Famed for his Frank Capra collaborations (IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT; LADY FOR A DAY; MR. DEEDS GOES TO TOWN, et al.), writer Robert Riskin came to Hollywood after this B’way ‘problem play’ was bought by Warners after a one-month run. Trimmed, rather adapted by Harvey Thew, without input from Riskin or co-author Edith Fitzgerald, then handed to duffer director Archie Mayo. It’s not much of a movie, but still fascinating as a look at Love, Marriage, and the mores of modern maidens circa 1930. Barbara Stanwyck, whose reputation preceded her even in 1931 thanks to LADIES OF LEISURE/’30 and TEN CENTS A DANCE/’31 (even lower Pre-Code morals yet to come), is the free-spirited live-in lover of James Rennie, a scion of Wall Street type eager to go legit. Not so Babs; gossip & social disgrace be damned. Her own parents, and every marriage she knows died once the knot was tied. Finally folding under the pressure of an Act One curtain, she proves herself right in Act Two. The only way to keep our love alive is to live separately, illicitly visiting her lover as a playmate for ‘overnighting.’ Loads of Pre-Code types & ideas in here; plenty of drinking too with life-of-the-party Charles Butterworth continuously blitzed. Plus both principals with a past ready to spark back to life at any moment. (Ricardo Cortez for her/Natalie Moorhead for him). Naturally, there’s a copout ending, but in its plainspoken way, the play’s argument remains interesting if not quite modern. The film should be far better known, and would be if groom James Rennie were a leading man worthy of the young & vivid Stanwyck.
DOUBLE-BILL/LINK: For a 'Mod' look at this sort of on-again/off-again romance, Stanley Donen & Frederic Raphael’s trope-breaking beauty TWO FOR THE ROAD/’67 with Audrey Hepburn & Albert Finney. PLUS: Remade with Bette Davis two years on as EX-LADY. https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2015/03/ex-lady-1933.html https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2016/06/two-for-road-1967.html
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