For a couple of years (1934; ‘35), William K. Howard represented a rare authorial voice among directors at producer-oriented M-G-M. (Howard skipped around studios during his ‘30s heyday, apparently brought down by a drinking habit.) Easy to spot his ‘voice’ in this WWI espionage dramedy, especially in the larger set pieces. (In movement & editing at a suffragette parade doing double duty as a walking date; a ship embarking with thousands of troops seen past the principal players, emphasizing the enormous human scale behind the threat; quickly pivoting from playful romantic banter to a chilling ‘noises-off’ murder.) He’s held back by a script that doesn’t know when to drop the jokey tone (Rosalind Russell’s scatterbrained gal an annoying menace to the film's darkening drama). But the rest of the cast, led by William Powell (exceptional as always) playing a brilliant code-breaker trying for action in Europe rather than having to fight a ‘desk war,’ is unusually well chosen, neatly serving a story loaded with twists that still surprise, still make you jump. Even the decoding sessions imaginatively visualized, like watching a hand-operated ‘enigma’ machine, easy to understand and fun to see in action.
ATTENTION MUST BE PAID: With nine writers credited, hard to know who’s responsible for what. Let’s blame Bella & Sam Spewack for the comic misfires, playful banter their specialty on B’way.
DOUBLE-BILL/LINK: Two pics back, Howard directed Powell with a debuting Russell & regular co-star Myrna Loy in an ill-fitting courtroom drama, EVELYN PRENTICE. So, when Loy walked out for a better contract, M-G-M had Russell on hand to take Loy’s spot. https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2008/07/evelyn-prentice-1934.html
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