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7/10
Senior Film Conservator
A definitive 7/10 rating for a film that redefined the boundaries of cult cinema. Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm remains a cornerstone of transgressive art.
If you are expecting Shirley Temple to start tapping her toes, you have got the wrong decade. 🎬 This 1932 version of Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm stars Marian Nixon instead, and she is playing Rebecca as a teenager rather than a little kid.
If you hate old-fashioned stories about sweet girls melting the hearts of grumpy old relatives, please skip this one immediately. But if you want a cozy, slightly creaky black-and-white escape on a rainy afternoon, it is surprisingly charming.
The first thing that hits you is Ralph Bellamy. He is so incredibly young here that it is almost weird to look at him.
Usually, Bellamy is the boring guy in 1930s comedies who loses the girl to Cary Grant. Here, he actually gets to be the romantic lead, Dr. Ladd, and he wears these absurdly high-waisted trousers that come up to his ribs.
Marian Nixon plays Rebecca with this frantic, breathless energy. Sometimes she talks so fast she almost trips over her own words, which feels way more natural than the polished acting we get nowadays.
The plot is basically nothing. Rebecca goes to live with her mean aunts because her family is broke and can't afford to keep her.
Aunt Miranda is the grumpy one, and she looks like she has not smiled since 1895. She yells a lot about Rebecca bringing mud into the house, which happens about four different times.
There is a really funny scene where Rebecca tries to sell soap to buy a fancy banquet lamp. She keeps knocking on doors, and people just slam them in her face with zero hesitation.
One guy looks so angry I thought he was going to throw a shoe at her. 👞
The sound quality is pretty rough, to be honest. You can hear this constant low hiss in the background, like someone is frying bacon in the kitchen next door.
Also, the editing is incredibly abrupt. One second they are talking in a kitchen, and boom, suddenly it is three days later and they are at a county fair.
It reminds me of the weird, choppy pacing in some other cheap films from that era, like Gigolettes, where scenes just sort of end when the camera runs out of film.
But there is a real charm to how simple everything is. People just sat on porches and talked about the weather back then.
The romance betwen Rebecca and Dr. Ladd feels a bit sudden, though. He basically looks at her twice and decides they should get married.
But hey, it is 1932, and the movie is only about 70 minutes long, so we do not have time for a slow burn. 🤷♂️
I also loved Alan Hale showing up as the stagecoach driver. He has this massive grin that takes up his entire face, and every time he is on screen, the movie gets about ten times louder.
It is not a masterpiece, and some parts are incredibly corny. But I smiled way more than I expected to, and sometimes that is all you really need.
IMDb 6.4
1927
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