William A. Wellman's The Purchase Price is the kind of film that depends mostly on the charisma of its two leads. It isn't particularly smart, isn't particularly, clever, isn't particularly original. Barbara Stanwyck plays a lounge singer on the run from a criminal boyfriend. To escape, she accepts an offer to become a mail-order bride to an isolated farmer in North Dakota. The new husband, George Brent, has an amiable sternness about him that leads to a charming dumbfoundedness in times of stress. The two leads fall in love, though slowly. The film is essentially about a spoiled city girl discovering the joys of rural matrimony and proper gender roles. But the film is decently shot and acted well enough that we don't always roll our eyes when we see Stanwyck happily washing dishes.
6/10
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