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.
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jotix10011 May 2006Edna Ferber's novel of the same title has been brought to the screen in several remakes. This 1932 film, directed by William Wellman, is a curiosity piece in that two of the best screen actresses of their generation appear in the same cast. Although it's clear this was a Barbara Stanwyck vehicle, Bette Davis is seen in a small role.
"So Big", adapted for the screen by J. Grubb Alexander, in this version, is a rather intimate picture where some of the epic aspects of the novel doesn't come into play. It's basically a story of riches into rags back to riches, as Selina Peake, its heroine, sees her fortune change from the high times to almost poverty when her dear father is fatally shot.
Selina is clearly a survivor. She projects a larger than life shadow over everything in the story. Her arrival at High Prairie under conditions she has never seen, makes her stronger. Selina sees beauty in the land that is going to serve as her home. She is a clever woman who inspires others, especially young Roelf Pool, the young boy who seems to be doomed to stay in the land of his ancestors, to strive for greatness.
Barbara Stanwyck makes the most out of Selina. She gives a controlled performance in sharp contrast with other characters she played in the movies. Bette Davis and George Brent, only appears shortly in the film. Alan Hale, Dickie Moore and Hardin Albright are seen in smaller roles.
"So Big" shows a slice of life in America at the beginning of the last century, a world, that alas, is gone forever. -
preppy-322 May 2003Barbara Stanwyck is a young woman who becomes a teacher in a farming community. She gets married, has a son and tries to teach him the true value of life--which is beauty and nature. But he's more interested in money and position. Can she make him see her way?
Very well-done with another great Stanwyck performance and a young Dick Winslow giving a fine performance as Roelf...also a very young Bette Davis shines as a young artist. Very lavishly done...but the film is seriously lacking. The film is very short (80 minutes) and the story seems extremely rushed and lacks focus. I've never read the book but I know it runs over 300-400 pages--there's no way that can be condensed to 80 minutes. So I do recommend the film (I'm giving it an 8) because it is very well-done and the entire cast is great. If only it weren't so short! -
Ursula_Two_Point_Seven_T13 September 2005Well-off, motherless Selina is raised by her father, who teaches her to find beauty and joy in all aspects of life. When the father dies, a friend of the family arranges for Selina to move from the city to "High Prarie", a rural town where Selina is to live with a farm family and teach in the local schoolhouse.
Selina arrives all wondrous at her new surroundings, even commenting on how beautiful the cabbage field is. The boobs in the farm family all laugh at her, except 12 year old Roelf who agrees that the cabbages are beautiful and even makes a drawing of the field for Selina. Roelf is a kindred spirit, and sees beauty all around him, and wants to be an artist. While a teenager, he runs away and goes to Europe where he eventually becomes a well-known sculptor.
Back home, Selina marries local farm-boy Purvis de Jong and has a son with him, Dirk, nicknamed "So Big" (Selina says to little Dirk, "How big is my big boy?" and little Dirk spreads his arms wide and answers "Soooooo big!") Selina is widowed while Dirk is still young, and Selina keeps her little family together by maintaining the farm, even growing a special variety of asparagus dubbed the de Jong asparagus.
Flash forward to Dirk's adulthood. He is bored with his entry-level architect job, ashamed to admit he's *THAT* de Jong of the de Jong asparagus fame, and he hangs out with a married woman (the details of their relationship are not delved into). Selina wants her son to appreciate the beauty in life, much the way her own father encouraged her when she was a child. Dirk, however, has only dollar signs in his eyes, and he quits his architect position to become a bonds-trader in the stock market.
Dirk meets a young (and extremely lovely) Bette Davis, who is making some advertising drawings for his firm. Dirk falls in love with her, but she doesn't return that love. She tells him she can only love a man who works with his hands and appreciates art, someone whose beauty shines from the inside (unlike Dirk who clearly doesn't have any of these qualities). Bette goes to Paris, meets Roelf and returns to High Prairie with Roelf who very much wants to see Selina again. The reunion between Roelf and Selina is sweet and may make you reach for a hankie. While the four of them -- Selina, Roelf, Dirk, Dallas (the Bette Davis character) -- are visiting in Selina's home, Dallas watches Selina and Roelf at the window. Dallas remarks to Dirk how beautiful his mother is (although at this point in the movie Stanwyck is made up to be an older woman with near-white hair). Dallas sees the beauty radiating from within Selina and wants to paint her. It's a beautiful but also sad ending ... sad because of the contrast between Selina, Roelf and Dallas who are able to see and appreciate beauty all around them, versus Dirk who cannot see it even when he's surrounded by it. It made me sad for Selina that her son could not see the things she and Roelf and Dallas could. -
arturus30 July 2006This 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. -
Shelly_Servo300018 August 2002"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. -
lugonian7 June 2014SO BIG! (Warner Brothers, 1932), directed by William A. Wellman, based on the Pulitzer Prize novel by Edna Ferber, is a story of a woman, a woman named Selina Peake. First filmed as a silent for First National Pictures (1925) starring Colleen Moore and Ben Lyon, this latest edition, which could have been Warners' contribution to their own version to a two hour epic production to RKO Radio's Edna Ferber based novel of CIMARRON (1931), this "passage through time" story, falls short to becoming nothing more than an abridged screen treatment where much of its basic characters and chaptered selections are either discarded or presented for a few brief minutes. The only character of main importance is Selina Peake. Overlooking an off-beat title that has nothing to do with the Jolly Green Giant, this is her story, a story of a woman.
Opening title: "Chicago - in the 80's, booming, prosperous, surging with life - the gateway to the Great West." The five minute prologue introduces Selina Peake (Dawn O'Day, the future Anne Shirley), a motherless child whose father, Simeon (Robert Warwick), is a compulsive gambler but dedicated to his little girl. While dining at the Palmer House, he tells Selina something to remember, "This whole thing called life is just a grand adventure." Moving forward about ten years. Selina Peake (Barbara Stanwyck), having graduated from the Select School for Girls, is best friends with classmate Julie Hemple (Mae Madison). After Peake is shot dead at Mike MacDonald's Gambling House, Mrs. Hemple (Eulalie Jensen), refuses to have her daughter associated with Selina and her father's gambling reputation. Through the kindness Julie's father, August (a character initially played by Guy Kibbee whose scenes don't appear in the final print) secures Selina a school teaching position in a Dutch community for farmers at High Prairie outside Chicago. While boarding in the home of the Poole's, Klaus (Alan Hale), Maartjie (Dorothy Peterson), and three children, their eldest son, 12-year-old Roelfe (Dick Winslow), with a quest for knowledge and talent for drawing, spends most of his time helping his father on the farm rather than acquiring an education. Selina, who finds "cabbages are beautiful," gets an education of her own when learning that fertilizer is dried blood. Roelfe, who has grown fond of Selina, becomes jealous of her marriage to Pervus DeJong (Earle Foxe). Because of his mother's death and father marrying the Widow Parrenburg (Blanche Frederici), Roelfe, who has always hated his existence, leaves home to make something of himself. The recently widowed Selina would do the same thing, seeking a better life for both her and her young son, Dirk (Dickie Moore), whom she affectionately calls "So Big." Move forward twenty years. Dirk, a young man (Hardie Albright), is torn between pursuing his mother's dream of becoming an architect or assuming the advise of the married Paula Storm (Rita LaRoy) by becoming a Wall Street businessman. During the course of the story, Dallas O'Mara (Bette Davis), an ambitious artist, not only enters the scene, but Rolfe Poole (George Brent), a famous artist, returning home from Europe to reunite himself with someone who's been an inspiration in his life.
For Barbara Stanwyck, SO BIG shows how she can be more than just one of the LADIES OF LEISURE (1930), THE MIRACLE WOMAN (1931) or NIGHT NURSE (1931), but an actress going through the aging process from young woman in her twenties to mother in her fifties, who curtsies every time she meets new people. In its present 82 minute format, SO BIG, with so much material crammed into so short of time, is one of those ambitious projects that should have been expanded by more than a half hour to allow more time for viewers to become better acquainted with both characters and story. Yet, even through its tight editing, the pacing is slow and characters undeveloped. Although it's difficult to compare this with the now lost 1925 edition, its easy to compare this with the existing 1953 remake of SO BIG starring Jane Wyman, Sterling Hayden and Nancy Olson. On a personal level, the newest of the three improves over the 1932 effort on a plot developing level leading to a satisfactory conclusion. The similarity of both versions contains that of Selina Peake repeatedly asking her son, "How big is my baby? How big is my boy?" Son replies, "SO Big!" hence the title of the book.
Aside from being relatively known to film scholars as the one where future superstars Barbara Stanwyck and Bette Davis appear in the same movie, but barely the same scenes, the film itself had been unavailable for viewing for many years, with the possibility of never to be seen or heard from again. It took a cable station such as Turner Classic Movies to bring this long unseen edition back from the dead, making its long awaited television premiere of clear picture quantity on November 18, 1999. In spite of few highlights of interest, and having to wait eternity for the appearance of Bette Davis and George Brent, SO BIG, with Stanwyck's ability to hold audience's attention throughout, still ranks one as worthy of both rediscovery and recognition, even if this story of a woman is not so big. (***) -
kidboots13 January 2011"So Big" did a lot to salvage Barbara Stanwyck's career. Apart from "Ladies of Leisure" which had prestige, many of Stanwyck's early films were potboilers and, often, her's was the only performance worth watching. This story of mother love and self sacrifice was dear to people's hearts at the time (struggling through the Great Depression) and Stanwyck's honesty and earthiness made her a natural for Selina Peake. Warners surrounded her with the best talent they had - William Wellman directing, George Brent as the male lead (although his part lasted barely 10 minutes) and the studio's new ingenue, Bette Davis, in an interesting role as a young artist who tries to guide Dirk back to his roots. There were also two of the better child stars of the day - Dawn O'Day was Selina as a child (five years later, as Anne Shirley, she would play Stanwyck's daughter in the acclaimed "Stella Dallas") and the very cute Dickie Moore as "So Big" as a child.
In many of Edna Ferber's books the male characters didn't hang around, they either abandoned their family or were killed off (Ferber never married and many critics felt she didn't really understand men) and "So Big" was no exception. Selina's beloved father (Robert Warwick) is shot (he has a gambling house, a fact that all through her childhood has been kept secret). The only friend who hasn't deserted her secures her a job as a teacher in High Prairie, but her first impressions of the town are not favourable. She finds the Pooles, her host family, ignorant and crude, the mother (another thankless role for Dorothy Peterson) is worn out and old at 31. The one ray of hope is Roelf, who is eager to learn and, when Selina arrives, is half way through reading the dictionary. He also departs, after a time, to make his way in the world.
Selina marries Pervus DeJong (Earle Fox), a decent farmer, but someone who is mired in the past and won't learn new ways or experiment with different crops - asparagus for example. Life is going to be a long, hard struggle but his death gives Selina the opportunity to try new methods. All she has left is Dirk (Hardie Albright) but he is a bitter disappointment to her. Not only is he materialistic and worships money, he is also going about with a married woman, who convinces him to give up architecture for the lucrative field of advertising. With his new executive postion he is slipping further from Selina's values, but he then meets Dallas, a young artist, who convinces him to find truer ideals. Roelf has just returned from Europe, where his renown as a sculptor has made him a celebrity, and he is eager to see Selina, who he regards as his inspiration. Together, they all return to the farm and the film ends with Dirk's realisation that he had been misguided and Selina has known all along the answer to true happiness.
"So Big" is just "So Wonderful". One of the nicest scenes (I think) is when Selina, newly widowed, takes "So Big" to market. There, they meet two "ladies of the night", one of them, Mabel, strikes up a friendship with "So Big". Another small role for Noel Francis, she always played shady ladies but she had the bearing of a Duchess.
Highly, Highly Recommended. -
HotToastyRag1 October 2018My favorite Barbara Stanwyck movie is her turn as a self-sacrificing mother in Stella Dallas. So Big! feels like her audition for her 1937 Oscar-nominated role.
Once again, Barbara is a poor woman who longs for a better life. She gets a job tutoring a wealthy boy, and then marries a poor farmer and starts a family. Her son becomes the light of her life, and she nicknames him "So Big!" because he's her only reason for living. She sacrifices, scrimps, and saves, in order to give him a better chance at life. If you liked Stella Dallas, you'll probably want to rent So Big! on a weekend. It's a Pre-Hays Code film, so there will be some moments when you gasp and ask, "How did they get away with that?" before you remember the release year of 1932. And you'll get to see a young Bette Davis and George Brent, as well as Alan Hale, who joined Barbara Stanwyck in Stella Dallas. While I like the later film infinitely better-because it's hard to compare any film to the tearjerker-this one is fun to watch because it's very obviously a precursor. If you like Barbara, add this to your list! -
Sickeningly sweet. Yeah, that's the first phrase that comes to mind when I think about this film. And, while you might immediately assume I am a heartless soul for not particularly liking this film, I do occasionally like tear-jerkers and sentimental films. However, to me this film went way over the edge to the territory of "sappy".
The scope of the film was not bad--showing the evolution and life of this character over time. And technically it was a very pretty film--the cinematographer did a wonderful job of filming the star and making her seem, at times, radiant. But, it was so heavy-handed and lacked subtlety when it came to her child. In some ways, for this very same reason, I am not a huge fan of another Stanwyck film, STELLA DALLAS--though it's MUCH better than SO BIG!. Sorry to be the dissenting voice, but the film just didn't do it for me. -
HarlowMGM18 August 2009SO BIG is a lovely little gem that's only problem is it's much too short, just 81 minutes, given the story's scope. Based on a Pulitzer Prize winning novel by the usually critically underrated Edna Ferber, famed in the era for her epic novels (GIANT), one can blame Warner Bros. for their reluctance to make longer pictures in this era but at least give them credit for filming this tale, it's impossible to imagine this bleak setting being filmed at either at glamorous and elegant MGM or Paramount.
Barbara Stanwyck stars as Selina, a motherless girl who lives a well-to-do existence with her professional gambler father in big city hotels. Despite his rather shady calling, her father has taught her the finer things in life and raised her properly. Her father is shot and killed when she is a young woman over an apparent gambling dispute which leads to having to go to work as a schoolteacher in a small farming community. There she befriends a young preteen named Rolf (the wonderful Dick Winslow in a superb performance) who is forced to work on his father's farm instead of go to school, giving him books and encouraging his artistic endeavors and his dreams of life beyond farm work. Barbara marries a young farmer and gets trapped herself in the hard life of farm work, particularly after she is widowed young with a little son Dirk to raise on her own. Dirk benefits from his mother's sacrifices and becomes a young architect but is bored and impatient and fails to share his mother's love of beauty and a good work ethic that she successfully installed in Rolf.
The cast is generally superb - this is one of Barbara Stanwyck's finest early roles and she is quite moving at times. She has fine support from teen Dick Winslow, whom I don't recall seeing before, and from some generally unnoticed supporting players like Dorothy Peterson as Winslow's prematurely aged mother, Robert Warwick as Stanwyck's loving conman of a father, Earle Fox as the rather good-looking but common man she marries, and Blanche Fredrici as the rich old spinster who pines for Fox herself. There's also a delightful appearance of the much loved character Elizabeth Patterson, dressed to the nines in period costumes as Stanwyck's city landlady and excellent work by a startlingly beautiful young Bette Davis as the young artist the adult Dirk fancies. Alas, the adult Dirk, Hardie Albright, is not particularly good (and there's a particularly bad scene in which he and Mae Madison, as his married paramour, are not able to carry by themselves) but at least George Brent as the adult Rolf is better than normal if not quite capturing the fire, intelligence, and drive Winslow did as the younger Rolf. I'm surprised no one has noticed the young Selina is played by lovely Anne Shirley, who would go on to her greatest fame as Stanwyck's daughter in their classic STELLA DALLAS five years later. Talk about superb casting for a young Stanwyck!!
This story really cries out for a film of a least two hours with it's multi-decade scope, it really jumps years much too often, much too quickly, but still it's a highly satisfying, often quite touching film that's well worth seeing. This movie also makes me want to seek out Ms. Ferber's rather forgotten novel, which surprisingly is still in print. -
mark.waltz25 September 2018Don't let Barbara Stanwyck's big city accent fool you in this rural drama about a veteran farm woman who becomes the poster child for earth mother. Her character was raised in Chicago, the daughter of a gambler, so obviously, she'd have some tough sounding voice, just like the Brooklyn born Stanwyck had. This was a turning point in Barbara Stanwyck's career, because after being in several truly bad early sound films, she had training from one of the masters (Frank Capra) in the art of screen acting and by 1932, was able to gain some of the best available roles through the rarely heard option of studio free lancing.
This film version of Edna Ferber's best selling novel shows her determination to make a new life for herself after the death of her father, moving into the home of a hard working farmer and teaching school. Marrying local farmer Earle Foxe, she is soon a widow with a young son (Dickie Moore) to support, nicknaming him "So Big" as he gets older, even referring him with that name when he's all grown up and handsome (played by Hardie Albright), yet not necessarily the idealistic boy he once was. Stanwyck's former private student (played as a youngster with an obvious crush on Stanwyck by Dick Winslow), having run off to get away from cabbages, returns for a visit, now played by George Brent. An idealistic young artist (Bette Davis) befriends Albright and reunites him and Stanwyck with Brent, home from working as a famous artist in Europe, hopefully waking Albright up to the babbity little phony he may turn into if he continues his affair with the married Chicago socialite Mae Madison.
Why this doesn't get a higher ranking is based on the fact that this was greatly edited, because so many important details are obviously missing. One classic still from the movie shows screen legends Stanwyck and Davis meeting, while in the final print, the camera only pans from Davis praising Stanwyck to Albright for her earthiness and Stanwyck and Brent reuniting. For fans of two actresses I consider in the top five of all time screen legends, it is a major disappointment. Brent, second billed, has what is nothing more than a cameo, on screen for maybe ten minutes. The detail of the first half of the film is truly outstanding, showing Stanwyck's enthusiasm at being out in the great outdoors and how the local farmers teased her about her fascination with the local crops, especially cabbages. A hysterically funny scene has her jelly sandwiches getting more attention at a local picnic basket auction than some old crone's roast duck, and the pickle faced widow's fury at being passed over by some young interloper.
There are touching performances by Dorothy Peterson as the wife of the farmer Stanwyck moves in with, an obvious fragile woman who puts on airs of strength; Noel Francis as a down to earth street walker in Chicago who opens her big heart to Stanwyck and Moore when they arrive at the stockyards to sell their crops; and Robert Warwick as Stanwyck's father who teaches the young Selina (Anne Shirley) how to make even the smallest things in life a huge adventure. It's ironic to see young Dawn O'Day (who soon changed her name to Anne Shirley) playing Stanwyck's character, considering that they played mother and daughter later on in "Stella Dallas", both receiving Oscar nominations. Under the direction of William Wellman, this really had the makings of a classic and one that would have been remembered at award time had it not cut out so much of the meat. The Jane Wyman remake in 1953 featured a bit more detail and for years was the only version of this story out for viewing. But the restored print of this early production is neat and clean, but unfortunately too streamlined for such a potential epic of "Cimarron" caliber. -
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. -
hudecha27 February 2017So many viewers have found this film wonderful that I would hate to spoil the pleasure for those who have not seen it yet and might find it the same so if you are intent on viewing the film anyway, maybe just watch it and make your own opinion before possibly coming back to mine afterwards. On the other hand, if you are not quite sure yet whether you want to watch So Big, rather than another one of the myriad of outstanding or just pleasant Barbara Stanwyck's movies of the period, then you might compare the following dissenting viewpoint with others and decide. First let me state that I am an unconditional admirer of Stanwyck. She has been one of the strongest talents of Hollywood, if not the strongest, with a very wide acting range which enabled her to play mostly everything and never to be dull. So big! was certainly not a film beyond her capacities - actually there is not really much to reproach her, apart from the simple fact that she is not so credible as bright city girl Selina supposedly enjoying for years the dullest possible farm life. And apart also from the fact that while she seems to age like twenty years in the very first first few years of her married farm life, after that she appears to have aged not even a bit more when we meet her again twenty long years later – she is without a wrinkle and with the smooth velvety face and hands of the twenty-five-year-old actress she is, not of the hard-and long-toiling farmer lady she is supposed to be. Possibly asparagus farming is a secret recipe for some wonders? Anyway, so good for her glamour, but so much for making us believe that she really is that nice granny-like lady. But these are indeed very minor qualms. The serious ones are with the film itself. And for that, blame probably the old-fashioned views of author Edna Ferber on women's condition and the admirability of their sacrifice, but blame also, sad to say, the for once unsteady hand of generally admirable director William Wellman. First, for such a short film it has a long and boring start. All the time taken to introduce the heavily-caricatured hick family she lands into, then the equally laughable hick village community, is really misspent, everything there is to understand about it being clear after only two minutes – and not much fun, rather embarrassing in its patronizing way to depict the poor farmers' community. And then the husband, yet one more uneducated slow-witted though rather nicer hick, but definitely not an even remotely inspiring person for Stanwyck to fall into his arms, at least out of any more positive feeling than sheer resignation to her fate. Second, about three quarters of the film has already elapsed until something really happens – but almost immediately after that, whoops, unexpected fast forward twenty years. As mentioned earlier Selina has not changed a bit but her infant son Dirk is now a tall handsome young city professional. And unfortunately, the film mostly stops paying much interest to her and moves to Chicago to deal with the uninteresting professional and sentimental life of this uninspiring young man. The unintended reaction being, "did she really sacrifice the best years of her life for this young jerk, and is this supposed to be an example?". Therefore the last quarter of the film, while very different, would be even slightly more uninteresting if it was not saved from complete boredom by the arrival of a young and sprightly Bette Davis, who puts young Dirk back in the right track of following the hard but inspiring life of an architect rather than the prosperous but soul-stifling one of a bond trader. Not that we care very much about him going one way or the other, but at least it confirms belatedly that Selina' life of admirable sacrifice has not been spent in vain. And that's the third issue. The life of Selina is indeed supposed to be so admirable, and therefore so touching, as well as so inspiring. As to touching, hard to say : after the first part when Selina has landed in exactly the wrong place and with the wrong husband, we do not her spend the next twenty years and come to terms with that life – we understand she did it all for the sake of precious Dirk, but with no means to know whether enduring or eventually enjoying that life. And as to inspiring : if a young lady who makes a silly choice of job location, then doubles it with an even sillier choice of husband, then trebles it by making countless sacrifices for a son who seems to be a spoiled and rather ungrateful jerk – if the value of such a sacrifice is measured only by its price, then Selina is indeed an inspiring role model. I have my doubts about that. Stanwyck will land a similar role a few years later in the much better Stella Dallas, the big difference being that her sacrifice is shown there as pathetic, not admirable. However, Selina is supposedly an example because she takes to heart the life motto of her late gambling father, more or less, "take gracefully whatever life serves you, and then just follow your heart to make the best of it". Why not - this is what Selina teaches to her pupil Roelf and her son Dirk. Except that for them boys, this means following one's envies to become a sculptor or an architect, whereas for Selina, it means submitting to the rather dirty hand that fate (as well as your own decisions) has dealt you, housewife then widow and self-sacrificing mother, and forgetting about any other hopes. Not much of a real choice there, actually. Unless one believes she really stayed as she once asserted for the unsung beauty of cabbage fields?
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Maleejandra21 June 2006So Big is a film based on a novel and has a wonderful cast to bring it to life. Barbara Stanwyck is the lead, a woman whose life isn't perfect but which she works hard to be proud of. In the beginning, she is a wealthy girl, but when her father dies, she is sent away to a small town to live with a farmer and become a schoolteacher. There she meets a boy (George Brent) with an enthusiasm for life that she shares and she becomes his inspiration to become an artist. Later, she weds and has a child (Dickie Moore) who she plays a game with that explains the title of the film. Sadly, these scenes are short and the film progresses toward the future where her grown-up son enters the world and experiences trials that challenge his values. In the process, he meets Bette Davis, a beautiful artist with similar principles as his mother.
The problem with this film is that it seems to constantly be gathering speed and presenting a back-story, but there is no major climax. One watches and wonders who is the main character, Stanwyck or her son. It seems to be more of a discussion on how to live one's life than a story. The cast will bring audiences, but they will come away confused. -
Nate-4819 September 2019Thrilling to see Stanwyck and Davis in these early performances but the plot is all over the place and doesn't flow well. Wellman's movies can be hit or miss and this was a miss unfortunately. Had some good pieces to it. I liked the way he went back and forth in time kind of like The Public Enemy but story just couldn't hold. Stanwyck's performance a precursor to Stella Dallas. Amazing how many times George Brent and Davis were in the same films together - surprising they never married.
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bkoganbing13 August 2017I'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. -
maxfabien13 April 2002Well acted by Barbara Stanwyck, and, in a lesser role, Bette Davis. Stanwyck's make-up to age her throughout the film is remarkable. I must mention one part of the film that, though unintentional I'm sure, to me was funnier than the campfire scene in "Blazing Saddles". In several scenes Stanwyck asks her small child, "How big is my boy? How big is my son?" The small boy stretches out his arms and says, "Sooooo big!". Thus the name of the film. But toward the end, Stanwyck, as an old woman is in bed, and she asks her now grown adult son who is standing at her bedside, as a way of remembering the past, "How big is my son?". And he replies by taking his two index fingers and expanding then about 10 inches apart, and say with a smile "So big!"
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Selena Peake a young girl without a mother. Her father loves her very much but he is a bit childish, and a gambler. She is about ten when the movie opens, then is sent to boarding school. Ten years later, he is shot dead over a poker game. Selena is sent to High Prairie, outside Chicago, as a schoolteacher in a Dutch community. She lives with the Pool family, which consists of Klass and Marrtje, their son Roelf, two annoying daughters who do nothing but skulk about and giggle in a dreadful high-pitched tone, plus two other creepy guys that I take to be farm hands. Selena is relegated to the top floor attic but is treated fairly enough, even if everyone pokes fun at her expense. The entire community is rather plain and simple, but Roelf Pool is a very intelligent--if truculent-- young man. He has a crush on his new schoolteacher and enjoys reading books she lends to him. So the era is the 1890s and at that point everything ran around the doings of the church. Selena goes to a Sunday sermon and a big hulking man there, Pervus DeJonge, catches her eye. The wealthy and widowed Mrs. Paarlenberg has her sights set on Pervus but once he meets Selena, he is smitten. At a box lunch charity supper to buy a new organ for the church, he bids nothing on the widow's steamer-trunk sized lunch but bids a crazy amount ($10, which is about $300 in today's dollars!) on Selena's tiny one. He has a nice large farm but he's uneducated. Selena starts to tutor him and the next thing you know, they're married. They seem like such a mismatched couple. She's bright and witty and he's dull and stolid. Still, a single woman on the prairie would know she'd have to marry quickly and as good as she could, and Pervus is, if nothing else, a good hard worker. She'd once eaten asparagus with her father at a fancy hotel when she was a girl and she thinks that would be a fine crop, but Pervus disagrees. He's not much for changes. As quickly as they are wed, they have a child named Dirk. His nickname is "So Big" dating back to a game she played with him. Around this time, Mrs. Pool dies and Mr. Pool takes up with the Widow Paarlenberg. Roelf comes to see Selena, tells her is taking off for parts unknown. The widow doesn't like him and he feels there's more out there. Then Pervus dies and the care of the farm is left to Selena. At first it is hard going but once she starts growing newfangled asparagus, she becomes quite wealthy. Dirk grows up and after college he becomes an architect. He's having a dalliance with an older married woman who talks him into trying to sell bonds. He does and he is a natural at it, become very wealthy in a short time. Selena is upset by this, as she feels it is beneath him. He hires an illustrator to do an ad for him and in sashays Bette Davis, in that fabulous persona she had even back then before she became huge. He makes his interest known, she's stand-offish. They go out to visit his mother (the old age makeup on Barbara Stanwyck was almost ghoulish) and who should show up but Roelf Pool, back from Europe, where he is a famous and wealthy sculptor. I was a little confused by the ending, as it seemed as if old Roelf and Selena were eyeing each other rather romantically. Then again, there's probably only about six years age difference (he was 12 or so to her 18 or so when she came to High Prairie) He seemed to be still fostering the same crush on her as he did all those years ago. Another disconnect was that this was supposed to be High Prairie in Illinois, 'outside Chicago' but in the final outdoor scenes there are definitely mountains in the background. . .
I want you to realize that this whole thing called Life is just a grand adventure. The trick is to act in it and look out at the same time. And remember: no matter what happens - good or bad - it's just so much velvet. -
Handlinghandel22 May 2003This movie is simple and true to the tale it tells.
The casting is fine and honorable. Barbara Stanwyck is very touching as the young schoolteacher in a rural area.
The way she arrives at the name for the person who is the tile character is sweet and genuine.
When we flash forward, and she is made up to look genuinely older, he is a real pill, and our hearts break. But what better salvation for a young man on the make could there be than the young, blonde Bette Davis, forceful and sympathetic as an artist who turns him around so his mother can again be proud of him. -
fairfax51217 March 2013There's a good reason you've never heard of this title. Similar to another Barbara Stanwyck film, Stella Dallas, So Big! lacks depth, while being disgustingly saccharine. The film starts out promising enough. I did keep watching. But midway through I could not understand why the Stanwyck character was making certain decisions and I absolutely couldn't believe the character was so happy about it. It was as though the film was a summary of plot points lacking character motivation. Sure, those things could have happened, I guess. But the film failed to communicate why. And even when it would have been natural for the character to be regretful, she was unnaturally positive and cheerful.
I gave the film three out of ten because Stanwyck still communicated great emotion, I liked the costumes, & I did enjoy the brief appearance of Bette Davis. So don't even bother with this film unless you're a Barbara Stanwyck or Bette Davis fanatic. Stella Dallas is similar and a much better film. -
AlsExGal1 November 2022...based on Edna Ferber's book. Barbara Stanwyck stars as a young woman with a proper, big city upbringing who is forced by circumstance into becoming a school teacher in a rural farming community. She eventually marries a farmer, and becomes a hard-working farm wife. Years later, her grown son Dirk (Hardie Albright) risks becoming a lazy dilettante and kept lover, but artist Bette Davis helps him see the error of his ways.
The story's literary origin is evident in the wandering storyline, but that adds to the off-beat feel of this movie, which could easily have devolved into soap opera sentimentality. There are a lot of strange, unique characters and characterizations, and a number of humorous lines. Stanwyck and Davis are both good, and I liked Earle Foxe as the farmer husband. It appears that some amount of the originally filmed footage was scrapped, which may have filled in some blanks, and the ending is a bit abrupt, but neither are serious complaints. William Wellman ended up directing lots of these kinds of dramas and women's pictures at Warner Brothers. It may have not have exactly been his cup of tea, but he always rose to the occasion. Recommended. -
"So Big!" is an anomaly of a movie for the early 30's. While most movies were featuring high society folks in all their splendor, "So Big!" attempted to highlight the honor and nobility of farming life.
It failed.
Selina Peake (Barbara Stanwyck) was the daughter of a gambler. After he died she was left to make a way for herself so she set out to teach in a small town outside of Chicago. She taught in a small schoolhouse on a small farm where she met and fell in love with Pervus De Jong (Earle Foxe), a crude Dutch farmer. The pair were an odd couple that had failure written all over it, but Selina beared down and made herself into a farmer's wife with cooking, cleaning, mending, and farming.
The couple had a son they named Dirk (Dickie Moore). When Dirk grew up he wanted nothing to do with farming or being regular. Although he went to school for architecture he got into trading bonds because the money was better. His mother tried to impress upon him that money wasn't everything, but he wasn't hearing it.
When the older Dirk (Hardie Albright) met Miss Dallas O'Mara (Bette Davis) he was smitten. He tried his best to woo her, but he wasn't quite her type. Had he been creative, passionate, or a risk taker, then she would possibly love him--but a bonds trader looking to make a lot of money; that was a no. And it was then that Dirk thought that having money wasn't everything. He was willing to go back to being an architect if it meant Dallas would marry him.
Whereas I appreciate the sentiment of this movie, they did a poor job conveying their message. Or I should say, they did a poor job making the viewer believe that money wasn't everything. The problem was the subject: Dirk. He never expressed that he loved architecture. It wasn't as if he said, "I love being an architect, but there's no money in it." He was never torn. He was miserable being a low-paid young architect and he wanted out. He was driven by money and he found it trading bonds. So, as much as his mother or even his paramour tried to convince him that he shouldn't be doing a job just for the money, they never once asked him what he loved to do. Selina spoke as though slaving and struggling was a reward in and of itself when that's a ridiculous belief. Dallas, however, did speak about chasing dreams, but she never once asked what Dirk's dreams were.
"So Big!" failed to be convincing and never presented a resolution. They presented Roelf Pool (George Brent), a man who chased his dream of painting and became successful, but it was more of a throw-in and it didn't prove anything except that Roelf was exceptional at art and had always been exceptional. What was Dirk exceptional at? We never find out. -
whpratt112 May 2006There is no doubt in my mind after viewing this picture from way back in the early 30's, that this is a great Classic with great actors. Most of these actors, Barbara Stanwyck,"Dynasty" '85 TV series, were just starting their careers along with Bette Davis, (Miss Dallas O'Mara),"The Old Maid",'33 and George Brent, (Roelf Pool),"The Spiral Staircase",'46. In this picture Stanwyck plays a woman who was very close to her dad, who was a gambler and once he died, she had no choice but to take on a teaching position in Kansas and wound up married to a farmer. This is a wonderful story of a woman who raises her children against all the set backs that life has to offer and how she deals with each problem that seems to face her, which she calls Velvet. Barbara Stanwyck and Bette Davis never got a long together when making a film and they both made very few. Stanwyck was always outgoing with the stage hands and crew and Bette Davis just did her acting job and no socializing with the regular people. I must say that Bette Davis looked fantastic in this picture and of course she was a great actress.
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edwagreen10 May 2006Barbara Stanwyck pulls out all the emotional stops and is effective as a widow who strives to work the land and make a success for both her and her son. Trouble is that the boy grows up and desires fast wealth. He gives up his architectural work to go into bond trading and wealth. The problem with the film is the end of it. The flick ends abruptly. You really don't know if he returns to architecture or returns to the land.
Life on the prairie is very rugged. It takes its toll and people just up and die.
In her scenes as a younger woman, Stanwyck acts like a dignified Stella Dallas.
The phenomenal Bette Davis is seen in a supporting role as the son's love interest. She was not her devilish-self to be, rather, she would prefer that he return to a more simple life.
George Brent has a brief role as a sculptor who succeeded in Europe and returns to the prairie for a visit. Trouble is that his girlfriend is Davis when Stanwyck's son has designs on her as well. This is not resolved at the end of the film.
The problems of urban living are depicted with the latter being depicted as a place of vice and crime. Robert Warwick has a brief but memorable role as Stanwyck's gambler father. He tells her about his philosophy of life right before he is killed. I remember Warwick quite well as the magnate named Irving in 1947's "Gentleman's Agreement." He was against the idea of articles about anti-semitism. "Don't stir things up, let us handle it" was his motto.