THE FARMER TAKES A WIFE

US, 1953, 81 minutes, Colour.
Betty Grable, Dale Robertson, Thelma Ritter, Eddie Foy Jnr.,
John Carroll.
Directed by Henry Levin.

The Farmer Takes a Wife is a pleasant musical remake of a 1935 film starring Janet Gaynor and Henry Fonda. The setting is the Eerie Canal in 1950, the reliance of Americans on the Canal and the coming of the railroad which would change patterns of trade.

The film is a vehicle for Betty Grable who is attractive and lively. Dale Robertson, probably better known for his westerns, imitates Henry Fonda's naive style as the good farmer. John Carroll, a star of the '40s, now towards the end of his career, is the villain - if you can have a villain in this kind of film. Comic support is given by Thelma Ritter and Eddie Foy Jnr.

The film is the usual chocolate-box colour confection that 20th. Century Fox made for Betty Grable. The music, attractive but not memorable, is in the Rodgers and Hammerstein, Oklahoma vein.

1. Entertaining '50s musical? Piece of Americana? The 19th. century, the Eerie Canal, the. coming of the railroad? A remake of the '30s film?

2. Chocolate-box colour, the towns on the Canal, life on the Canal? The staging of the musical numbers? The musical score? Romantic and comic?

3. The title and the focus on Molly and Dan? The farmer and the Canal-men?

4. Molly as the central focus: the film as a Betty Grable vehicle? Her verve? Singing and dancing? As a cook, her family background, working for Jotham, her anger at his being drunk? Friendship with Lucy? The best cook on the Canal, the training of the cooks, the presentation of the diplomas? Life in the town? The celebrations for the Canal? Her encounter with Dan and the contrast with Jotham? Helping him to find Susannah? Their working together, gradually falling in love? The work on the Canal, the wages? His buying her the dress and her buying him the shoes? Falling in love? The race and the bet? Her not wanting to be a farmer's wife? Falling into the Canal and rescues? The fight, the final giving in, the wedding? A breezy American heroine?

5. Jotham and his skill on the Canal, the barges? His drinking? Molly with him? The fights? His expecting to marry Molly? The clash with Dan? Fighting, racing?

6. Dan as the pleasant and naive farmer, gallant and diving into the Canal? His songs? The encounter with Molly, his search for Susannah? Praising farming, work on the Canal, getting the money (and Molly's attack on taking the money from the Canal)? The work, the gift to Molly, the boots? The race? His challenging her, wanting her to be a farmer's wife? The happy ending?

7. Lucy and the bar, Thelma Ritter's sardonic humour, songs? Her five husbands? - all being rich and finally having a poor one, one on the house! Eddie Foy and his songs and dances, comic style as Fortune? The bets?

8. Life in: the towns, along the Canal, pre-Civil War, the 1850s? A piece of folksy Americana?