THE UNHOLY GARDEN (1931)

While eventually bristling under his contract to Goldwyn (10 years, crossing the Silent-to-Sound transition), Ronald Colman did fairly well by it; just not on this notorious flop.  Or so commercial & critical consensus would have it, then and now.  Why bother to have a fresh look?  Turns out, it’s a delightfully silly charade of comic-romance and adventure.  Zippy for 1931, too, with director George Fitzmaurice continuing in the spirit of visually juiced optics Colman had received since his remarkable Talkie debut in F. Richard Jones’s BULLDOG DRUMMOND/’29.*  Ben Hecht & Charles MacArthur share writing credit, but it’s really all Hecht, goading himself with a personal challenge to write an entire ‘original’ screenplay in a day!  John Lee Mahin, whom he was mentoring surely did a polish.  (Hecht had done much the same race with the clock on the quickly written mystery novel, THE FLORENTINE DAGGER in 1923.)  Goldwyn supplied a strong cast (Tully Marshall, Fray Wray, Warren Hymer, Mischa Auer, Lucille La Verne) and below-the-line, George Barnes to lens, Alfred Newman for music cues & Richard Day on art direction.*  Colman’s a gentleman crook, hiding from international authorities, along with a motley group of cutthroats & thieves, at some desert hideaway run by La Verne.  Tully Marshall’s a blind embezzler, hoping to set up daughter Fay Wray with his well-hidden loot.  Colman proposes to his fellow crooks that he’s the guy who can get the info by ‘making love’ to Wray; but he’s really out to divide and conquer.  Only problem, he falls for the dame and just might do the honorable thing.  (Cue wistful renunciation.)  But not before he beats the crap out of the loose broad who's out to grab him and the reward for his capture.  (What?!  So ungentlemanly!  Hope there’s an explanation.)  Why no one’s noticed what a fun put-on this is beyond me.  In many ways, it’s a genre goof like BEAT THE DEVIL/'53, also a major flop before catching on years later.  This one never acquired a cult, but can be seen all over the internet in lousy dupes for free.  Here’s’s the best of a bad lot.  https://archive.org/details/the-unholy-garden-1931-1

ATTENTION MUST BE PAID:  *When Darryl F. Zanuck put 20th/Fox together, he poached Day & Newman.

DOUBLE-BILL/LINK:  *The little-known F. Richard Jones died young after DRUMMOND.  OR: As mentioned, BEAT THE DEVIL.  https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2020/05/bulldog-drummond-1929-bulldog-drummond.html   https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2018/07/beat-devil-1953.html