When a newlywed husband brings his independent-minded bride home to meet the in-laws after a blissful stay in Europe, his overly possessive mother immediately goes to work to divide (and conquer) the happy couple. Over at R.K.O. this scenario played out in a superb adaptation of Sidney Howard’s decade old play THE SILVER CORD*, beating this roughly similar M-G-M project from Rose Franken’s recent B’way play to the screen by three months. (Production delayed when Helen Hayes took over from Norma Shearer after husband Irving Thalberg’s heart attack?) And who to direct but Edward H. Griffith, new to M-G-M after specializing in just this sort of literate play-to-film transfer back at R.K.O. where he’d helmed Philip Barry’s HOLIDAY/’30 and THE ANIMAL KINGDOM/’32.* Robert Montgomery is the weak-willed husband, folding to Mother's wishes & will at family gatherings while losing the romantic spark Hayes once felt in him. Now, it’s family outlier John Beal, a lovestruck nephew, who speaks ‘another language’ with her. All expressed in an unintentionally intimate dance in front of the whole family, their defining romantic moment. If only the emotions came thru on film. It’s not that the character motivations or story beats are less obvious or psychologically transparent in THE SILVER CORD, but everything there still ‘lands,’ while everything here dissipates, leaving an ending that feels both unearned and a cheat.
ATTENTION MUST BE PAID: Four members of the B’way cast went West, including Beal and Margaret Hamilton as the sole aunt who talks the family talk, but also knows the score. She’s fun!
DOUBLE-BILL: *Director John Cromwell picked up the Edward H. Griffith mantle at R.K.O., including THE SILVER CORD/’33. https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2019/06/the-silver-cord-1933.html
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