The Great Man's Lady

Director William Wellman effectively utilizes flashbacks to tell the classically American story of Ethan Hoyt (Joel McCrea), a man who successfully migrates from the pioneering West to occupy a seat in the United States Senate. The film begins as his widow, Hannah Semplar (Barabara Stanwyck), at the distinguished age of 109, is being asked about her husband by a young biographer at the unveiling of a statue that has been erected in his honor. She then proceeds to narrate the events of their lives together from the time of their elopement, when she was 16, to the present. Tempered by hardship, their life starts in a small homestead on the prairie, endures a strong bout with gold fever, and outlasts a love triangle with a renegade gambler. (Verleiher-Text)