The Farmer Takes A Wife

This was Fonda's first screen role, recreating the role he performed on Broadway. Fonda was not the first choice for the part; Gary Cooper and Joel McCrea were offered it first, but both were committed to other projects. The story is set in the New York farmlands of the 1850s when the Erie Canal was the major transportation route and the railroads were just beginning to grow. Farmers and canal workers were always at odds because of their differing lifestyles. Fonda is a young man who takes work on a boat to earn money for a farm. The boat's cook, Gaynor, falls in love with him even though she sees farmers as weak and boring. Fonda wins a boat in a lottery, and Gayn...