Alma de sacrificio

"So Big!" has been filmed three times, once before this version (a lost film from the original flapper Colleen Moore) and once after. But this is the treatment that rings true; this is the "So Big!" that really is so big.

Barbara Stanwyck successfully ages from schoolgirl to aged mother in this film. The story is beautiful (based on Edna Farber's novel) and the acting is superb. You can't help but cry at the end! Don't miss an early screen appearance from Bette Davis!

"So Big!" is shown on Turner Classic Movies at times, but make sure it's the Stanwyck version and not the Jane Wyman re-remake. It's worth the effort.

This is an extremely condensed version of Edna Ferber's Pulitzer Prize winning novel. It moves much too fast, missing the epic scope of Ferber's writing, but it works on its own small terms, establishing characters, filling them out, though in miniature, and telling Ferber's story. I wonder what she thought of this version!

Stanwyck is wonderful in this, simple and straightforward, really playing the character. This was an amazing performer. The more I see of her body of work the more impressed I am. She could do anything, comedy, serious drama, playing all kinds of characters from good to bad, "dames" to ladies.

Bette Davis shines in this early performance. She was only twenty four years old here, and without tricks or gimmicks (the kind she would use increasingly as she got older and the passion for acting faded) she plays a character, inhabits her, plays in the scene and really holds your attention. She looks lovely by the way, even with her platinum dyed tresses.

So Big! (1932)

** (out of 4)

Disappointing adaptation of Edna Ferber's novel about a young woman (Barbara Stanwyck) with big plans who have to put them on hold after the death of her father. She ends up traveling to a small town where she fulfills her dream of becoming a teacher but she then puts this on hold to marry a farmer. After he dies the woman makes her life goal to raise her son the best she can and make sure he has a place in the future. SO BIG! was apparently one of Stanwyck's favorite roles and I think it's easy to see why but the end result is a real mess and never has any spark or imagination. I was really surprised to see how flat the movie was but I think it's safe to say that this material certainly wasn't right for Wellman. I know he worked in many different genres but it really seems like he's struggling to get any of the emotions on the screen and I'm sure sure of this has to do with the screenplay. The screenplay is a major mess because it never really gives the viewer any time to get to know the characters or start to feel for them. The first forty-five minutes of the movie just seem to go on and on and for no reason because at the end of them you realize that everything you've just seen could have been told in less than twenty. The problem is that everything happens so quick that you simply don't have time to connect with any of it. One minute Stanwyck is married and the next thing you know the husband is dead. One moment Stanwyck is going to live her dream of teaching but then that falls apart without any explanation. Stuff happens at various times without any reason so one has to wonder if the film had a lot taken out before being released or perhaps the screenplay was simply trying to capture various aspects of the novel and just came out very sloppy. Another major problem is that Stanwyck ages about a total of forty-years but there's never an added wrinkle to her. The only thing that changes is her hair color and this simply doesn't work because she looks very silly at age 70 or whatever and seeing that she pretty much looks the exact same as when she was a teenager. Stanwyck is good in her role but the screenplay lets her down. George Brent, Dickie Moore and a young Bette Davis have small parts scattered throughout the film. Stanwyck and Davis appear in the final sequences yet they're never shown in the same frame, which should tell you something. SO BIG! isn't a complete disaster but at the same time there's very little to recommend.

I've always been of the opinion that you cannot make a bad movie from an Edna Ferber novel. Her stories wherever they be set have characters that are larger than life in settings the same. Texas, Alaska, the Mississipi River, Oklahoma her stuff practically writes itself for the screen.

In So Big we have the story of Selina Peake DeJong who goes west as a schoolteacher in a Scandanavian farming community. It's a place for people who work hard with little frivolity in their lives. Education is a luxury, the work on the farm comes first.

Barbara Stanwyck in her first lead in an A budget film, on loan out from Columbia to Warner Brothers plays Selina. It's a challenging role requiring Stanwyck to age 40 years. She marries farmer Earl Foxe and she has a son who eventually grows up to be Hardie Albright. Albright is trained as an architect, but decides to go into a bond selling firm at the entreaties of Mae Madison, wife of the firm's head who has other interests in Albright.

Stanwyck has as much interest in the land as Scarlett O'Hara does in Gone With The Wind. She wants to impart that to Albright and fears she has not.

Bette Davis and George Brent are both in the cast of So Big. It's their first film together. Brent plays the grown son of Alan Hale a neighboring farmer who Stanwyck boarded with when she first arrives and whom she encouraged to take education seriously and pursue his dreams. Davis has a role as an artist that Albright engages for an advertising campaign for his bonds.

In a recent biography of Barbara Stanwyck there was friction on the set as Stanwyck took note of Davis trying to upstage the cast. Bette wanted the lead role herself and probably would have done a good job. It's similar in many ways to what she did in The Corn Is Green. But there was no Davis-Stanwyck feud as their would be with Miriam Hopkins and Joan Crawford. Simply because Davis just didn't have star prerogatives yet.

There was another version of So Big made in the 50s with Jane Wyman in the lead and a silent version that starred Colleen Moore. But you watch So Big and you will be a big Edna Ferber fan immediately.

Showcase for Barbara Stanwyck who gracefully ages from a young woman to a mother in her late 40s. Barbara stands for hard work (on the farm) and the recognition of beauty in life (even cabbages are beautiful). Her understated portrayal shines as one of her best works. Story of her son, (who Barbara said was "So Big" with hands spread wide apart) is that of a privileged offspring who ignores his mother's advice and takes the easy way to money, ignoring the beauty in creativity, and hides his mother's career from society ladies. When he finally meets a good woman (a good Bette Davis) who appreciates someone with "bumps," he reveals his past but it is not bumpy enough to impress her. Instead Bette goes off to Paris and meets with celebrated sculptor George Brent who as a boy had lived with and loved the older Barbara. Interesting portrayal of two contemporary actresses with one playing the part of a woman old enough to be the other's mother and neither obviously updating the other. Good messages, good role models, with Barbara staying down on the farm as a success without having taken the easy road. A quiet gem to inspire depression-era audiences.