The Farmer’s Daughter 1947

In these uncertain times a movie like this can bring some hope for truth in politics. This movie is humorous, but it also shows some truths that many like to ignore. That people with money have a power that is hard to match when you are only the farmer’s daughter. That men are more quickly believed then women when men say that the slept with you. That there are people who forget most of us are not native to this country, and that this country supports the ideal in The First Amendment of the Bill of Rights, ratified in 1791, to the right of religious freedom. The Constitution does not establish a national religion or interfere with the free exercise of religion by citizens.

Several times in the movie money is shown to have power. When Katie works for the Morley family, she is offered education in exchange for continued employment. When Adolf (Rhys Williams) comes to the party with lies about Katrin (Loretta Young) he says he will speak those lies for $500. When the party decides to pull its support from A.J. Finley (Art Baker) they pay for radio time, for people to travel the streets with loudspeakers making sure the people hear the change, they run newspaper articles. All of this takes money. This money comes mostly from wealthy contributors, like the Morleys’, to the party campaign funds.

Adolf doesn’t just go to the party with this threat. In the beginning of the movie after getting Katrin to pay for his mistakes, Adolf threatens to ruin her reputation so that she cannot attend nursing school and would be forced to return to her family in disgrace. Forced to live on the farm all her days where her brilliant mind would never be challenged to its full potential. Katrin has three brothers; Peter (James Arness), Olaf (Lex Barker), and Sven (Keith Andes). I find it hard to believe that if Katrin had threatened Adolf with what her brothers would do to him if he spread such malicious rumors he would’ve persisted, but here again is the man is believed. Even if her family would’ve known the truth, her reputation would’ve been ruined in truth. Her dreams crushed. And even if her brothers did beat him up for it, it wouldn’t have fixed anything in the beginning of the movie. It is only with the Morley money smoothing the way that the lies are erased. Katrin is a better woman then I, she took the justice she could get in the moment, and faced her own problems without calling home for support, or to her brothers to report on Adolf’s poor behavior. Throughout the whole movie Katrin does not shy away from fighting her own battles.

There is a terrible exchange between A.J. Finley and Mrs. Morley towards the end of the film.

“It’s a national organization the boys and I belong to.” A.J. Finley

“You’re looking far ahead. I suppose you have a name for your organization?” Mrs. Morley (Ethel Barrymore)

“Oh, yes indeed. We got to stay undercover for awhile but we are doing a beautiful job. We got a great plan mapped out to educate the public.”

“What do you want the public to believe Mr. Finley?”

“We want them to believe in our type of 100% Americanism. Now 100% American is-“

Mrs. Morley interrupts, “White.”

“Right.”

“No Foreign born.”

“Right.”

“The right kind of religion.”

“Exactly right Mrs. Morley! I guess I know where you stand.” (The Farmers Daughter 1:27:30-1:28:17 H.C. Potter)

The exchange takes less than one minute. But it outlines a corruptness that has followed us for generations. A vileness of spirit that infects the American population turning brother against brother in the worst ways. It is my greatest hope that my children will not have to fight the battles that I have had to fight. That battles we thought won will not rise again to haunt them and their freedoms. That every human is treated equally. This movie gets a 5 out of 5 from me. I may not like the truths this movie showed, but it doesn’t change that they are truths. This message still needs to be heard today.