FIVE AND TEN (1931)

Not good, but not without interest.  Marion Davies, mistress of news king W.R. Hearst/model for Susan Kane in CITIZEN KANE, was hitting her mid-30s and, like nearly all silent film stars, feeling the shifting sands of popularity after Early Talkie success.  This was her pivot pic, dramatically challenging beyond her narrow range and first significant flop.  (Her best sound film came next year in BLONDIE OF THE FOLLIES/’32 -  https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2019/09/blondie-of-follies-1932.html - but slow, steady decline followed.)  Taken from a pre-Depression novel by Fannie Hurst on the Woolworth fortune, Hurst presumably fascinated at the irony of the hoi polloi making a family rich by spending mere nickels & dimes at working class emporiums; a great subject barely broached here.  Leaving solid retail roots in the MidWest, the 'Woolworths' (here called the Raricks) buy a Fifth Avenue mansion, build the world’s tallest skyscraper, and bribe their way into Manhattan society as Richard Bennett’s Dad blindly chases ever grander retail schemes; ignored Mom Irene Rich takes a lover; goony scion Douglass Montgomery sacrifices his dreams to join the firm; and Davies falls hard for smooth Leslie Howard, stealing him from wealthy fiancée Mary Duncan.*  Seems money really can’t buy you happiness!  Though a coda suggests it can buy you a second chance.  Note that by collapsing a generation, Davies plays Poor Little Rich Girl (and future serial bride) Barbara Hutton.  Contradictorily, Davies is more comfortable playing the frolicking first act, yet only looks her best when she loses the rhythm as Hurst’s melodramatic instincts take over.  Too bad, someone could have done something with the plot points, story beats, characters & melodrama.  Wrong cast?  Wrong director?  Wrong studio?  Yep, yep & yep.

READ ALL ABOUT IT?/LINK:  It makes you want to look at the book.  But Hurst has fallen so far out of favor (after four decades of consistent bestsellers) only IMITATION OF LIFE now in print.  (That 1934 film’s Claudette Colbert perfect casting for the Davies role.  https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2021/08/imitation-of-life-1934-1959.html)

WATCH THIS, NOT THAT/LINK:  *Long forgotten, Mary Duncan had just made her mark in last year’s CITY GIRL/’30, a final gasp of silent incandescence from F.W. Murneau.  https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2016/05/city-girl-1930.html