AKA Roaring Timber (reissue title) In the late 19th century, Barney Glasgow (Edward Arnold) is a brash, tough logger often at odds with the others who work with him in the Wisconsin forests near Iron Ridge. His best friend is Swan Bostrom (Walter Brennan), a big-hearted Swede. The ambitious Barney presents an idea that gets the attention of his boss, even when Barney suggests they become partners. At a boisterous tavern, Barney and Swan meet the cynical, opportunistic Lotta (Frances Farmer), but she and Barney quickly fall in love. However, his boss sends Barney a telegram that makes it clear their partnership depends on Barney marrying the boss' unattractive daughter, Emma Louise. Barney decides to take the offer, and leaves it to Swan to break the news to Lotta; she's so unhappy that the kind Swan proposes to her himself. Twenty-five years or so pass; Barney is now the richest man in the state, wealthy from timber and paper mill interests, and living in a fine house far from Iron Ridge. Little love is lost between Barney and his socially-conscious wife (Mary Nash). He's closer to his son Richard (Joel McCrea), though uninterested in Richard's ideas for marketing paper cups, and not entirely happy that his daughter Evvie (Andrea Leeds) is engaged to the scion of a wealthy family -- nor is Evvie herself really happy about this. Things undergo a major change when Barney gets a telegram from Swan, whom he hasn't seen in 20 years. Lotta died some time ago, and Swan is lonely for his old friend. Barney impulsively returns to Iron Ridge, where he's warmly greeted by Swan -- and astonished to learn that Swan's daughter, also called Lotta (also Farmer), is almost the double of her mother, though her temperament is very different. Barney is almost immediately smitten by the young Lotta, who is eager to get out of Iron Ridge and see more of the world. He takes her and some friends to Chicago, where he imagines that she is falling in love with him, too. However, when she meets Richard, Lotta is instead attracted to him, considering Barney just a nice -- and very generous -- man of her father's generation. Meanwhile, Evvie has become attracted to a "bohunk," Tony Schwerke (Frank Shields), who works in one of her father's factory. When Barney confronts the young man, he's impressed by his nerve and intelligence, and begins to think he might not make such a bad husband for his daughter. Things come to a head at the annual Employee Banquet, held as always on the Glasgow estate. Barney finds Lotta kissing Richard, and slaps his son -- who knocks his father to the floor. Now realizing what a fool he's made of himself, Barney is comforted by the understanding Swan. Barney gathers some of his old strength to ring the big triangle on the porch and announces the banquet has begun: "Come and get it!" Never as good as it keeps promising to be, "Come and Get It" was a troubled production from the beginning. Director Howard Hawks liked the first part of the story, as can be seen in his exuberant filming of an elaborate saloon brawl involving a lot of big metal trays flung around the room by Arnold, Farmer and Brennan. But he never warmed up to the more melodramatic second half of the film, and kept encountering interference from the very hands-on producer Samuel Goldwyn. Finally, after 40+ days of shooting, Hawks left the film; stories differ as to whether he quit or was fired, but he was replaced by a disgruntled William Wyler for the last 28 days of shooting. Neither director was satisfied with the result, and the movie was a box-office disappointment. Arnold is not well-cast in a role that called for a younger, more outdoorsy man, but his expansive personality does fit the older Barney reasonably well. Frances Farmer, in her first major film, is outstanding as both Lottas, especially the mother. And Brennan, often in Hawks' movies, won the Supporting Actor Oscar for his role as the good-hearted Swede. Viewers today are actually more likely to enjoy the film than the original audiences; this kind of big-scale melodrama is rarely attempted today, and the aroma of failure has long since evaporated. Also, Richard Rosson's logging footage, shot in Canada, Idaho and Wisconsin, is excellent, a view into a time long gone.
