| The Purchase Price | |
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Theatrical release poster |
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| Directed by | William Wellman |
| Written by | Arthur Stringer Robert Lord |
| Starring | Barbara Stanwyck George Brent Lyle Talbot |
| Music by | Leo F. Forbstein |
| Cinematography | Sidney Hickox |
| Editing by | William Holmes |
| Distributed by | Warner Brothers |
| Release date(s) | July 23, 1932 |
| Running time | 68 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
The Purchase Price (1932) is a Pre-Code American film, which was directed by William Wellman and adapted from Arthur Stringer's novel, The Mud Lark (1932).
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Joan Gordon (Stanwyck) is a torch singer who runs away from her gangster boyfriend (Talbot) and becomes a mail-order bride to a struggling North Dakota farmer (Brent). Their relationship has a rocky start, but just as Joan realizes that she is developing feelings for her husband, her old boyfriend arrives to win her back.
During the fight scene between Talbot and Brent, Wellman approached each actor privately with the instruction: "let him have it." The actors worked the fight out between themselves beforehand. However, when Talbot flew back against a wall (as planned), his head struck a nail. "It just bled like mad. They had to take me over to the infirmary and sew me up."[1] Stanwyck's rendition of "Take Me Away" marked the first time she sang onscreen.[1]
The New York Times wrote that "many of its individual scenes are undeniably good, but the effect is of fifteen scenarists collaborating on a story without consulting each other. It seemed a bit hard on the cast." NYT also called it "totally incomprehensible" and "one of the weirdest scenarios within the memory of man." [2]
Variety thought Stanwyck and Brent were "both 100% miscast", while the Kansas City Star stated that "the picture has more entertainment value than the plot has logic." The reviewer added, "Miss Stanwyck continues to exercise her uncanny ability to make the most phony heroines seem like human beings." [1]
Time reviewed the film accordingly: "The picture hews close to the line of probability ... [R]are until recently has been the cinema heroine who preferred the stupid poor man to the bright city fellow. The viewpoint of The Purchase Price is simple and masculine. It advertises the virtue of hard work and loyalty."[3]
The Purchase Price was released on VHS under MGM's Forbidden Hollywood 1990s label. In addition to four other Wellman Pre-Code films, it was released to DVD as part of Turner Classic Movies's 2009 Forbidden Hollywood, Vol. 3 collection in 2009.[4]
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