John Cromwell is a name that is forgotten today but he was a good class actor/director who helmed a number of prestige projects with A list casts including Anna and the King of Siam, The Enchanted Cottage and The Prisoner of Zenda amongst other notable movies. He does good work here, too in the curiously named Jalna, which refers to the central family's house name. It is a quaint little piece and only runs an hour and 17 minutes and plays like a soap opera with moments of humour. The plot is pretty much centered on the young men of the house and the love triangles between them and the women they marry. Kay Johnson and Molly Lamont do well as the two women and Ian Hunter is quietly effective as the eldest brother but David Manners and Theodore Newton are rather insipid as brothers two and three. The slack could be taken up by top class character actors; C Aubrey Smith, Halliwell Hobbes and Willie Best, but they are sadly given too little to do (particularly Best who has less than a spit and a cough!). Hooray then for Nigel Bruce and Peggy Wood who do good work both together and apart as a couple who were destined to be together 20 years previous to the action of the piece and perhaps might get together yet. They share a wonderfully fun inebriated scene and Bruce is also in fine Baritone voice round the piano as well as delivering a decent pratfall. But the film is stole from under the noses of all by Jessie Ralph, memorable and funny as the 100 year old matriarch of the family with and without her talking parrot!
Review of Jalna
