, the snow is studio snow and all that, but there's something disarming about old-fashioned effects like that. And if Wellman isn't The Great Innovator, he's a sensible and sensitive guy, and this effort deserves a little respect.
Brent may be making a mistake here, strictly from a hedonistic point of view. This is early Stanwyck and she's terribly cute -- delicate and winsome, and always smiling.
Even from a practical standpoint, she pitches in and helps him with all the chores, and she takes care of their nearly destitute neighbors as well. In the climactic scene, a fire threatens to consume their crop and she is at his side beating the flames until the fire is out and she collapses from exhaustion -- still smiling. This woman could look like an aardvark and still be of value.
The general atmosphere of the farm is pretty ragged and it's in pecuniary straits. This probably is a reflection not on Brent's ability to manage his acreage but on the Great Depression itself, when just about every farmer was in a similar bind.
It's almost all told from Stanwyck's point of view, which suggests a soap opera, but it's rather better than that. Obviously it was shot on a modest budget by director William Wellman, but within the strict financial limits imposed by circumstances, it's a nice job. Yes, the snow is studio snow and all that, but there's something disarming about old-fashioned effects like that. And if Wellman isn't The Great Innovator, he's a sensible and sensitive guy, and this effort deserves a little respect.