%%date

Daily Archives: March 19, 2022

Ladies of Leisure (1930)

Posted on March 19, 2022 | Leave a comment

Ladies of Leisure
Directed by Frank Capra
Written by Jo Swerling from a play by Milton Herbert Gropper
1930/US
Columbia Pictures
IMDb page
Repeat viewing/Crackle

Dot Lamar: You can’t weigh sex appeal.

I love a good melodrama when it makes me cry.

This Pre-Code romcom/melodrama begins at the studio of artist Jerry Strong (Ralph Graves) where a wild drunken party is in progress. When Jerry flees the highjinks, he meets cute with Kay Arnold (Barbara Stanwyck) a self-proclaimed “party girl” who is fleeing a party she attended on a ship. Jerry is sees something in her which represents “hope” to him and asks her to pose for a portrait. The two leads have quirky counterparts in the form of Kay’s roommate fellow party girl Dot (Marie Provost) and Jerry’s playboy friend Bill (Lowell Sherman).

Jerry keeps things strictly platonic and it is not too long before Kay is madly in love with him. Can these two opposites attract? Not to give away too much but the course of true love never did run smooth.

I liked this far more on the rewatch than the first time around. It is really quite a touching love story. Barbara Stanwyck is wonderful throughout. Last time I thought she cried too much in the second half. This time I was crying right along with her. Even this early in her career she could deliver heartbreaking performances like this one. Recommended.

Clip (spoiler from near end of movie)

Torch Singer (1933)

Posted on March 19, 2022 | Leave a comment

Torch Singer
Directed by Alexander Hall and George Somnes
Written by Lenore J. Coffee and Lynn Starling from a story by Grace Perkins
1933/US
Paramount Pictures
IMDb page
Repeat viewing/Criterion Channel

Michael Gardner: You’ve changed all right! You’re selfish, hard.
Mimi Benton: Sure I am, just like glass. So hard, nothing’ll cut it but diamonds. Come around some day with a fistful. Maybe we can get together.

Pre-Code “women’s picture” with plenty of tears.

As the movie begins, Sally Trenton (Claudette Colbert) takes a cab to a charity maternity hospital. There she gives birth to a girl whom she names Sally. She and one of the other unwed mothers set up housekeeping. When her friend leaves to get married, Sally can no longer afford to keep the baby and gives it up for adoption.

She seeks employment as a chorus girl and climbs the ladder of show business until she is a famous, highly-paid torch singer. One day, she fills in as “Aunt Jenny” on a children’s radio show. Her stories and songs are a smash hit. Sally hits on the idea of trying to locate her daughter through the show. With Ricardo Cortez as Sally’s manager and David Manners as a father.