Post by rmichaelpyle on Apr 26, 2010 9:21:55 GMT -6
Last night I watched a fine pre-coder, "Their Own Desire" (1929), with Norma Shearer, Robert Montgomery, Belle Bennett, Lewis Stone, and Helene Millard. This one begins at a snooty polo match where Stone "meets" (if not already having met - maybe several times) Millard. Problem is, he's already married to Bennett, and their daughter is Norma Shearer. Cut to one year later: Stone and Bennett are divorcing and Stone is going to Millard, perhaps to marry. They've obviously been having a torrid affair the last year. This part of the film is only partially carried through to the end - because - the rest of the film is devoted to Norma Shearer discovering Robert Montgomery - and guess whose son he is? Yep. Helene Millard's. All kinds of stories and needed resolutions develop. It's strictly a 20's potboiler, but the theme of divorce among the snooty rich was still scandalous in those days. Then to have the son and daughter of the respective families falling in love... Well...
This was up for an Academy Award for Shearer as "Best Actress". Was it that good? No. Did she win? No. But guess who won next year...? One thing one will notice if one is familiar with Shearer's career: several of her silent techniques are still prevalent in this soundie, and sometimes the pantomimic gestures are overwrought. Are they bad? No, but she becomes a better sound actress within a year or so. Just an observation...
Shortcomings: (1) Belle Bennett as the mother of Shearer and divorced wife of Stone is not very exciting, if not rather boring, and (2) the title is downright forgetable.
Nice story to watch from that day. Frankly, it's told very well, and the theme is certainly not boring at all. It's not all sex and violence and gratuitous this and that, either. Rather, it's a story that tries to pull family strings and make itself resonate on a fairly high MGM level of its day. Not the stuff of cheapie studios who tried to make money on the quick with anything possible... Technically it slightly creaks, but only slightly, and not nearly as much as many of the films from 1929, and, in fact, E. Mason Hopper did a pretty good job of direction in the face of early technical difficulties in the sound age beginnings.
This is from the Warner Archive Collection, and it's a very lovely print. Recommended.
This was up for an Academy Award for Shearer as "Best Actress". Was it that good? No. Did she win? No. But guess who won next year...? One thing one will notice if one is familiar with Shearer's career: several of her silent techniques are still prevalent in this soundie, and sometimes the pantomimic gestures are overwrought. Are they bad? No, but she becomes a better sound actress within a year or so. Just an observation...
Shortcomings: (1) Belle Bennett as the mother of Shearer and divorced wife of Stone is not very exciting, if not rather boring, and (2) the title is downright forgetable.
Nice story to watch from that day. Frankly, it's told very well, and the theme is certainly not boring at all. It's not all sex and violence and gratuitous this and that, either. Rather, it's a story that tries to pull family strings and make itself resonate on a fairly high MGM level of its day. Not the stuff of cheapie studios who tried to make money on the quick with anything possible... Technically it slightly creaks, but only slightly, and not nearly as much as many of the films from 1929, and, in fact, E. Mason Hopper did a pretty good job of direction in the face of early technical difficulties in the sound age beginnings.
This is from the Warner Archive Collection, and it's a very lovely print. Recommended.
I haven't seen Their Own Desire or most of the other films you have written about, but I really enjoy reading your comments.