Consolation Marriage (1931)
A really good movie, and a very serious drama. The sincerity of the acting and the attempt for clarity about true love and romantic first love are both impressive. Yes, it is somewhat of a familiar kind of film and filming, not quite breaking rules or surprising you as it goes, but in a way this just adds to its solidity.
The two female stars are what drew me first to the title, and it's the underrated and subtle Irene Dunne who gives the whole drama its depth. Myrna Loy is a second woman with a small role, but it's fun to see her so early in her career. The men were known at the time, especially Pat O'Brien, but they do less to make it convincing that simply fill in Dunne's deeper performance.
What drives the thing is the plot, which is really sincere. Two couples in two different scenes are shown as romantically idealized—the starry eyed kinds of couples, true love and be-happy-forever types. Very impractical but compelling. And they both break up. (This happens right away, not a spoiler.) So the woman from one and the man from the other (Dunne and O'Brien) meet at a restaurant. And they get along so well, and have in common that their perfect relationships were now suddenly ruined, they decide to date. And so on.
So this "consolation marriage" is a kind of means to survive, and happily. And they make a deal that they will always remember that they each had "true loves" earlier and elsewhere. And that they would have an "open" marriage.
Then the ex-lovers re-appear. Inevitably. And the moral conflict is in their faces. Good idea, well done. It doesn't take it to emotional depths or to the complexity all these crossed affections suggest, but it does try. And that's where the move works so well. Underrated, in my view. It's not a thrilling pre-code classic, but it's worth seeing.
A really good movie, and a very serious drama. The sincerity of the acting and the attempt for clarity about true love and romantic first love are both impressive. Yes, it is somewhat of a familiar kind of film and filming, not quite breaking rules or surprising you as it goes, but in a way this just adds to its solidity.
The two female stars are what drew me first to the title, and it's the underrated and subtle Irene Dunne who gives the whole drama its depth. Myrna Loy is a second woman with a small role, but it's fun to see her so early in her career. The men were known at the time, especially Pat O'Brien, but they do less to make it convincing that simply fill in Dunne's deeper performance.
What drives the thing is the plot, which is really sincere. Two couples in two different scenes are shown as romantically idealized—the starry eyed kinds of couples, true love and be-happy-forever types. Very impractical but compelling. And they both break up. (This happens right away, not a spoiler.) So the woman from one and the man from the other (Dunne and O'Brien) meet at a restaurant. And they get along so well, and have in common that their perfect relationships were now suddenly ruined, they decide to date. And so on.
So this "consolation marriage" is a kind of means to survive, and happily. And they make a deal that they will always remember that they each had "true loves" earlier and elsewhere. And that they would have an "open" marriage.
Then the ex-lovers re-appear. Inevitably. And the moral conflict is in their faces. Good idea, well done. It doesn't take it to emotional depths or to the complexity all these crossed affections suggest, but it does try. And that's where the move works so well. Underrated, in my view. It's not a thrilling pre-code classic, but it's worth seeing.