The Cabin in the Cotton

This film is probably most important because it showcases two stars - Bette Davis and Richard Barthelmess - whose careers are traveling in opposite directions. Barthelmess actually headlines here, but he is a silent star whose career is on the decline, and he has a hard time getting parts after 1934. Bette Davis is a star on the rise, in only her first year of her contract with Warner Bros. where she will become a major star.

Unlike many silent era stars, Barthelmess' problem was not his voice but his acting style. He was just a little too wooden to turn in a truly dynamic performance, and this film is no exception. The story is pretty interesting - Barthelmess plays Marvin Blake, a sharecropper's son who is educated by the plantation landowner and ends up keeping his books. His loyalty is torn between the planter who is sponsoring him, and whose daughter attracts him, and the sharecropper families with whom he grew up. The planter owns everything and is always charging high fees and interest via the company store and thus cheating the sharecroppers out of what they need. The sharecroppers have cooked up a plan to short the planter some of their cotton and sell it themselves and reap the rewards.

It's really hard to take sides in this film because everyone seems so unsympathetic - both sides are stealing from the other without any remorse or much redeeming value for that matter. It is worth a look if you can find it, although it is not yet on DVD.

The problems of Capital and Labor are well explored in this tight little drama set amongst cotton tenant farmers and their landlords. Striking cinematography and excellent direction, from Michael Curtiz, combine with a first-rate and intelligent screenplay to create a memorable film. The two sides are well presented, both good and bad, and, although the solution for reconciliation is never really explained, the result opens up areas for debate that are still relevant today.

The performances from everyone are very fine - the supporting cast is an extraordinary group of unique faces and personalities. And then there is Bette Davis, in one of her first roles, looking sensational (platinum blonde) and being very naughty - an implied nude seduction is a highlight - as is that famous line. She eats poor Richard Barthelmess for breakfast, spits him out at lunch, and devours his remains for dinner. Barthelmess' performance is wonderful - he was one of the best actors of the silent era and here is strong in one of his rare talkies. He is so good that he almost makes you forget that he is far too old for the idealistic boy straight out of school that he is supposed to be playing. Great film - see it.

In the deep south, the Blakes are a poor tenant farming family picking cotton for wealthy landowner Lane Norwood. The father sends his only son, Marvin Blake (Richard Barthelmess), to school and works himself to death. Lane's daughter Madge Norwood (Bette Davis) hires Marvin for her store and keeps him with his studies.

This is a pre-Code drama. I would like a more specific time and place to nail down the situation. There are some brutal subject matters although this movie is not about the black folks. I've seen Barthelmess before. He retired after the war. His acting style in this reminds me of the silent era. It stands out from the others and is a little awkward, but that does fit his character. Of course, the bigger name is Bette Davis. Sometimes, I do wonder if screen presence is more recognition than acting power. In this case, Bette is playing the sassy flirt which allows for some big acting.

The Cabin in the Cotton (1932)

*** (out of 4)

Set in the South, this melodrama from Warner deals with the rich plant owners who continue to get everything they want while the poor "tenants" continue to grow poorer and not being able to feed their children. Marvin Blake (Richard Barthelmess) grew up as one of the poor kids but after getting an education thanks to land owner Norwood (Berton Churchill) he's put in the middle of the two sides. THE CABIN IN THE COTTON isn't a complete success but the cast is so good and the direction by Michael Curtiz is so on the mark that you can't help but be entertained. The biggest thing going for the film are the performances with Barthelmess leading the way in his part as the man caught in the middle. I thought the actor did a very good job at being torn by the two sides and you really believe everything that his character is going through. Dorothy Jordan is good as the poor girl who loves him and Bette Davis is grand as the Southern Belle who's also after him. Davis is incredibly beautiful here and she fits the role perfectly and especially the now famous line dealing with her refusing to kiss because she's just washed her hair. Churchill is also very effective in his role as is David Landau, Tully Marshall and Henry B. Walthall. The biggest problem with the film is that it's quite predictable from start to finish. Also, there's a prologue saying that the producers aren't taking sides in the matter and that they're presenting this film "as is" it is in life. Well, I think having all the poor people being whites was a bit unfair and I do think this takes away from the film. Still, fans of the stars will still want to check this out.

The workingman's studio, better known as Warner Brothers, did most of its social commentary films with an urban setting. Which in itself makes The Cabin In The Cotton a very unique product to come out of this studio. It's not a bad film, could have been better in delivering its message with a lighter hand. But what the Brothers Warner did was go back on an old standby.

Watching The Cabin In The Cotton this morning put me in mind of a much better film in which Preston Sturges satirized the making of films like these. If you remember in Sullivan's Travels, director John L. Sullivan played by Joel McCrea wants to make films like these, the epic he wants to do is entitled Oh Brother Where Art Thou. But in order to sell it he's advised to make sure it has 'a little sex'.

Which brings me to why The Cabin In The Cotton is remembered today at all. It's because of what Bette Davis brings to the film, a little sex. This film was a big milestone in her career as she plays the hedonistic daughter of that old southern planter Berton Churchill who keeps his sharecroppers, black and white, in virtual peonage.

The lead Richard Barthelmess plays a bright young sharecropper's son and Churchill takes an interest in him, sending him to school to be educated because he has no son to help run the old plantation. What he does have is one sexpot of a daughter to keep Barthelmess on the side of the rich and privileged instead of finding true love with one of his own class in Dorothy Jordan.

Churchill has been systematically exploiting the sharecroppers with high interest and cheating them on price. They in turn have been stealing cotton and selling bits of it on the black market. Henry B. Walthall and Russell Simpson have been leading the quiet peasant's revolt which threatens to get open and nasty. I'd have to say that the ending of the film has a forced and obvious conclusion both romantically and socially, but you'll have to see it for yourselves to find out.

The Cabin In The Cotton is a dated, but historically valid film about conditions in the old Confederacy before the New Deal. But the sex that Bette Davis brings to her role is timeless.