LADIES’ MAN (1931)

Now remembered almost exclusively for co-writing CITIZEN KANE/'41 with Orson Welles, Herman J. Mankiewicz was at his most productive and his most influential during the early ‘30s at Paramount, writing, producing, and most importantly setting a sophisticated/adult tone.  This rather disagreeable romantic dramedy a perfect example of his imperfect efforts.*  William Powell, still shaded with the darker characters he started out playing back in the silents, is this year’s ‘ladies’ man’ to upper-crust business ‘widows,’ their husbands alive, but always at work.  Something of an unannounced gigolo, Powell’s a Manhattan flaneur, threading a needle of romance-with-benefits to ‘baste’ together a living with the trinkets of love.  Currently working a mother/daughter act, Mom’s a 400 Society snob (Olive Tell), unaware her main rival is her own daughter (Carole Lombard).  (Off the set, Lombard & Powell just engaged.)  These two are matched by father/scion: Bank prez Dad aware of the useful ‘escort’ service; son horrified at ‘the benefits.’  But once Powell is gob-smacked by ‘the real thing,’ a just visiting Kay Francis, he suddenly sees himself plainly and wants a fresh start.  Is he in too deep to change?  This is at least the third time Mank used this light start to set up a swerve toward the depths (it worked better for him in LAUGHTER/’30), but under Lothar Mendes’s direction, there’s less Early Talkie longueurs, at least by the younger cast members.  Though Paramount, like M-G-M had yet to come up to speed.  Very watchable if viewed with a bit of patience and a yen to see Powell’s lounge lizard go all Rake’s Progress.

DOUBLE-BILL/LINK:  *See David Fincher’s unconvincing case for the defense (or is it the offense?) in MANK/'20.  https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2021/01/mank-2020.html   OR: By 1939, Francis’s star had slipped to B-pics, so Lombard, who was riding high, gave her a big juicy role in her Cary Grant co-starrer, IN NAME ONLY.   https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2016/08/in-name-only-1939.html