Samuel Goldwyn paid $150,000 for the screen rights to the Edna Ferber novel, who sold it to him confident he understood she had intended it to be "primarily a story of the rape of America . . . by the wholesale robber barons of that day." Goldwyn was attracted to the melodramatic "Barbary Coast"-like aspects of the story, which prompted him to hire that film's director, Howard Hawks, to bring "Come and Get It" to the screen. He also was intrigued by the fact Hawks' grandfather had served as the basis for the character of Barney Glasgow. Ferber had approved Jane Murfin's script, which Hawks found wanting, and he persuaded her and Goldwyn to allow him to bring in Jules Furthman to work on a rewrite.