So Big!

What is it about this multi-generational story that inspired THREE film versions? This one features some very broad--bordering on cornpone--humor in the farm scenes...I haven't read the novel, but know Edna Ferber's style and that ain't it. But it also features the marvelous Barbara Stanwyck--the only real reason to watch this--and Bette Davis, the only time my two favorite leading ladies ever appeared in the same movie, and the earliest movie I've seen where Davis begins to come into her own.

"So Big!" is the story of a life philosophy played out in rural America. It's a portrayal of a hard but fulfilling life, and I found it enjoyable.

Really moving little drama starring Barbara Stanwyck and Bette Davis.

"I also think that film is kind of a generational tale." http://illusionpodcast.blogspot.com/2015/01/episode-44-william-wellman-1929-1933.html

So Slow! We get it. The country folks are slow and Barbara Stanwyck is there to teach them and their stubborn farming mentality. She inspires creativity and hard work. But in a way I didn't feel we got enough time with the people she inspire. At least toward the end we get Bette Davis and her regular leading man George Brent, in their first pairing, to give it a sweet homage to the hardworking women who make the world go round. But still a fairly clumsy way to tell it's story....

Between this and Night Nurse it must seem like Barbara Stanwyck got her start in porn films, but this is actually one of those decades-spanning stories of inspirational women that I guess was a palliative to Great Depression audiences. I prefer my Stanwyck less saintly, but she's still good.