After causing yet another scandal, Kay Dowling, the spoiled daughter of wealthy New Yorkers, is given a stark choice by her fed-up father : go to his ranch in Ursula, Wyoming, or be disinherited. Kay's fiance, Herbert Forrest, proposes getting married immediately, but she chooses the ranch. Later, while spending her days on the ranch with her good-humored aunt Bessie, Kay falls reluctantly in love with one of her father's cowhands, Tom McNair, and impulsively marries him. When her father learns of the union, he disowns her. Kay and Tom are forced to live in a one-room shack while Tom tries to expand his cattle herd. One year later, Kay is unhappy with life on the ranch, and longs for the comforts of her family's palatial mansion. One day, she receives a telegram from home, and tells Tom that her father is sick and that she must be with him. Back in New York, Kay writes a letter to Tom, asking for a divorce. Soon after, Tom arrives at the estate and explains that he left the ranch to become a professional bronco rider in a rodeo. Kay assumes that he never received the letter, and Tom never mentions it. One night during a party, Tom overhears the guestsmaking fun of him and he tells Kay she can have her divorce. Later, as she realizes that life with Herbert would amount to a life of playing golf, Kay visits Tom at the rodeo. During his performance, he is thrown from a bronco and hurt. Kay rushes to Tom's side, and the two reconcile and decide to return to the ranch.
I Take This Woman marked the film debut of Russian-born director Marion Gering, who had previously directed stage plays. Produced under the working titles Lost Ecstasy, Rodeo Romance, Half Angel, and In Defense of Love, the film was ultimately titled I Take This Woman by Paramount studio heads in order to "emphasize the romance rather than the western setting, and reflect more of the boy's role than the girl's". Cooper and Lombard reportedly had an affair during the filming.
This film apparently became an "orphan film" when the rights reverted to author Mary Roberts Rinehart. The original 35mm camera negative and all supporting material was shipped back to her, but she had no interest in the material. She disposed of the 35mm camera negative and retained only a 16mm print. A single surviving 35mm nitrate studio print became the basis for a restoration, funded by the Louis B. Mayer Foundation. The restored print was screened in March 2017 at the Festival of Preservation at the UCLA Film and Television Archive.
