Millie
Directed by John Francis Dillon
Written by Charles Kenyon and Ralph Murphy from a novel by Donald Henderson Clarke
1931/US
RKO Radio Pictures
IMDb page
First viewing/Amazon Prime (free to Members)
Millie Blake: I can’t afford to go out nights.
Helen Riley: Well, you certainly can’t afford to stay home nights. Not at this stage in the game
In this movie, pre-Code shenanigans are mixed with melodrama and a strong cast.
Helen Twelvetrees plays the title character, a girl all the small town high school boys are crazy about. She protects her virtue fiercely. Then wealthy businessman Jack Maitland (James Hall) asks her to marry him and she accepts. They move to New York City. Three years later she has an adorable little girl and James is spending more and more time away from her on “business”.
Angie Wickerstaff (Joan Blondell), a friend from back home, calls Millie and wants to see her. Blondell’s co-conspirator in gold-digging is Helen Riley (Lilyan Tashman). The roommates are short on rent money, They take Millie out to a speakeasy where she sees Jack dancing and romancing another woman. She drops him like a hot potato, loses her daughter, refuses to take any of his money, and makes a success of herself through hard work.
Millie continues to attract the attention of many men but the only one that respects her is Tommy Rock (Robert Ames), a newspaper reporter. They date for years. When she discovers Tommy also has a girlfriend on the side, she dumps him and goes on a downhill slide into the hard-drinking partying of Angie and Helen. Finally, an incident causes Millie to snap and a courtroom drama ensues. With John Halliday as a would-be sugar daddy.
This is a very ok movie and kept my attention for the entire 85 minutes of its run time. Blondell looks so young! I loved Twelvetrees and Tashman in other movies and they are both in top form here. If the plot appeals, I can recommend it.
