A LADY TO LOVE

Robert Ames and Vilma Banky

A LADY TO LOVE (1930). Director: Victor Seastrom.

"Of all the lowdown, dirty tricks that was ever played on a girl!"

A vintner named Tony (Edward G. Robinson) is smitten with a pretty foreign-born waitress, Lena (Vilma Banky), and sends her a proposal of marriage through the mail. Unfortunately he also encloses the photograph and of his younger and better-looking hand, Buck (Robert Ames), leading to sensual complications when Lena finally arrives in the Napa Valley.  This is the second film version (and first sound picture) of Sidney Howard's They Knew What They Wanted and it has a slight edge over the 1940 film of that title, even though Robinson is not as good as Tony as Charles Laughton was. Robinson seems to play the character as if the film were a comedy, although he has some strong moments of poignant desperation at the end. Banky and Ames are fine, although Buck, who seems a decent enough sort, has a bit of a character reversal to bastard towards the end. The best version of this story might be Frank Loesser's The Most Happy Fella.

Verdict: Creditable adaptation with interesting cast. ***.

THEY KNEW WHAT THEY WANTED

Charles Laughton as Tony Patucci

THEY KNEW WHAT THEY WANTED (1940). Director: Garson Kanin.

This is the third film version of Sidney Howard's 1924 Pulitzer prize-winning play, and the only one to use his title. The story line -- later used by Frank Loesser in his brilliant musical theater piece The Most Happy Fella -- concerns a middle-aged vintner named Tony (Charles Laughton) who becomes infatuated with a pretty waitress named Amy (Carol Lombard), and asks for her hand in marriage -- but sends a photo of his younger, better-looking hired hand, Joe (William Gargan), instead of his own. When Amy arrives she's horrified to discover that the man she's been dreaming about is years older, uneducated, and rather homely, but her attraction to Joe is still there -- and vice versa ... Although you wouldn't first think of Laughton for the role of the Italian-American Tony Patucci, he's as superb as ever. Similarly, Lombard might not be considered the best casting but she is also excellent, as is Gargan [Strange Impersonation.] The biggest problem with the movie is that the production code was in effect, and there's an awful lot of moralizing and hand-wringing, and the ending is changed from happy to bittersweet [which kind of works anyway]. There's also an annoying priest, Father McKee (played by Frank Fay, who was Barbara Stanwyck's first husband), hovering over the whole movie like the literal embodiment of a censor. Tony is also a bit of an idiot, drunkenly falling off of a roof as he shows off for Amy [in the original version he is in an accident instead]. Despite its many flaws They Knew What They Wanted works because of the superior performances, good direction from Kanin, and a fine score by Alfred Newman. Karl Malden has a small role as Red. Playwright Howard did the screenplay for Dodsworth. Kanin also directed Next Time I Marry with Lucille Ball.

Verdict: Not all it could have been, but noteworthy for the acting. ***.

DODSWORTH

DODSWORTH (1936). Director: William Wyler.

"Love has to stop somewhere short of suicide."

Sam Dodsworth (Walter Huston) has retired and his younger wife Fran (Ruth Chatterton) wants to spend her remaining days with him on the continent, where she wants to forget she has grown children and live a gay social whirl. Dodsworth is a simpler, less exciting soul and only wants to return to Zenith, the small town they come from. "You're rushing at old age," Fran tells him "and I'm not ready for that yet!" Before long Fran is being courted by and falling for younger men while Sam meets a sympathetic woman named Edith (Mary Astor). The interesting thing about the movie is that you find yourself switching allegiances mid-stream, at first rooting for the lively, fun-loving (if pretentious and snooty) Fran to shake the starch out of Sam, but then recognizing that Fran's life-loving vivacity has its dark and selfish side. Huston and Astor are fine, but Chatterton nearly steals the picture as Fran, and there are also excellent performances from Maria Ouspenskaya (as the mother of one of Fran's suitors), David Niven, Paul Lukas, and Gregory Gaye. "Have you considered how little happiness there can be for the old wife of a young husband?" Ouspenskaya asks a horrified Chatterton. John Payne also has a small role. Screenplay by Sidney Howard from the novel by Sinclair Lewis.

Verdict: A bit contrived at times but otherwise excellent. ***1/2.