OVP: B.F.'s Daughter (1948)

Film: B.F.'s Daughter (1948)

Stars: Barbara Stanwyck, Van Heflin, Charles Coburn, Richard Hart, Spring Byington

Director: Robert Z. Leonard

Oscar History: 1 nomination (Best Costume Design)

Snap Judgment Ranking: 2/5 stars

Each month, as part of our 2022 Saturdays with the Stars series, we highlight a different Classical Hollywood star who made their name in the early days of television.  This month, our focus is on Spring Byington: click here to learn more about Ms. Byington (and why I picked her), and click here for other Saturdays with the Stars articles.

Last week we talked about Meet John Doe, which was indicative of Spring Byington's career and where it was heading out of the 1940's.  While in the 1930's, Byington had managed to land a role in a successful franchise and score her first Oscar nomination, Byington's career never really graduated to something similar to what, say, Marie Dressler achieved in the early 1930's.  The 1940's were not a time for unconventional female leads striking out on their own (indeed successes like Dressler's would struggle in every era...though you could argue that modern audiences allow women like Judi Dench, Maggie Smith, & Helen Mirren to get the kinds of leading roles that Byington could have been allotted in the 1940's had Hollywood been more open).  Next week we're going to talk about Byington & how she eventually found true, leading lady stardom in television, but this week, we're going to kind of turn on an anti-spotlight, watching a film where Byington is almost completely sidelined, despite decent billing on the poster.

(Spoilers Ahead) The movie is an unusual marital drama, where the oddly-matched couple, Polly Fulton (Stanwyck), the conventional but lovelorn daughter of industrialist BF Fulton (Coburn) and his wife Gladys (Byington) and Tom Brett (Heflin), a man with progressive (read: socialist) ideals about the American capitalist system, fall in love & end up together.  But that falling in love happens in the first 15 minutes of the movie.  The rest of the film has Polly & Tom struggling with the concept of marital bliss with divergent politics, particularly when World War II comes around and Polly's old flame Bob (Hart) finds himself in harm's way while Tom is clearly pondering an affair.

BF's Daughter sounds better than it is.  The story is based on a rather controversial novel, but the Hays Code ensured that much of the sex, adultery, & political sharpness is erased from this, giving us a nationalistic, capitalist vision where Stanwyck remains subservient to her husband...when she isn't needed to point out all that is wrong with Heflin's progressive ideals.  There's certainly too much plot to the movie, and honestly you could have easily cut out the entire "BF" portion of the plot, and Byington with it.  Coburn gets a bigger role, but is unnecessary to the end resolution, mostly because he dies halfway through the film, but in the process setting off almost no story.  It's a badly-constructed movie, and Byington is underused.

The film got one Oscar nomination, and it's odd.  The film's costumes by legendary designer Irene aren't really that interesting...with one exception.  While Stanwyck is sharply dressed in pantsuits and skirts throughout, there's nothing fascinating about the movie's aesthetic, except about halfway through when the actress puts on this jaw-dropping white-and-gold evening gown that likely got the Oscar nomination straight up.  There aren't a lot of great images of it that aren't covered in "Getty Image" copyrights, but you'd be wise to google it as it's gorgeous.  I'm not a huge fan of giving nominations just for one costume, particularly one that isn't really character-building, but I forgive Oscar for indulging here as it's a beautiful frock.