The musical recounts the history of Pennsylvania farmers in 1859 who discovered crude oil deposits on their land. When railroad barons attempt to charge exorbitant freight fees, the hardy agrarians successfully build their own pipeline to the refinery, fending off attacks by corporation-hired thugs en route.[3] The film oscillates between the romantic setting of the Cortlandt Ranch, where Sally (Irene Dunne) and Peter (Randolph Soctt) discover love in an enchanted idyll and commune with the farm animals.[4]
Plot
In 1859, Doc Watterson brings his traveling medicine show to Titusville, Pennsylvania. After the show wagon is destroyed by an accidental fire, Mrs. Cortlandt and her grandson Peter invite the Wattersons and the show's fake Indian, Mac, to stay with them. Peter and Sally fall in love.
Railroad tycoon Walt Brennan wants to acquire the land of several oil-drilling farmers, led by Peter Cortlandt. The townspeople block the plan, assisted by a herd of circus elephants, and instead construct their own oil pipeline.
Paramount Pictures and producer Arthur Hornblow, Jr. conceived High, Wide and Handsome as a “big-budget” musical that would deliver “prestige entertainment” supported by a talented cast and crew.[7]
High, Wide and Handsome was filmed on location in Chino, California. The principle filming began in early January 1937 and finished in late April that year, exceeding its 10-week shooting schedule.[8]
The production was particularly challenging both physically and operationally due to “torrential rains, mudslides [and] equipment malfunctions.” Tragically, a catastrophic accident during filming injured over a dozen of the cast and crew, some seriously.[9][10][11]
With the assistance of Kern and Hammerstein, director Rouben Mamoulian attempted to firmly integrate the songs into the plot of the film in order to advance the storyline.[12]
High, Wide and Handsome, budgeted at about $1.3 million, had a final cost of $1.8 million.[13]
The film was released October 1, 1937.
Reception
Frank S. Nugent of The New York Times wrote: "A richly produced, spectacular and melodious show, it moves easily into the ranks of the season's best and probably is as good an all-around entertainment as we are likely to find on Broadway this summer."[14]
Variety reported that the film had "too much Hollywood hokum" and that it "flounders as it progresses, and winds up in a melodramatic shambles of fisticuffs, villainy and skullduggery which smacks of the serial film school."[15]
Harrison's Reports called it "very good mass entertainment" with "delightful" music but a story that was "very weak."[16]
Russell Maloney of The New Yorker wrote: "Mamoulian's handling of the story leaves something to be desired (he's pretty preoccupied with apple blossoms and hillsides) but the general effect of the picture is pleasant."[17]
Writing for Night and Day in 1937, Graham Greene gave the film a poor review, characterizing it as "two hours of [a] long, dumb and dreary picture." Greene noted that the Hollywood aesthetics attributable to Mamoulian made the film unrealistic and improbable.[18][19]
Film historian Marc Spergel writes that contemporary reviews “were generally favorable, if not enthusiastic. Commercially, the film did poorly, especially for its high production cost, and has since slid virtually into oblivion.”[20][21][22]
Notes
^Spergel, 1993 p. 280-281: Filmography and Stageography.
^Jensen, 2024 p. 141, And pp. 144-146: See here for detailed account of the accident.
^Spergel, 1993 p. 164: see here for difficulties on location. And p. 280-281: Filmography, filmed at Paramount studios and Chino, Ca, “January to May, 1937”
^Milne, 1969 p. 106: “Hammerstein, it seems, wrote a gay and fluffy musical comedy; Mamoulian rewrote it with him, putting its feet back on the ground with a good deal of accurate background detail.”
^Callahan, 2007: “the epic High, Wide and Handsome (1937) looks now like Mamoulian’s high-water mark as a film director…If you only see one film in this Mamoulian series, make it High, Wide and Handsome, which is never shown on TV and isn’t on DVD.”
^Milne, 1969 p. 106: “...the most persistently underrated of all Mamoulian’s films…”
Green, Stanley (1999) Hollywood Musicals Year by Year (2nd ed.), pub. Hal Leonard Corporation ISBN0-634-00765-3 pages 70–71*Jensen, Kurt. 2024. Peerless: Rouben Mamoulian, Hollywood, and Broadway.University of Wisconsin Press, Wisconsin Film Studies, Patrick McGilligan, series editor. ISBN978-0-299-34820-5
Milne, Tom. 1969. Rouben Mamoulian. The Cinema One Series, Thames and Hudson Limited, London. Catalog no. 500-47012 X
