I Take This Woman
Cast & Crew
Marion Gering
Gary Cooper
Carole Lombard
Helen Ware
Lester Vail
Charles Trowbridge
Photos & Videos
Film Details
Technical Specs
Synopsis
Kay Dowling, the willful daughter of wealthy Eastern parents, is sent to her father's ranch in Ursula, Wyoming, when he fears she will be named a co-respondent in a divorce case. Before she leaves, Kay's straight-laced suitor, Herbert Forrest, proposes, but Kay chooses the ranch over a honeymoon cruise. While on the ranch with her good-humored aunt Bessie, Kay falls reluctantly in love with cowhand Tom McNair and they marry. Her father disowns her, and she and Tom are forced to live in a one-room shack while Tom increases his cattle herd. A year passes and Kay longs for the comforts of the Dowlings' palatial estate. When she receives a telegram from home, she tells Tom her father is sick and deserts her husband. In New York, Kay writes Tom a letter asking for a divorce, but when he arrives at the estate and explains that he left the ranch to become a professional bronco rider in a rodeo, she assumes he never got the letter. Tom plays innocent until, during a party, he overhears the guests calling him a fool and tells Kay she can have her divorce. Realizing that with Herbert she is guaranteed only of a life of golf, Kay visits Tom at the rodeo. There, she sees him thrown from a bronco and reconciles with him. Now that his riding days are over, Tom decides to return to the ranch with Kay.
Director
Marion Gering
Cast
Gary Cooper
Carole Lombard
Helen Ware
Lester Vail
Charles Trowbridge
Clara Blandick
Guy Oliver
Sid Saylor
Albert Hart
Leslie Palmer
Ara Haswell
Frank Darien
Gerald Fielding
Mildred Van Dorn
David Landau
Crew
Photo Collections
Film Details
Technical Specs
Quotes
Trivia
After its release, the original nitrate negative and fine grain prints were given to Mary Roberts Rinehart. She had a 16mm saftey print made from the 35mm negative so she could see the film. Over the years, all original material was destroyed, and to date, only that one 16mm print is known to have survived. Please check your attic. Its owner is hoping to get the funding to restore and re-issue this "lost" classic, but is so far without luck.
The film ran so far over budget because of the director's insistence to get every scene exactly right that the crew started calling the film "I Re-Take This Woman".
Notes
Mary Roberts Rinehart's novel was first published as a serial in The Saturday Evening Post (16 April-18 June 1927). The above credits and plot summary were taken from a studio and copyright cutting continuity. Working titles for this film were Rodeo Romance, Lost Ecstasy, Half Angel, and In Defense of Love. According to a studio memo, Paramount wanted a title that would "emphasize the romance rather than the western setting, and should reflect more of the boy's role than the girl's." An early draft of the script lists Nancy Carroll as the film's star and Lothar Mendes as director. In January 1931, Motion Picture Herald announced Paramount's plans to make Lombard-"she of the perfect figure"-a star. In its review of the film, Variety states that "a few more performances like this from Carole Lombard and Paramount will have a new star on its list."
