The Carole Lombard "Glamour Collection" 6-film set from Universal (bought used but pristine for an unbeatable $12.98 at Half Price Books) starts off with an obscurity, 1931's Man of the World, directed by the reliable Richard Wallace, who was responsible for one of the decade's best deco comedies, the charming The Young in Heart (1938). Lombard's hair is close cropped in the early 30's manner and she's almost unrecognizable and quite tame as the second billed lead here. This is really a vehicle for William Powell (more than compensatory). He's a debonair American blackmailer aliasing as a novelist in Paris who's (predictably) having second thoughts about his profession when he falls for the niece, Mary, (Lombard) of his most recent, and clueless victim, a butterball butter-and-egg-man American middle-ager (Guy Kibbee) who pretty much makes it clear that he's in Paris not for the culture but for the snatch. It's a nice glimpse of what Kibbee's performance might have been like in the notorious lost 1933 pre-Code comedy, Convention City. Of course, Powell becomes torn between his loyalty to his cronies in crime, including a viper girlfriend, and his budding love for lil Miss Mary. It's predictable until the end, which is surprisingly downbeat; it's impossible to think of any film after 1934 with romantic comedy elements allowing for an ending like this one, and that goes for today's movies. It's a "moral" ending, yet not in the audience-pandering sense, and it seems to have more poetic gravitas than usual. There's a lovely "doubling" narrative effect as the two couples return across the Atlantic. And I'm a sucker for things being scattered over the sea. The movie is full of diverting detail and the kind of style and pacing that I love in '30s film. On the basis of this and The Young in Heart, Richard Wallace seems to have been an exceptional director of actors. In both films the performances are keyed down and natural, and verbal mistakes are allowed to stay in the picture. In all, a well-modulated, if minor and forgettable, '30s entertainment, which of course, is not at all a drawback for me. Grade: C
Monday, October 19, 2009
Man of the World (1931), Richard Wallace, with William Powell and Carole Lombard
The Carole Lombard "Glamour Collection" 6-film set from Universal (bought used but pristine for an unbeatable $12.98 at Half Price Books) starts off with an obscurity, 1931's Man of the World, directed by the reliable Richard Wallace, who was responsible for one of the decade's best deco comedies, the charming The Young in Heart (1938). Lombard's hair is close cropped in the early 30's manner and she's almost unrecognizable and quite tame as the second billed lead here. This is really a vehicle for William Powell (more than compensatory). He's a debonair American blackmailer aliasing as a novelist in Paris who's (predictably) having second thoughts about his profession when he falls for the niece, Mary, (Lombard) of his most recent, and clueless victim, a butterball butter-and-egg-man American middle-ager (Guy Kibbee) who pretty much makes it clear that he's in Paris not for the culture but for the snatch. It's a nice glimpse of what Kibbee's performance might have been like in the notorious lost 1933 pre-Code comedy, Convention City. Of course, Powell becomes torn between his loyalty to his cronies in crime, including a viper girlfriend, and his budding love for lil Miss Mary. It's predictable until the end, which is surprisingly downbeat; it's impossible to think of any film after 1934 with romantic comedy elements allowing for an ending like this one, and that goes for today's movies. It's a "moral" ending, yet not in the audience-pandering sense, and it seems to have more poetic gravitas than usual. There's a lovely "doubling" narrative effect as the two couples return across the Atlantic. And I'm a sucker for things being scattered over the sea. The movie is full of diverting detail and the kind of style and pacing that I love in '30s film. On the basis of this and The Young in Heart, Richard Wallace seems to have been an exceptional director of actors. In both films the performances are keyed down and natural, and verbal mistakes are allowed to stay in the picture. In all, a well-modulated, if minor and forgettable, '30s entertainment, which of course, is not at all a drawback for me. Grade: C
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