William Wyler (17 page)

Events come to a head at the Glasgows' annual lawn party, where Barney catches Bernie and Lotta in an embrace. The two men fight, and Lotta tries to break them up. When Bernie shouts, “Lotta and I are going to get married,” Barney counters, “[She] belongs to me.” Lotta protests, saying, “I wouldn't have him touch me. Why would I! I wouldn't have anything to do with an old man like him.”
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This scornful rejection deflates Barney, who tells them both to get out of his house and announces to his wife that he is going to disinherit their son. Before he can carry out his threat, however, Barney, Emma, and their daughter Evie are all killed in a boating accident. Bernie ends up inheriting the family fortune and marries Lotta.

The film remains faithful to the spirit of the novel by focusing on Barney's unrequited love for Lotta—though she is now Bostrom's daughter rather than his granddaughter. The screenwriters are more effective than Ferber in establishing Barney's attraction to Lotta's mother (grandmother in the novel), also named Lotta (Morgan); in the novel, their meeting is brief and is quickly followed by her marriage to Swan and her violent death. The film also portrays in some detail the courtship of the younger Lotta by Richard (the novel's Bernie), which Ferber does not narrate at all. And the screenwriters further extend the romantic contours of the plot by having Evie abandon Orvie, her fiancé, and declare her intention to marry Tony Schwerke, a laborer in her father's plant who is also in partnership with Richard in the manufacture of a new product—the paper cup.

The film concludes with the confrontation between Richard and Barney over Lotta, but the ending is handled differently than in the novel. As Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur would do three years later in
Wuthering Heights
, the screenwriters conclude the film version of Ferber's novel by simply dispensing with the stories of Barney's descendants and even with his own death—none of the screenplays in either the Goldwyn or the Wyler collection goes beyond Barney's own story. (The first-draft screenplay ended with the dedication of a park in Barney's honor and the unveiling of a bust of him, but this conceit was quickly dropped.) Apparently, utilizing the coda to Ferber's novel was never an option for any of the screenwriters.

The first part of the film seems to belong to Hawks, whom Robin Wood credits for “the splendidly shot and cut documentary on lumberjacking, the camaraderie which Barney Glasgow loses when he gains financial success and social position, [and] above all, the saloon fight in which Barney, Swan and Lotta vanquish opposition by hurling tin trays.”
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Wood is wrong about the lumberjacking sequence (Hawks assigned Rosson to film those scenes) but right about the rest. The film opens with the lumberjacks gathering around the dinner table after a long day. Barney makes a speech, complaining that the men are not cutting enough lumber and will have to increase their productivity. He then gets into a fistfight with two of the men. This is a typical Hawksian situation: a group of men engaged in a dangerous profession and the valorizing of male camaraderie.

The reshaping of the character of Lotta Morgan was no doubt due to Hawks, who tailored the role for Frances Farmer. A minor character in the novel, she is described as only a mediocre singer with a limp (because one leg is shorter than the other). In the film, she is beautiful and lusty and an accomplished singer. Wyler also changed Lotta's song. In Ferber's novel, she sings a loggers' drinking song with the refrain “Heigh ho! Drink round brave boys,”
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but in the film, her musical number is the traditional folk ballad “Aura Lee,” which extols an idealized, romantic love: “Aura Lee! Aura Lee! Maid of golden hair / Sunshine came along with thee, and swallows in the air.” The song embodies Barney's reaction to the singer—instantly smitten, he announces that a saloon is no place for her and offers her train fare to return home. When she refuses his money, he courts her and declares his love. Barney soon abandons Lotta, however, when Hewitt sends him a telegram inviting Barney to his home and reminding him that his daughter Emma is waiting. Barney asks Swan (who also loves Lotta) to tell her good-bye for him, and Swan ends up marrying her instead. This highlighting of the romantic love theme, followed by Barney's unwillingness to face Lotta, establishes his ruthless ambition with a dramatic flair that far exceeds the novel's spare narration.

Barney's willingness to pursue financial success rather than romantic love further undercuts the Hawksian preoccupation with professionalism for its own sake. The character's hardheartedness in love suggests that, rather than being an integral part of a fraternal group, Barney may be merely using his position within the group to exploit his men, which would be antithetical to the Hawksian code. The early scripts by Jane Murfin—she replaced Edward Chodorov (who also worked on
Dodsworth
) when Ferber objected to his changes to her novel—do not establish Barney's love for Lotta Morgan. There, Lotta seems to love Barney, but he thinks Swan would make her a better husband, and Lotta seems equally fond of Swan, which is not the case in the finished film. Murfin's scripts also suggest that Lotta understands that Barney's priority is making money, and his unwillingness to pretend to have a romantic interest in her makes him more sympathetic.

It is possible that Wyler reworked some of the opening sequences to make the loss of romantic love a central theme and to give Lotta's love for Barney more emphasis than is evident in either the novel or Hawks's conception. Such an intention also seems to be signaled by the use of “Aura Lee” in the film's introductory title sequence. Wyler may have wanted to darken Barney's character and expose the brutality of a system that produces men like him—a theme that is closer to Wyler's concerns during this period than to Hawks's. According to Scott Berg, Hawks shifted the focus of the plot in the direction of a “buddy movie, the story of two friends and a girl.”
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Wyler, then, seems to have readjusted that focus, telling the tale of a tycoon's quest to recapture the past by courting the daughter of his abandoned love.

Although the film opens in 1884 with a statement about men who “hacked and tore and gauged and schemed and took and took and never replaced,” neither director paid much attention to Ferber's ecology theme. Nor is there any sustained effort to develop the rapacity-of-business theme. When the film's narrative shifts to Barney as a wealthy man with two grown children, there is a scene at the breakfast table (lifted from the novel) in which Barney's son, Richard, talks about Theodore Roosevelt's plans to intervene to curb the abuses of big business—which Barney naturally opposes. The reference to Roosevelt's trust-busting efforts would not have been lost on audiences in 1936, who were familiar with Franklin Roosevelt's reform movement toward responsible and progressive capitalism. Nevertheless, these incipient themes of the male group ethos, Barney's ruthless business practices, and the preservation of natural resources all promptly disappear from the film, which devotes its energy instead to the story of Barney's love for the younger Lotta and the rivalry with his son for her affections.

Barney first encounters this young woman when he visits Swan at Iron Ridge. She is working as a waitress at the local restaurant, and when she comes over to his table, the “Aura Lee” theme is heard. She looks just like her mother, and Barney, entranced, evidently sees in her the happiness that has so far eluded him. (Earlier, at Swan's house, when asked if he is happy, Barney hesitates before answering with a tentative yes.) We soon learn, however, that this Lotta has a touch of Barney in her. In a scene with her aunt Karie (not her mother, as in the novel), she acknowledges that she is aware of Barney's interest and suggests that she will use it to her advantage. This frank acknowledgment of her ambition immediately undercuts Lotta's potential as a romantic ideal, and it places Barney in a position much like that of Fran Dodsworth, who is out of her depth in European society but blinded by its surface brilliance and sophistication. Captivated by Lotta's youth and beauty, Barney cannot see her American need to “come and get it.” And like Fran, he will fail to recognize that he is too old for his romantic fantasy until he is forcefully confronted by the reality of it—Fran's rebuke by Baroness von Obersdorf will be echoed in Lotta's harsh rejection of Barney late in the film.

The film, meanwhile, faithfully follows the plot of the novel, underscoring Barney's infatuation as he takes Karie, Swan, and Lotta to Chicago and installs them in a cottage near his house. He employs Swan and Karie at his factory and sends Lotta to business school. The film's narrative then breaks from the novel, showing Richard falling for Lotta and courting her in scenes that include a charming and suggestive episode in which he helps her make candy. This scene is generally credited to Hawks, though the strengthening of Richard's role—and, by extension, the screen prominence of Joel McCrea, who was given star billing—is most likely Wyler's doing.

The film also develops an interesting connection between Barney's relationship with Lotta and that with his daughter Evie. Evie, like Lotta, calls her father Barney, while her mother refers to him as Mr. Glasgow. The candy-making scene between Richard and Lotta is closely followed by one in which Evie, who is playing with a string toy, tells her father that she is breaking off her engagement to the wealthy Orvie and intends to marry Tony Schwerke. Unlike her father—and unlike her character in the novel, who goes ahead with the marriage to Orvie—the film's Evie will marry for love. And like her brother, she will marry someone who is beneath her socially. This mixing of classes, offering the potential of upward mobility and the promise of a revitalized and more beneficent capitalism, gives
Come and Get It
an optimistic feel that no doubt contributed to its success with audiences.

During the confessional scene, Evie warns her father against his involvement with Lotta, although she claims to understand his unhappiness and his desire for romantic love. But Barney, fearing that his son will outdo him, proposes to Lotta soon afterward. His advances are interrupted by the arrival of Karie with some homemade candy, but Barney tells Lotta that they will speak further at the company lawn party—thus leading to the confrontation that concludes the film.

The party sequence has all the visual hallmarks of a Wyler film. The scene opens with Barney and his family greeting guests. Before the Bostroms arrive, Richard brings Lotta into the house, where he proposes to her in an elegantly shot sequence in which the two are profiled in front of a window, the white curtains highlighting the black hat that occasionally shadows part of Lotta's face. The lighting by Rudolph Maté, who took over from Gregg Toland when Wyler became director, is soft, and the shadows give the scene a painterly feel. The proposal scene is interrupted, however, when Wyler cuts to Barney hurrying through the large dining room, looking for Richard. Here, Wyler's fondness for emphasizing space is reminiscent of his treatment of Mrs. Tilford's home and the Dodsworths'. Barney's search leads him upstairs (another Wyler staircase), where he must confront his real self—the man he is, rather than the one he left behind decades earlier.

When Barney opens the door at the top of the stairs, the camera offers the most stunning shot in the film as it finds Lotta and Richard over Barney's shoulder, framed by the door and the curtains, the shadows practically hiding Lotta's face. Barney confronts his son, slaps him twice, and dares him to fight. Then he punches Richard, who falls. When Richard gets up, the two men clinch, and Richard tells his father that he and Lotta are in love and plan to marry. Infuriated, Barney is about to restart the fight when Lotta cautions Richard not to hurt his father, who is an old man. This remark stops Barney in his tracks and defeats him. Again, the moment directly parallels that in which Kurt's mother reminds Fran of her age in
Dodsworth
.

Robin Wood and others have argued that this scene is Hawksian because it anticipates the confrontation between Tom Dunson (John Wayne) and his adopted son, Matthew Garth (Montgomery Clift), in
Red River
. Wood writes, “At the crisis, father and son begin to fight. The girl intervenes, and her presence is responsible for bringing the father to his senses, making him realize his love for his son, and leading him to accept the young people's marriage.”
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Wood's comparison, however, does not take into account the differing circumstances and motivations of the aging fathers who are resisting their sons' maturity. Tom Dunson's fury is driven by his consuming need to sell cattle—as he explains to Matt and Groot (Walter Brennan), he is broke. In
Come and Get It
, however, Barney's jealousy is motivated by emotional need—he will never be able to accept his son's marriage.

After the confrontation with Richard, Barney begins to descend the staircase. At the same time, his wife heads up the stairs, looking for him. Wyler foregrounds Barney in shadow, while Emma is sharply lit in the background. As they descend together, Barney tells her that he has thrown Richard out of the house because he is marrying “that girl.” Emma, who is aware of Barney's infatuation, is relieved to learn that her husband is not leaving her. Simply remarking that “perhaps even you can't have everything you want,” she then urges Barney to call in the guests for dinner.

Walking over to the triangle he once used to summon his crew to meals when he was a lumberjack, Barney admits to Swan that he is a foolish old man. As he begins to ring the triangle, Wyler frames his face in it, as if forcing Barney to accept his diminished condition. Wyler then cuts to Richard and Lotta as they move through the crowd and away from the house, and then back to Barney's face, still framed in the triangle, reflecting pain and anguish as he calls “Come and get it” more forcefully—almost hysterically. The tight framing and his anguished expression suggest that Barney has finally acknowledged that his life, sacrificed on the altar of money and success, has been wasted. Like Fran Dodsworth, he is made to recognize his errors in judgment at the film's conclusion.