The Farmer Takes a Wife is a film musical based on a novel by Walter D. Edmonds. The setting is the Eerie Canal in the mid-1800s and the characters are rough and ready bargemen and rural types. Dorothy Fields had collaborated on the book and lyrics for Annie Get Your Gun, Mexican Hayride, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Arms and the Girl, and many other successful musicals. Historic settings and the romance of the folkloric tale appealed to her. She was hired to write the lyrics and Harold Arlen composed the music for the new film. Betty Grable and Dale Robertson starred in the production, which was lavish. The movie was released by 20th Century Fox in June 1953. Although the songs are all spirited and strong -- with folk rhythms, speech inflections, rustic melodies -- the film was a failure and took its score with it into oblivion. ~ All Music Guide
