Category Archives: 1931

The Cheat
Directed by George Abbott
Harry Hervey from a silent film script by Hector Turbull
1931/US
Paramount Pictures
IMDb page
First viewing/Criterion Channel

“If you must play, decide upon three things at the start: the rules of the game, the stake, and the quitting time.” – Chinese proverb

This solid melodrama features a rare film performance by Tallulah Bankhead with good acting all around.

Elsa Carlyle (Bankhead) is a compulsive gambler who is very in love with her husband Jeffrey (Harvey Stephens).  Hubby is a wheeler dealer in the business world.  He has a few projects pending and has asked Elsa to rein in her spending for a while.  This proves to be impossible for Elsa.  She loses $5,000 at the tables and offers her creditor a double or nothing bet on picking the high card from a deck.  She now owes him $10,000.  It as if the universe is trying to tell her something but she doesn’t listen.

She meets oriental art collector Hardy Livingston and he comes on to her strong.  The creditor starts pressing for his money.  Elsa steals the money from the charitable club of which she is treasurer.  But before paying of her debt, she invests the money in a “sure thing”.  Elsa is now $20,000 in debt.  The club doesn’t find out right away.

Hardy continues to make advances.  He talks her into wearing a very expensive jeweled Siamese costume to a party.  Finally, he offers to give her $10,000 if she will give him what he wants – and we all know what that is.  Will Elsa be able to break her losing streak?  I will stop here.  With Charles Middleton (Ming the Magnificent) as a defense attorney.

I really enjoyed this one, mainly for the acting.  It’s a strange story, originally made as a silent in 1915 by Cecil B. DeMille.  In the former film, the art collector part was played by Sessue Hayakawa and was an Burmese ivory trader.  I’m glad this one changed the race of the cad. Bankhead looks really beautiful. The film is currently available on YouTube for free.

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An American Tragedy
Directed by Josef von Sternberg
Written by Samuel Hoffenstein from the novel by Theodore Dreiser
1931/US
Paramount Pictures
IMDb page
First viewing/Criterion Channel

Whether we fall by ambition, blood, or lust, like diamonds we are cut with our own dust. – John Webster

This is a case where the remake vastly surpasses the original.

If you have seen A Place in the Sun (1951), you will be familiar with the basic plot of this film.  Clyde Griffiths (Phillips Holmes) has been brought up in poverty by his parents who are missionaries.  He was a passenger in a car that hit and run, leaving a little girl dead. He flees taking many odd jobs until he applies for one with his wealthy uncle in Lycergus, New York. He becomes foreman of a shop of all female piece workers.

This is where he runs into Roberta Alden.  Although the company has a strict policy prohibiting relationships between management and labor, Phillips pursues Roberta.  She is a good girl but falls in love with him and he finally seduces her.

About this time, he meets Sondra Finchley (Frances Dee) an eligible high-society heiress. Clyde begins to move in high-class social circles.  He abruptly stops seeing Roberta. She waits a few weeks to inform him she is pregnant.  Phillips contemplates taking drastic action. The movie ends as a courtroom drama.

Sylvia Sidney, who plays the Shelley Winters part, is the best thing about this picture.  She is beautiful, charming, and pathetic when need be.  The relationship between Phillips Holmes and Frances Dee, who plays the Elizabeth Taylor part, is totally lacking in heat or chemistry.  You would not know von Sternberg directed this without reading the credits.  A curiosity.

Ladies’ Man
Directed by Lothar Mendes
Written by Herman J. Mankiewicz from a novel by Rupert Hughes
1931/US
Paramount Pictures
IMDb page
First viewing/Criterion Channel

‘The bigtime for you is just around the corner.’ They told me that first in 1952 – boy, it’s been a long corner. If I don’t hit the bigtime in the next 25 or 30 years, I’m gonna pack in the music business and become a full-time gigolo.– Ronnie Hawkins

Paramount could also be a glamor studio and this film shows off its stars.  Herman J. Mankiewicz wrote the snappy screenplay.

Jamie Darricott  (William Powell) is a man-about-town.  He finances his lavish lifestyle by romancing wealthy ladies who return the favor by giving him expensive jewelry originally given to them by their husbands.  Currently, Jamie is having an affair with the wife (Olive Tell) of a workaholic banker, who has little time for her.  Their daughter Rachel (Carole Lombard) is also crazy about Jamie and he takes up with her as well.  Rachel is extremely jealous and has marriage on the mind.

When Jamie meets Norma Page (Kay Francis) by chance at a party, everything changes. He rapidly falls in love with her.  In the meantime, the banker has found out about his wife’s affair.  How will Jamie extricate himself from his situation so he can marry Norma?  I was not expecting that ending!

This movie is only 70 minutes long, not nearly enough time to give it any time to really develop the characters.  But the gowns are to die for and the actors are all in their prime.  I enjoyed it.

Tribute to Kay Francis

The Champ
Directed by King Vidor
Written by Frances Marion and Wanda Tuchock
1931/US
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
IMDb page
Repeat viewing/Amazon Prime rental

Dink Purcell: The Champ and I ain’t fixed up swell as this, but our joint’s more lively.

This sentimental but gritty melodrama works well due to its direction and cast.

Andy Purcell (Wallace Beery) is the former Heavyweight Champion of the World.  Currently, he is living in Tijuana with his son Dink (Jackie Cooper).  He is now out of shape with drinking and gambling problems.  Every time he earns money it seems to disappear into the bottle and the dice table.  Dink does an admirable job of taking care of him.

After a night of good luck, Andy buys Dink a racehorse which Dink names Little Champ. The two prepare to enter Little Champ in a race.  Coincidentally, Dink’s mother Linda (Irene Rich) owns a horse that is in the same race.  When she meets Dink she desperately wants to take him away from his sordid life with The Champ.  She bribes Andy into letting her see Dink in her palatial San Diego digs.  Dink is unimpressed.

Andy finally lets Dink go after he is put in jail for a fight and is down to his last nickel.  But the boy runs away.  Miraculously, Andy gets an opportunity to fight the Mexican Heavyweight Champion.  Where will Dink land?

Jackie Cooper is completely winning in his part and may be the best crier of all times.  While Beery is unconvincing as a boxer, he is a loveable lug.  I was entertained.  Recommended.

Wallace Beery tied for the Best Oscar Actor with Fredric March for his performance in Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde (1931).  The film was nominated in the categories of Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Writing, Original Story.

Private Lives
Directed by Sidney Franklin
Written by Hans Kraly and Richard Schayer from a play by Noel Coward
1931/US
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
IMDb page
First viewing/Amazon Prime rental

Amanda: I think very few people are completely normal really, deep down in their private lives. It all depends on a combination of circumstances. If all the various cosmic thingummys fuse at the same moment, and the right spark is struck, there’s no knowing what one mightn’t do. That was the trouble with Elyot and me, we were like two violent acids bubbling about in a nasty little matrimonial bottle.

MGM glamor meets Noel Coward in this solid early screwball comedy.

The setting is among the cosmopolitan young and wealthy.  Amanda Prynne (Norma Shearer) and Elyot Chase (Robert Montgomery) were formerly Mr. and Mrs. Chase.  They had a tumultuous passionate marriage that lasted three years. Constant bickering and even mutual combat did them in. Now they are divorced and have remarried. Amanda is with Victor Prynne (Reginald Denny) and Elyot is with Sybil (Una Merkel). Both new spouses constantly want to be reassured and are pretty boring.

As fate would have it, the two couples have booked romantic honeymoon suites next to each other on the French Riviera. It doesn’t take long before Elyot and Amanda hook up again and leave their new partners in the lurch. But can this new pairing overcome the differences that made them divorce in the first place?

This is a charmingly sophisticated movie with a preposterous plot. It’s a sort of proto-screwball comedy.  The dialogue and acting is spot on. Recommended.