So Big!

So Big! (1932)

Edna Ferber's epic of American Womanhood

A farmer's widow takes on the land and her late husband's tempestuous son.

Date of release
1932-04-30
TMDB
5.8 / 10 (17)
Runtime
1h 21m
Genres
Drama, Romance
Director
William A. Wellman

Casting

Interesting facts

So Big is a 1932 pre-Code American drama film directed by William A. Wellman and starring Barbara Stanwyck. The screenplay by J. Grubb Alexander and Robert Lord is based on the 1924 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of the same name, by Edna Ferber. It marked the only time in their long careers that Stanwyck and Bette Davis appeared in the same film.

Production

After Cimarron became the top-grossing film of 1931 and won multiple Academy Awards, a newfound interest was spurred in American historical cinema- particularly that of Ferber's. Considered "box-office material", Warner Bros. decided to remake So Big into a talking cinema, paying Ferber an additional $20,000 for sound rights.

This film distinguished itself from the 1924 adaption starring Colleen Moore because screenwriters J. Grubb Alexander and Robert Lord maintained Ferber's theme of art versus materialism. A prevailing issue in 1932, the hardship farmers faced as a result of the crashing stock market, was accurately portrayed by the film, garnering the support of the public.

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

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