Cabin in the Cotton
| The Cabin in the Cotton | |
|---|---|
Theatrical release poster
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| Directed by | Michael Curtiz |
| Produced by |
Hal B. Wallis Darryl F. Zanuck Jack L. Warner |
| Screenplay by | Paul Green |
| Based on |
The Cabin in the Cotton by Harry Harrison Kroll |
| Starring |
Richard Barthelmess Dorothy Jordan Bette Davis |
| Music by | Leo F. Forbstein |
| Cinematography | Barney McGill |
| Edited by | George Amy |
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Production
company |
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| Distributed by | Warner Bros. |
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Release date
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October 15, 1932 |
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Running time
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78 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
The Cabin in the Cotton is a 1932 American pre-Code drama film directed by Michael Curtiz. The screenplay by Paul Green is based on the novel of the same title by Harry Harrison Kroll.
The film perhaps is best known for a line of dialogue spoken by a platinum-blonde Bette Davis in a Southern drawl -- "I'd like ta kiss ya, but I just washed my hair." -- a line lifted directly from the book. In later years it was immortalized by Davis impersonators and quoted in the 1995 film Get Shorty.
Marvin Blake is a sharecropper's son who wants to better himself by continued schooling instead of working in the fields under the heat in the Deep South. Initially, greedy planter Lane Norwood is opposed to the idea and says he needs to work in his fields, but after the sudden death of his over-worked father, he grudgingly helps Blake achieve his goal and gives the young man a job as a bookkeeper when his vampish daughter Madge intercedes on his behalf. Blake uncovers irregularities in Norwood's accounts and soon finds himself embroiled in a battle between management and workers and torn between the seductive Madge and his longtime sweetheart Betty Wright.
When producer Darryl F. Zanuck urged Michael Curtiz to cast Bette Davis as Madge Norwood, the director responded, "Are you kidding? Who would want to go to bed with her?" Angry that he was forced to use her against his will, Curtiz fumed throughout the shoot, loudly deriding her as "a goddamned lousy actress" or calling her a "God-damned-nothing-no-good-sexless-son-of-a-bitch!" under his breath during her love scenes with Richard Barthelmess. In later years, Davis observed, "Mr. Curtiz, I must say, monster as he was, was a great European moviemaker. He was not a performer's director . . . You had to be very strong with him. And he wasn't fun . . . He was a real BASTARD! Cruelest man I have ever known. But he knew how to shoot a film well." She went on to make six additional films with Curtiz, including The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex in 1939.
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