Daily Archives: March 7, 2023

Honor Among Lovers (1931)

Posted on March 7, 2023 | Leave a comment

Honor Among Lovers
Directed by Dorothy Arzner
Written by Austen Parker
1931/US
Paramount Pictures
IMDb page
First viewing/Criterion Channel

“When I went to work in a studio, I took my pride and made a nice little ball of it and threw it right out the window.” – Dorothy Arzner

This is ok but just that. Julia Traynor (Claudette Colbert) is a crack private secretary. Jerry Stafford (Fredric March) is her playboy boss. Jerry has a yen for Julia but she resists, only partly because of her loser boyfriend Philip Craig (Monroe Owsley).

One day Jerry asks Julia to join him for a round-the-world-cruise and accept a diamond bracelet she picked out for another of his flames. This shakes up Julia and she agrees to marry Philip.

After they marry, Philip loses his job and Jerry hires him as his financial assistant. Jerry doesn’t stop loving Julia and when Philip commits an impardonable crime she has a terrible dilemma. With Charles Ruggles and Ginger Rogers as comic relief.

I love these actors but the time or the script pulled really melodramatic acting out of them and made the movie less enjoyable than it may otherwise have been.

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Posted in 1931, Pre-Code Reviews

Shanghai Express (1932)

Posted on March 7, 2023 | Leave a comment

Shanghai Express
Directed by Josef von Sternberg
Written by Jules Furthman based on a story by Harry Hervey
1932/US
Paramount Pictures
IMDb Page
Repeat viewing/Criterion Channel
One of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

Shanghai Lily: Well, Doc, I’ve changed my name.
Captain Donald ‘Doc’ Harvey: Married?
Shanghai Lily: No. It took more than one man to change my name to Shanghai Lily.

Von Sternberg avoids the excesses of some of his later films and puts together an exciting fast-paced thriller. But the highlight as always is the way von Sternberg’s camera makes love to Dietrich’s face. Anna May Wong is also iconic in this one.

In a rather “Stagecoach”-like plot, several strangers board the train from Peking to Shanghai during the Chinese Civil War. These include the notorious Shanghai Lily (Dietrich); shady Chinese Lady Hui Fei (Wong); Captain Donald Harvey (Clive Brook), embittered former lover of Lily; Sam Salt (Eugene Pallette) a gambler; Mr. Carmichael a disapproving preacher; and Henry Chang (Warner Oland) a duplicitous Eurasian.

Lily and Donald encounter each other early on and spar and argue throughout the film. Mid-trip Chang reveals himself to be a rebel leader and wants to find a passenger influential enough to trade for a comrade captured by the other side. The women are as pawns but in the end it is they that vanquish the bad guys.

I’m prepared to be corrected but I think this may possibly be the most beautiful and glamorous Dietrich ever looked on film. Sternberg seems to be in a frenzy of sado-masocistic delight as he films her in and through every conceivable sheer fabric.

The one weak point in the film was Clive Brook. He comes off as stiff, stodgy, haughty and the last man on earth someone like Dietrich would take up with. I enjoy this one whenever I see it and highly recommend it.

The Criterion Channel is featuring a collection of pre-Code films produced by Paramount this month, several of which I have never seen. I’ll be dipping into that here and there.

Clip

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Posted in 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, 1932