The Cabin in the Cotton (1932) on Netflix
Marvin Blake, a sharecropper's son in the Deep South, wants schooling instead of field work. Lane Norwood hires him as a bookkeeper, and Marvin is torn between Madge Norwood and Betty Wright.
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- Netflix3.3/5
- IMDb6.6/102,009 votes
- Rotten TomatoesNot available
Trailer
Plot summary
Marvin Blake is a sharecropper's son in the Deep South who would rather stay in school than spend his days in the cotton. He wants to lift his neighbors out of poverty, and Lane Norwood, the planter his family works for, says he needs the boy in the fields instead. When Marvin's father dies of overwork, Norwood gives in and hires him as a bookkeeper, a post Madge, Norwood's daughter, pressed him to give. The position places Marvin between the planters and the field hands who are pressing for a better deal, and between Madge, who wants him, and his longtime sweetheart Betty Wright.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The Cabin in the Cotton (1932)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Producer Darryl F. Zanuck forced Michael Curtiz to cast Bette Davis as Madge Norwood; Curtiz responded, "Are you kidding? Who would want to go to bed with her?" and fumed through the shoot, deriding her under his breath during her love scenes with Richard Barthelmess.
- The film is perhaps best known for Davis's Southern-drawl line, "I'd like ta kiss ya, but I just washed my hair," lifted directly from the book and later quoted by Davis impersonators and in the 1995 film Get Shorty.
- Bette Davis said she was still a virgin when she made the film, though her part called for her to exude raging sexuality; she said that if they had known, they would not have believed she could carry it off.
- Director John Cromwell caught Davis in the film and cast her as Mildred in his 1934 film Of Human Bondage, which started her reputation as one of the best actresses of the era.
- Davis said her co-star Richard Barthelmess did nothing in long shots and saved his talent for close-ups, so it became necessary to use his close-ups almost entirely.
