The Farmer's Daughter This is a great Romantic/Comedy with a twist of politics and I hope it becomes available on DVD soon. Loretta Young and Joseph Cotton were just the right blend.
KATIE FOR CONGRESS - an Honest Politician and a Great Movie In an election year when most voters are wondering which candidate is the least dishonest, which is the lesser evil, The Farmer's Daughter is not only refreshing but instructive. It contrasts a political "machine" with a lone, honest voice crying in the political wilderness. Katie is that voice. She is the attractive housemaid of a powerful but amiable family, called the Morleys, who have been running their party's political machine for generations.
As one might assume, the Morleys entertain many influential people; but Katie doesn't mind listening to their conversations and interjecting her political views as she hands them a drink or canapé. Everyone is taken aback by her candor except for the son, Glenn, who is fascinated by Katie, and eventually falls in love with her, as she does with him. He takes her under his wing and encourages her to improve herself by taking night classes. In one class, she has to give a speech, which has her worried; but the family butler, Joseph, who is like another member of the family, introduces her to a little speech once delivered in the Senate by Glenn's deceased father. Katie's simple reading of it moves Joseph and Mrs. Morley.
Eventually, the family realizes that Katie does not approve of their party's candidate for Congress, and she speaks out against him in a town meeting. When the opposition party hears her, and likes what they hear, they talk her into running on their ticket. Katie's three brothers leave the family farm to come and help with her campaign. But it doesn't go well at first; until Glenn advises that she stay honest by being herself. Then the Morleys unwittingly buy into a smear campaign to destroy Katie's candidacy, which causes Glenn to leave the party and fight to clear her name.
Loretta Young plays the naive but wonderfully wise Katie, and it earned her an Oscar for Best Actress. Amazingly, 1947 was also the year she appeared in The Bishop's Wife, another great classic. Joseph Cotton plays the good-hearted Glenn, who was captain of Yale's greatest hockey team and is now following in his father's footsteps as Senator. Ethel Barrymore is Glenn's world-wise mother, Agatha, the family matriarch, who spots character in Katie and isn't above making side bets with the family butler, Joseph. Charles Bickford is memorable as Joseph, for which he was nominated for a Best Supporting Actor Oscar. Lex Barker (Tarzan), Keith Andes (Clash By Night) and James Arness (Gunsmoke) play Katie's strapping brothers, who are terrific in a knock-down, drag-out fight with the bad guys.
Director H. C. Potter's filmmaking career lasted for little more than ten years; but he is distinguished for not only this film but also Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House (1948), with Cary Grant and Myrna Loy. (Lex Barker is in that film as well.) The Farmer's Daughter was a play by Hella Wuolijoki (Juhni Tervataa), that was adapted for the screen by Allen Rivkin and Laura Kerr. The dialogue is snappy and witty, and the situations fun. It was later turned into a TV show that was entertaining but lost a great deal in translation.
The Farmer's Daughter is smartly insightful. It shows that when We the People are honest, it makes honest politicians possible; but when We the People are corrupt, so are our politicians. Katie, an honest politician, was able to rise to the surface because the people around her were basically honest. That is a great lesson to us in this year of dishonest and disappointing politics.
Waitsel Smith
a must for those who like romance and revenge If you can find a copy, buy it. Loretta Young's best. She and Joseph Cotton make it happen. Oh and by the way don't mess with her brothers...
tape Excellent transaction. Good condition of item and it was given on review. Great and timely delivery Thanks
Arresting comedy! This film meant for Loretta Young, the Oscar as Best Actress in 1941 for her mesmerizing performance in this arresting comedy, where she plays the role of a Swedish woman who suddenly clashes with the man of her life over a congressional election; the politics of dialogue in this imminent marriage.
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