Wednesday | November 8, 2006 9:15 pm

The Farmer Takes A Wife

Screening on Film

Directed by Victor Fleming.
With Janet Gaynor, Henry Fonda, Charles Bickford.
US, 1935, 35mm, black & white, 91 min.

Henry Fonda made his big-screen debut in this folksy period drama by reprising the role that had won him acclaim on the Broadway stage. Fonda plays a soft-spoken, progress-minded farmer who falls in love with the feisty cook (Gaynor) aboard a working canal barge. Gaynor’s forthright, spunky role in The Farmer Takes A Wife enabled her to stretch her wholesome star persona into fresh territory. As Variety noted, “Gaynor is given a part which permits her to get away from her sometimes too sweet assignments.”