So Big on AllMovie

Colleen Moore may have been The Perfect Flapper, but as an actress she longed to spread her creative wings. She insisted on portraying the lead character in this adaptation of Edna Ferber's novel -- a 19th century girl doomed to a life of drudgery, who ages over 30 years throughout the course of the film. While So Big made a credible show at the box office (and Moore received accolades for her performance) it didn't compare to the block-busting sales of her flapper comedies. Selina Peake (Moore) lives a privileged existence until the death of her father (Sam DeGrasse). The girl is shocked to discover that he was killed in a gambling den, and she is left without a dime. She goes to work as a school teacher in a Dutch colony at High Prairie and marries Purvis DeJong (John Bowers), a farmer who is none too bright. The one light of her life is a son, Dirk. After Purvis' death, Selina is forced to sell vegetables door to door. She is finally given aid by the father of an old school chum and after much hard work she manages to make the farm turn a profit, which enables her to send Dirk (Ben Lyon) to school. He becomes an architect and has a romance with Dallas O'Meara (Phyllis Haver), an artist. But Pauline Storm (Rosemary Theby), a married woman who has helped him, convinces him to run off with her. Selina discovers the plan and begs the illicit pair to reconsider. Pauline's husband (Henry Herbert) walks in and threatens to name Dirk as corespondent in a divorce suit. Selina talks him out of it and Dirk returns to Dallas.