JohnHowardReid SYNOPSIS: Swedish maid runs for Congress.NOTES: Loretta Young won Hollywood's most prestigious 1947 award for Best Actress, defeating Joan Crawford (Possessed), Susan Hayward (Smash-Up), Dorothy McGuire (Gentleman's Agreement) and the inside favorite, Rosalind Russell (Mourning Becomes Electra).Charles Bickford was nominated for Supporting Actor, losing to Edmund Gwenn in Miracle on 34th Street.COMMENT: It has been suggested that the remarkable popularity of this film was largely due to the scarcity of comedies in 1947. True, there were not comedies in abundance - if you exclude a respectable number of musical comedies - but the film's appeal probably lay as much with the homespun theme (Swedish girl wins over Washington) and its relevance to America's vociferous immigrant population as anything else.Certainly if ever an actress did not deserve to win an award for a particular performance, that actress was Loretta Young as the farmer's daughter. Caricaturing a Swedish accent and acting the wide-eyed innocent with all stops out, Loretta gives the worst display of ripe old hamming in her entire career.Fortunately, the support cast is much more agreeable. Bickford (by no means one of my favorites - I usually found his acting too heavy) is delightfully smooth and Ethel Barrymore (as usual) steals the show from one of the most solid line-ups of character players ever assembled in a moderate "A" feature. In fact for star power - past, present and future - it would be difficult to beat.

Lawson It's taken me a while to finally appreciate the charms of Loretta Young, who has never stood out this much in any other movie I've seen her in. It's no wonder she picked up an Oscar for this role. Here she plays a Swedish immigrant - replete with a braided pigtail around her head - who, through a series of events, finds herself a maid in the household of a US congressman, and subsequently, as a nominee to be a congresswoman as well. It's a charming story in itself, but I also loved the performances. Besides Young, this movie also showcased Joseph Cotten as a romantic lead - a role I've never seen him in, and Ethel Barrymore - a grande dame of stage and screen - is perfection in her role as a kingmaker. It's remarkable that all three actors managed to stand out without overshadowing each other.

bkoganbing When Loretta Young beat out Rosalind Russell in the Academy Award sweepstakes of 1947 it was considered one of the great upsets in the history of Oscar. Russell had gotten a lot of acclaim for her dramatic breakthrough performance in Mourning Becomes Electra which was RKO's prestige picture of the year. The O'Neill drama flopped at the box office. Young was nominated almost as an afterthought to round out the field in 1947. Of course RKO didn't care because The Farmer's Daughter was also one of their films.Young worked hard to get her proper Swedish accent for the film and the results would have made Greta Garbo proud. I can't see Garbo appearing in a film like The Farmer's Daughter though.Young plays Katie Holstrum who leaves the family farm to study nursing and in an almost Forrest Gump like set of circumstances winds up working as a maid in Congressman Joseph Cotten's home. She's not working for just Cotten. Presiding over the home and the state of Minnesota itself is Cotten's mother Ethel Barrymore. Ethel's not only queen of her own roost, but she's a Senator's widow and still one formidable power in her state of Minnesota. And there's Charles Bickford the family butler who got an Oscar nomination himself in this film for Best Supporting Actor as Young's gruff, but kindly mentor.Although at the time this film was made Young was 34 years old she does manage to convey youth here. It worked in this case because in 1947 a lot of people were starting their careers late. It's pointed out in the story that she stayed on the family farm while her beefcake brothers, James Arness, Keith Andes, and Lex Barker were all in the service during World War II.A long running television series was adapted from this film with the tragic Inger Stevens in the lead and William Windom in Cotten's role. Cathleen Nesbitt was the grande political dame. The butler's role was dropped and Windom was made a widower with two boys. Even with a genuine Swede like Stevens playing Katie, Young still comes out the better.Too bad Rosalind Russell never got an Oscar, but Loretta Young was one of the great survivors of Hollywood and her award was as much an award for a lifetime as for the still fresh and funny, The Farmer's Daughter.

edwagreen Loretta Young's Oscar-winning performance in "The Farmer's Daughter" was a major upset in 1947. All the so called experts had predicted that Rosalind Russell would win for "Mourning Becomes Electra." Ms. Young had some hefty competition besides Russell. We had Susan Hayward for "Smash-up: The Story of A Woman," and Dorothy McGuire, for the Oscar winning film, "Gentleman's Agreement"Nonetheless, Loretta is to be congratulated for her authentic Swedish accent as a maid who works for a Congressman and by the end is elected to that high office herself.We see corruption in politics;unfortunately, not something unusual even for these times. What makes it somewhat scary is the bigotry that is introduced along with the corruption.With fine support by Ethel Barrymore, Joseph Cotten and Charles Bickford, "The Farmer's Daughter" is a wonderful movie.