Ex-pat Brit-in-Hollywood director James Whale, best known for horror straight & off-kilter (FRANKENSTEIN; INVISIBLE MAN; BRIDE OF . . . ), here shows a depth of feeling & sincerity rare in his output. (Other than JOURNEY’S END/’30 and THE ROAD BACK/’37.) Adapted from John Galsworthy’s last novel (part of his FORSYTHE Saga), its narrative an excuse to advocate liberalization of England’s ludicrous divorce laws. Diana Wynyard, remarkably unfussy & modern at the end of her prestigious three year/seven film Hollywood run, is sued by physically abusive husband Colin Clive whom she refuses to live with while insisting on her right to see (on strict platonic terms) charming new man in her life Frank Lawton. One of the first films made under newly strict Hollywood Production Code enforcement, Whale & scripter R.C. Sheriff still infer all that’s needed to make their case (even spousal rape, a concept barely admitted to at the time - inadmissable in court?), put over with exceptionally strong support for Universal: debuting Jane Wyatt, Reginald Denny, C. Aubrey Smith, Henry Stephenson, E. E. Clive and in a superb courtroom sequence, opposing barristers Lionel Atwill & Alan Mowbray. Plus, the infamous Mrs. Patrick Campbell, G.B. Shaw stage favorite & correspondent. (Terrible, BTW. Everyone else, superb.) An all but lost film, it did little biz, and still shows Whale fighting shy of Hollywood’s evolving editing techniques. But, perhaps because the draconian U.K. divorce laws of the time mirrored his own experience with U.K. criminal law as an all but open homosexual, he brings a heightened emotional commitment which carries the film well past expectations.
DOUBLE-BILL: Colin Clive revisited this characterization, against Jean Arthur & Charles Boyer, in Frank Borzage’s slightly batty romance HISTORY IS MADE AT NIGHT/’37.
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