Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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42 of 51 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A plea on behalf of the truth of Frances Farmer's life, March 15, 2005
I would just like to set the record straight about Ms. Farmer, who was a singularly talented young woman who was very badly abused from the time she was a child, by her hysterical and very typical "stage" mother. While it is true that Ms. Farmer was "difficult" in the eyes of the Hollywood Studio System managers, her work on the stage was her first priority and was greatly celebrated on Broadway, particularly in Clifford Odet's "Golden Boy." But because it yieled no money, she was forced to choose Hollywood if she wanted to act, which she did, hoping for better chances. It is also true that she would not compromise her principles in order to play by Hollywood's rules, and that she did nothing to soften her personality to placate those who would make her suffer for it. Unfortunately she did not the spiritual strength to live with the consequences of her own feisty behavior, but that did not justify the police breaking into her hotel room at 2 am to arrest her on a misdemeanor battery complaint filed when she blew up at a make-up artist, taking her at gunpoint, naked and terrified, into custody, never allowing her legal advice as the judge berated her for insufficiently appreciating her status as a "movie star," nor the stripping of her competency rights by her own mother, who was the one who had her committed when she refused to return to Hollywood, her mother's ideal. As punishment, her mother put, and then left, Frances in a State Hospital for 8 years, the last 5 in the "incurable" ward, where she was, literally, starved, left naked and unblanketed in a bed on the floor (can you even imagine being unclothed for five years?), fed rotten food that was thrown into the room and eaten off the floor, never bathed, never treated even with shock or insulin or "hydro" (ice-baths), routinely raped by the orderlies, who also sold time to other men who were happy to rape the half-unconscious women. As were all the other women there, she was left for dead (the only way anyone ever left that ward was feet-first and blue) and after having been committed by her mother, was then, beyond all expectation, paroled by that selfsame woman because she and her husband were now too old and ill to care for themselves. They requested that this woman, their daughter, who was supposedly too insane to even be allowed a shirt let alone a plate or a visit with a doctor, was now suddenly competent enough to come care for them in their old age. In order to do this, her competency rights had been restored without her knowledge, but her parents continued to terrorize her with threats of re-commital long after they no longer had the power to do anything to her. Finally her father was hospitalized, she sent her mother to one of her other children (none of the other members of the family would care for these two monstrous people, hence Frances' parolement), and she took off, finally free.
She was not lobotomized, though that misconception persists, and wrote a harrowing, but ultimately beautiful and rawly truthful "I am not a victim" autobiography, called "Will there really be a morning?" which I believe is out of print, though occasionally one turns up in a used book store. If you read just one "actor" autobiography, it should be hers. At the end of her life she found joy and love with a family who took her in and taught her what it is to be human; to finally value herself and to give and receive love. She died of cancer only a few years after finding this love and home and joy,and I do wish people would stop repeating half-truths or outright lies (which the movie, despite Jessica Lange's extraordinary performance, perpetrated and went so far as to invent). She deserves better. Few could have survived her life--to be hated by one's own parents is a recipe for disaster, Hollywood Studio System or no, and to be locked away in a State Hospital in the 40's through the 60's was an experience very few ever recovered from. Most died in those wards; it is a miracle that she did not.
Please--I ask those who review any films of Frances Farmer's that might come up for sale--pay her the respect of reviewing the work, not her life, unless you have the facts, and even so, tread lightly. It is the least we can do now for a woman who lived most of her life in a hell we can only imagine.
As "Come and Get it" was the one film Frances was proud of, I am glad it is here for us to buy, and Amazon.com honors her memory by carrying it.
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12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Come and get this, January 28, 2000
Hollywood in the thirties was more interested in fluff and pretty faces than dramatics, but eternal outsider Frances Farmer broke the mold by being both beautiful and an exceptionally talented actress, as evidenced by her performance here in two different roles. For the first half of the movie she plays a depressed hellraising "loose woman" down on her luck, with dark hair, a low raspy voice and a sultry manner. In the second half of the movie she plays her own daughter, raised by respectable Swedish immigrants, obedient, innocent, prim and proper, with lighter hair and a softer voice and manner. She also plays against costar Arnold differently, showing a hopeless unrequited love for him as the mother and being disgusted with his brazen advances as the daughter. This is a difficult thing to do, but Farmer manages to pull it off, creating distinct performances so effectively that it appears she is actually two actresses. The rest of the cast appears wooden in comparison. The destruction of Frances Farmer by the psychiatric establishment several years after this movie was made is one of the great real-life Hollywood tradgedies, not only because of the damage done to her, but also because it robbed the public of a star with subline talent and exquisite beauty. The title of this movie has nothing to do with "Badfinger". Remember kids, Frances Farmer got arrested, beaten, raped, drugged, tortured, chewed on by rats, frozen, zapped, and lobotomized for your sins.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Fabulous film of Unrequited Love, September 21, 2005
Seeing "Come and Get It" in the 21st century is every bit as sad and heart-wrenching as it was in 1936. That is the test of a classic. The fine directing by Billy Wilder and Hank Hawks still comes through and a cast of fabulous actors includes not only Frances Farmer but also the venerable Edward Arnold, the latterly-famous Walter Brennan and pretty boy Joel McCrea. They all deliver fine performances.
Burly lumberman Barney Glasgow (Arnold) is forced to make a heartbreaking choice. Should he marry Frances Farmer, the woman he madly loves, or marry the lumber company owner's daughter to get the partnership he has dreamed of and earned. He chooses the latter, gets all he has dreamed of, and spends the rest of his life miserable.
Meanwhile Barney's best chum, Svon Bostrom (Brennan) is a gentle and slightly simple fellow who marries Farmer instead. Barney stays away for decades and doesn't realize that his old friend and old flame have begat a daughter (also played by Farmer) who is mom's virtual clone, except more wholesome and angelic. Can and should Barney chuck it all and become a fool for love once he meets her or is he doomed to just be "an old man" and a sugar daddy?
A touching story, indeed, and full of great small performances (like the Pullman Porter and the Band Conductor). Great acting is complemented by a good sense of place and time, and a haunting sound track largely based on civil war romance tune Aura Lee. Yes, the one Elvis stole for 'Love Me Tender.'
In short, a truly great film and a must-see. You don't need to be a Frances Farmer obsessive to find this film delightful!
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