SpunkySelfTwitter It’s an especially fun movie from a director and cast who are clearly having a good time allowing themselves to let loose.

Adeel Hail Unshakable, witty and deeply felt, the film will be paying emotional dividends for a long, long time.

Frances Chung Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

Zlatica One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

bkoganbing I'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.

GManfred I didn't read Edna Ferber's novel so I can't tell if it or the movie is better. But I can't imagine the book didn't live up to the author's reputation - the film certainly doesn't. As presented here, "So Big" is a run-of-the-mill story of the tedium of rural life during the depression, saved only by the luminous presence of Barbara Stanwyck. Although a Warner Bros. production, they didn't surround her with a distinguished cast or any noteworthy production values, as though her starpower would carry the picture all by itself.Well, she nearly pulls it off. She is pretty close to the suffering queen bee role she played in "Stella Dallas" a few years later, but here she races through adolescence, marriage, motherhood and then widowhood at breakneck speed in a picture which must have been edited to death. The pace of the picture makes it impossible for the viewer to adapt to Stanwyck's circumstances before changing them radically. She becomes a mother, then in almost the next scene 'So Big' is an adult - and Stanwyck is saddled with Hardie Albright, one of Hollywood's most uncharismatic actors.Since this is 1932 we get to see young starlet Bette Davis, and George Brent minus mustache, in support roles. I could have rated this under-produced slog through the underbrush lower than I did, but for the sheer radiance of the star that was Barbara Stanwyck.

fairfax512 There'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.

jotix100 Edna 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.