Old Movie Madness: The Divorcee (1930)

I'm fairly new to Norma Shearer, she isn't an actress I've ever felt particularly drawn to and so this was an experiment for me.

The Divorcee is the story of Jerri Bernard and Ted Martin - a well to do society couple. Opening on their engagement the film starts with both celebration and tragedy as one of Jerry's spurned lovers drinks too much and causes a car accident in which one of their female friends is horribly disfigured.

Fast forward to their third anniversary and the golden couple seem as happy as ever until Ted's sour faced mistress crashes their party. Hurt and embarassed, Jerry cannot forgive Ted his indiscretion and attempts to even up the playing field with a one night dalliance while Ted is away on a business trip.

On his return she tells him that she has "settled the odds" and, in classic "one rule for the goose and another for the gander" mode, Ted flies off the handle and cannot forgive her for the very act he claimed was "meaningless" on his side.  Men, eh!

They divorce and Jerri loses herself in a whirlwind of short lived affairs with unsuitable men, reaching her lowest point when she rekindles her affair with her former lover, now married to the woman he disfigured in the car crash.   At her emotional rock bottom Jerri realises that she still loves Ted and and returns to him to try and rebuild their relationship.

The film is visually beautiful, if you can get over the very odd face of the male lead (Chester Morris, playing Ted) but hey - that is just personal opinion.  Ms Shearer's gowns are by the incredibly talented "Adrian" and she looks stunning in them all. 

As with many early talking pictures the acting style is very theatrical, and you do occasionally feel you are watching a stage play, however Shearer's deft touch relieves this somewhat.  I'm not convinced by Shearer in the role however - she seems a bit of a cold fish to be out carousing with various playboys.  Her husband, the producer, himself had doubts and she had to work hard to steal the role out from under Joan Crawford (and if the stories about Joan are true that is literal ;-)  ).  She won an award for the part though, and to give her credit she does act her socks off.

This is a pre-code flick, dealing with the later taboo subject of sex outside marriage, here, a woman exercises her sexuality without being damned for it and the film is worth watching for this alone.

The movie is available on youtube, if you don't mind watching it in parts.  I say go for it!  Part one is linked below.

 

Old movie Madness: Red Headed Woman (1932)

A film with a screenplay by Anita Loos (author of Gentlemen Prefer blondes, no less). 

This film is a joy, a camped up over-acted, Pre-Code joy.  Harlow plays the red headed woman of the title, covering her trademark blonde do with a red wig.  Her character is Lilian ("Lil" or "Red") Andrews, an utterly mercenary sort who uses sex as currency in her attempt to cross from the wrong side of the tracks to the right one, and doesn't care who she hurts along the way.

The film opens with Harlow, as "Red" draped across a chaise and with a cheeky wink she makes reference to Loos' novel with the line “So gentlemen prefer blondes, do they?” setting the tone for this racy romp.

Red lives with her best friend Sally, played by the ever wonderful Una Merkel, and together they ply their charms on seemingly unsuspecting chaps left right and centre.  Red has set her sights on the boss and makes a very deliberate play for him, collecting his post and dropping it off at his house when his wife is in.  She offers to work late and take dictation and when  Mr Bill Legendre is distracted by her shapely legs as she unsubtly hitches up her skirt, she decides to tell him that she loves him. Mr Legendre valiantly fights back but when he sees that she has his photograph clipped to her garter he gives in and soon the pair are discovered kissing by Bill's wife, Irene.

Bill adores Irene, his first love, and tries to persuade Red to leave town and leave him alone but she will have none of it, becoming a full time stalker, following him to restaurants and finally turning up drunk and barging into his house.  Irene finally has enough and leaves Bill, giving clever Red the perfect chance to get her claws into him as he is down.  They live the high life, drunk on booze and sex, and she manages to persuade him to marry her.

Unfortunately marriage to a rich man doesn't bring our Red the glamour and social acceptance she imagined. Bill's friends do not want to associate with her and remain loyal to Irene.  Red finally snaps when she realises that she has been deliberately left off the invitation list for a party and she forces herself into the path of the wealthy Charles Gaerste, a family friend of the Legendre's.  Not knowing her identity, the mature Mr Gaerste falls for her fiery charms and takes her home.  Red threatens Mr Gaerste with exposure of a very different kind unless he helps launch her into society, and out of fear for his reputation he tries his best to get his friends to accept her.

Sadly this fails and the people she so wants to impress just mock her.  Red decides she has to leave town and thrilled to be rid of her Bill sends her to New York.  Once there she launches a full scale assault of Mr Gaerste - it is a miracle his heart held out really.  She intends to marry him, a plan Bill is more than happy to support as he wants Irene back.

Unfortunately it all unravels for Red; Gaerste sees through her and, enraged, she attempts murder.  Failing at that she agrees to leave for good with a particularly good looking chauffeur.  When we last see her she is in the company of an elderly man with her chauffeur pal driving them from the racecourse.  We can only assume she is continuing to exploit men for money and has found herself a handsome accomplice.

Harlow's performance in this movie has received a lot of praise, and it is certainly worth it.  At first look I felt her acting rather wooden, but I realised this was deliberate - Red is an emotionless creature who exists only for herself and this comes over in Harlow's cold style and the very fake crying scenes.  She really does well to make such a one dimensional girl seem interesting, she is fascinating to watch, especially when she turns on her wheedling baby voice to extract what she wants from the men around her.  Another gem is Una Merkel, who always brings a sparkle to a movie and is the voice of reason to all of Red's aspirations.

The weak point is really the story - are we to believe that all these men are so weak and blind as to fall for Red's obvious tricks?  I tend to credit chaps with more intelligence than that, but then I'm hugely out of practise.  Next time I'm on a date I'm going to try a baby voice and see if I end up wed!

This was one of the Pre-Code movies thought to have spurred on the implementation of the Production Code.  Harlow's "Red" was a promiscuous character: a marriage wrecker, having pre marital sex, committing adultery and even, gasp, appearing in public intoxicated and trying to kill a man.  Despite this she effectively gets off scot -free - living an easy life with a man she loves and fleecing old gents out of their dough quite happily. 

What a scandal!

This isn't a serious movie, it isn't making a point, but neither is it a comedy.  Harlow is excellent in an over the top way and it is well worth seeing just to see her light up the screen with her baby face.  Thoroughly enjoyable.

Old Movie Madness: Baby Face (1933)

Golly, it really has been a long time since I last wrote one of these.  I haven't stopped watching films though and have such a backlog of reviews to get through that it has become quite daunting.  I've decided to start easy - with a film I watched just this morning whilst waiting for a particularly exciting eBay auction to hot up (exciting to me means a 1939 knitting pattern...heh!)

Baby Face stars my all time favourite actress, the indomitable Barbara Stanwyck, here playing the kind of character which became her stock in trade - the tart with a heart.

Barbara plays Lily Powers, a young woman whose father has been prostituting her to the customers in his speakeasy since she turned 14.  When he dies in a fire Lily sees a chance to escape and following a conversation with her friend and mentor, a local postman and philosopher, she decides to head to New York and use her considerable charms to exploit men.

She leaves town with her African/American colleague/maid Chico and they ride a freight train to the city.  Caught on the train Lily has her first opportunity to test her new philosophy and flirts with the guard.  A fade out and the image of his gloves falling on the floor tell us that she slept with him to ensure their passage on the train.  Neitzsche has a lot to answer for!

Once in the city Lily is determined to get a good job and sleeps her way up through the hierarchy of Gotham Bank until she lands a role working for Ned Stevens.  Stevens is engaged to the Vice President's daughter but this doesn't stop him falling for Lily.  Ned's fiancee walks in on them in an embrace and so her father intervenes to separate the couple.  Falling for Lily himself he sets her up in a lavish apartment with Chico as her maid and Lily settles into a life of luxury.

Unfortunately a besotted Ned tracks her down, determined to marry her.  When he walks into the apartment and sees his future father in law he flies into a rage shooting his rival and then turning the gun on himself.

The recently elected President of the bank, a young playboy called Courtland Trenholm, is brought in to try and calm the scandal.  Hearing Lily has been offered $15,000 to sell her story the bank offer to match the sum however Courtland tricks her into taking a job in their Paris office instead.

Once in Paris Lily, a bright girl, works hard and is promoted to running the travel department.  When Courtland visists the office he is surprised to see her still there and realises he has underestimated her.  Courtland woos Lily and the pair marry, Courtland for love and Lily still seeing dollar signs.
 
Courtland is indicted when the bank fails due to mismanagement and he deperately needs to raise one million dollars.  Lily refuses to help him by selling all the gifts he has given her and runs away with Chico.  Her boat is about to sail for Europe when she realises she is in love with Courtland, finally a man who knows her past and loves her anyway, and she rushes home to tell him that she will help.

On her return she finds that he has shot himself - he is still alive and ,terrified of losing him, Lily tells him that she loves him and doesn't care about the money anymore.  The film closes with them in an ambulance on the way to the hospital.

This is an interesting little film (little at just over an hour in length) for two main reasons.

Firstly - for me - the costumes are outstanding.  You can see Lily maturing from a bar girl to an office girl, through over the top brashness and finally into a stylish woman as the movie progresses.  Her clothing very much shows her role at each point in the movie, with hugely over the top ruffles and furs when she is a kept woman to more elegant clothing as the wife of the President of the bank.  This is a movie wardrobe to die for.

Secondly - this is a stunning example of pre-code movie making.  The subject - child prostitution and sleeping around to further your career, are shocking.  There is heavy sexual innuendo and some of Stanwyck's lines bristle with her care worn attitude to love and sex.

I'm a Stanwyck fan, so I know I'm biased, but boy does this gal light up a screen.  She is far from classically beautiful but she really does ooze sex appeal and this is used so well in her pre-code movies.

I thoroughly recommend this as an orgy of amazing early 30's fashion and a fine example of pre-code cinema.