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So Big
1953 |
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This was the fourth film version of Edna Ferber's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel. The main character, Selina Peake, had been played by Colleen Moore in the 1925 silent film; by Helen Jerome Eddy in a 1930 short; and
This sprawling story encompassed three decades. The cast, too, "spanned the ages" from toddler Provost to 80-something Roland Winters (who had been the third actor to portray Charlie Chan). Wise worked often with child actors (notably in his first film, THE CURSE OF THE CAT PEOPLE, and in his most successful one, THE SOUND OF MUSIC) and had a talent for coaxing wonderful performances out of them. He also had quite an eye for talent. Interestingly, both Jon Provost and Tommy Rettig (who played "Dirk DeJong" at ages 2 and 8 respectively) later starred as "Timmy" in the popular LASSIE television series. A young Richard Beymer portrayed "Roelf Pool" as a teenager, and starred as "Tony" nine years later in Wise's WEST SIDE STORY.
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In the late 1890's, Selina Peake,
a student at a posh
boarding school, is informed of the death of her wealthy father,
who has left her
penniless as a result of a botched business deal. Since
the proud Selina
refuses all offers of charity, August Hemple, the kindly father
of Selina's
best friend, Julie, obtains a teaching position for Selina in
New Holland, a
tiny Dutch farming community outside Chicago which has remained
virtually
 unchanged for seventy-five years. In New Holland, Selina
takes a room in the
home of Klaas Pool, a crude farmer who scoffs at Selina's idealism
and eye
for beauty, and his overworked and miserable wife Maartje.
Selina finds a
kindred soul in Klaas and Maartje's son Roelf, a bright, but
troubled
adolescent who is unable to attend school because he must work
on the farm.
After discovering that Roelf has a talent for music, Selina
gives him nightly
piano lessons and encourages his artistic leanings, gradually
leading him
away from juvenile delinquency. At a charity auction, Selina
catches the eye
of the town's most eligible bachelor, Pervus DeJong, and later
accepts his
proposal of marriage. Roelf is devastated to learn that
Selina, who
represents to him the beauty of the world outside his hated
hometown, is to
marry a lowly truck farmer. However, Selina consoles him
by explaining that
she needs both "emeralds" and "wheat" in her life, emeralds
being those
people, like Roelf, who appreciate and create beauty, and wheat,
those who
work the land, providing the necessities of life. Selina
settles into the
laborious routine of a farmer's wife and gives birth to a son
Dirk, who, as
he grows, earns the nickname "So Big." Dirk soon displays
signs of being an
emerald in the rough, and although Pervus, who has never fully
understood his
wife, is mildly disapproving, Selina encourages her son's nascent
artistic
talent. Maartje dies and, shortly after, Klaas makes plans
to wed the
simpering Widow Paarlenberg. The grieving Roelf decides to leave
New Holland
forever and tearfully bids Selina goodbye. When Dirk is
eight years old,
Pervus dies from the strain of his hard work, and Selina, refusing
offers of
help from her neighbors, labors to keep the farm going on her
own. Much to
the shock of the denizens of conservative New Holland, Selina
and Dirk travel
unescorted to the Chicago Haymarket to sell their produce, but
no one will
buy from a woman. When all seems lost, Selina runs into
her old friend
Julie, now a divorced mother of two, and August, who offers
to invest in
Selina's proposal to grow exotic vegetables. Selina's
"DeJong" asparagus is
a huge success and, ten years later, she proudly sends Dirk
off to college to
study architecture. After college, Dirk begins work as
a draughtsman in an
architectural firm and maintains his involvement with his childhood
sweetheart, Julie's spoiled daughter Paula. Paula, a manipulative
social
climber, pushes Dirk to earn more money and later convinces
him to forgo his
dream of becoming an architect in order to attain more immediate
financial
success. Dirk accepts a job in sales and promotion arranged
for him by
Paula, greatly disappointing Selina, who demonstrates her dismay
by no longer
referring to him as "So Big." Later, Dirk falls in love
with the talented
artist, Dallas O'Mara, who cares nothing for money and social
status, and
proposes marriage. Although she is fond of him, Dallas refuses,
declaring
that she could never marry a man whose hands are unscarred by
real work.
Roelf, now a renowned composer, has a triumphant return to Chicago,
where he
visits Dallas, an old friend from Paris. Accompanied by
Dirk, Roelf takes
Dallas to his reunion with Selina, and the two women, very much
alike, become
friends. After Roelf and Dallas leave, Dirk, fearing that
he has lost both
of the women he loves, expresses his dismay at how his life
has turned out.
However, Selina takes him in her arms and, calling him "So Big,"
reminds him
that it is never too late to pursue his dream of creating beauty.
From the AFI Catalog of Feature Films
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 104 min. Warner Bros. Pictures, Inc.; A Warner Bros.--First National Picture;
Distributed by: Warner Bros. Pictures, Inc.;
Directed by: Robert Wise;
Produced by: Henry Blanke;
Screenplay by: John Twist;
Edited by: Thomas Reilly;
Director of Photography: Ellsworth Fredricks;
Music by: Max Steiner;
Production Design by: John Beckman;
Sound by: Murray Spivack;
Wardrobe by: Milo Anderson;
Make-up by: Gordon Bau;
Hair by: Betty Lou Delmont.
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Jane Wyman (Selina Peake DeJong), Sterling Hayden
(Pervus DeJong), Nancy Olson (Dallas O'Mara), Steve
Forrest (Dirk "So Big" DeJong), Elisabeth Fraser (Julie Hempel),
Martha Hyer (Paula Hempel), Walter Coy (Roelf Pool), Richard Beymer
(Roelf Pool, age 12-16), Tommy Rettig (Dirk DeJong, age 8),
Roland Winters (Klaas Pool), Jacques Aubuchon (August Hempel), Ruth
Swanson (Maartje Pool), Dorothy Christy (Widow Paarlenberg),
Oliver Blake (Adam Ooms), Lily Kemble Cooper (Miss Fister), Noralee
Norman (Geertje Pool), Jill Janssen (Jozina Pool), Kerry Donnelly
(Paula Hemple, age 8), Kenneth Osmond (Eugene Hemple, age 9),
Lotte Stein
(Meena), Jon Provost (Dirk DeJong, age 2),
Arthur Fox (Dirk DeJong, age 3), Vera Miles (Schoolgirl), Evan
Loew
(Schoolgirl), Frances Osborne (Schoolgirl),
Jean Garvin
(Schoolgirl), Carol Grei (Schoolgirl), Grandon
Rhodes
(Bainbridge), Anthony Jochim (Accountant),
Herb Vigran
(Boss), Joe Duval (Jakob), Frank Kreig (Bidder),
Bob
Stephenson (Bidder), Paul Brinegar (Bidder),
Billy Vincent
(Bidder), Joe Brooks (Bidder), Mike Lally
(Bidder), Jack
Henderson (Bidder), Ralph Volkie (Bidder),
Steve Stephan
(Bidder), Al Lloyd (Bidder), John Konorez
(Bidder), Dan
Dowling (Bidder), Dick Alexander (Bidder),
James Dime
(Bidder), George Selk (Johnnes Ambuul), Spec
O'Donnell (Man in chair), John Maxwell (Rev. Dekker), Bud Osborne
(Wagon driver), Ray Bennett (Al), Jennings Miles
(Seller), Frank
Chase (Buyer), Phil Tead (Buyer), John Logan
(Buyer), James
F. Stone (Buyer), Marjorie Bennett (Woman servant),
Bill O'Brien
(Man servant), David McMahon (Policeman), Chalky
Williams
(Policeman), Charlicie Garrett (Cook), Joy
Hallward (Maid),
Bill Grimes (Child), Thor Holmes (Child),
Michael Pierce
(Child), Clay Bennett (Child), Cathy Creighton
(Child), Sue
George (Child), Gloria Moore (Child), Jeanetta
Lewis
(Child), Frank Ferguson (Assistant), Tom Royal
(Eugene Hemple), Lillian Culver (Mrs. Robinson), Douglas
Evans (Richard Hollis), Mary Alan Hokanson (Secretary), Abdullah
Abbas
(Hawker), Sara Taft, Dorothy Granger, and Elizabeth
Russell.
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