The Purchase Price

Directed by William A. Wellman, The Purchase Price follows Barbara Stanwyck’s Joan Gordon as she leaves her criminal boyfriend (Lyle Talbot’s Eddie) and becomes a farmer’s (George Brent’s Jim) wife in North Dakota. It’s a fairly basic premise that’s employed to watchable yet thoroughly forgettable effect by Wellman, as the filmmaker, working from a script by Robert Lord, delivers a slow-moving and mostly uneventful drama that benefits from the stellar efforts of its charismatic star – with Stanwyck’s engrossing, magnetic performance going a long way towards sustaining the viewer’s interest through the narrative’s less-than-enthralling stretches. (Brent is also quite good, albeit somewhat standoffish, as the object of Stanwyck’s affections.) And while the whole thing never really adds up to much, The Purchase Price, buoyed by the inclusion of a few admittedly stirring sequences (eg the town arrives at Jim and Joan’s place for a drunken celebration, Jim and Lyle Talbot’s Eddie engage in a surprisingly brutal barroom brawl, etc), generally comes off as an agreeable-enough endeavor that builds towards a fairly satisfying conclusion – with the final result a passable Stanwyck vehicle that never entirely wears out its welcome.

**1/2 out of ****