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The Farmer’s Daughter Movie Review

The Farmer’s Daughter is a 1947 comedy film directed by H.C. Potter and starring Loretta Young and Joseph Cotton. It’s a very forgettable movie.

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“Ladies and Gentlemen, tonight I want to ask you

for the most precious thing you own: your vote“

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After leaving her family’s farm to study nursing in the city, a young woman finds herself on an unexpected path towards politics. This movie is only notable for one reason today and that is its Best Actress win for Loretta Young. Apparently, it was a huge upset as Rosalind Russell was supposed to win, but Young ended up snatching it away from her in an unpredictable turn.

And did she deserve to win? Not really. This was a weak year for this category, but there must have been better choices than this one. Don’t get me wrong, Loretta Young is perfectly solid as this charming, earnest young woman who somehow becomes involved in politics. She is very likable throughout. But it’s just a weakly written role, thus her acting was limited by it.

Charles Bickford was also nominated and he was quite good as he always was in these smaller supporting turns, but I actually liked the actor who wasn’t nominated most and that is of course the always dependable Joseph Cotton. He was very good here.

The Farmer’s Daughter is worth seeing for its performances and for some brisk, amusing dialogue, but its script is quite mediocre. This is one of those overly unrealistic classic films that aren’t inspiring, but just naïve in their storyline. It’s Frank Capra without the charm and artistry of his greatest features.

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The movie did not mix romance with politics seamlessly at all. It felt so disparate in some of those threads that aren’t well connected and neither worked particularly well individually too. There are sweet and moving moments to be found throughout and it’s a breezy, short watch, but the lack of depth and any realism bothered me eventually. It also needed much stronger humor for it to carry it through the finish line more deftly.