User Reviews

'The She-Wolf' would be totally implausible if it were not inspired by a real person. Hetty Green (1834-1916) was a miser financier who inherited $7.5 million from her Quaker father. Investing this in Civil War bonds and then in railway shares, she was worth at least $100 million when she dropped dead while haggling over the price of a bottle of milk. All of her wealth was built through her own business acumen, rather than passive investment. Her miserliness surpassed anything in Dickens. This millionairess once spent an entire night searching for a lost 2-cent stamp. She lived in the cheapest possible rooming-house, never used heat nor hot water, never washed, ate the cheapest possible food. She owned precisely one dress (black, of course) and only one set of undergarments, wearing these clothes until they wore out before she purchased others. When her son injured his leg, Hetty Green took him out of hospital (she was too mean to pay the medical bill) and tried to find a free clinic that would admit him as a charity case; eventually, the boy's leg became gangrenous and had to be amputated. Even then, Green haggled over the price of a prosthetic limb! When her peg-legged son reached adulthood, Green sent him hundreds of miles to deliver some valuable bearer bonds for her; when he reached his destination, the bond certificates turned out to be fake. (Green was testing her son's honesty.)

In 'She-Wolf', actress May Robson gives a standout performance as Hattie Breen, a character clearly based on Hetty Green. Hattie is the millionaire widow of a financier who spent his life competing with rival magnate William Remington. Although not quite a miser in Hetty Green's league, Hattie Breen is a right piece of work. For 15 years, she has been 'investing' the wages of her housemaid Maria; now, when Maria demands an accounting, Hattie claims to know nothing about it. She sacks her stenographer David Talbot, after exploiting him. Hattie's son Tom works for her, but she exploits him ruthlessly and she is hostile to Tom's pregnant wife Peggy. Hattie's daughter (annoyingly named 'Faire') is also exploited and harassed. Eventually, Remington offers Tom millions of dollars to come work for Remington's interests ... but this will require Tom to betray the business secrets of his mother, who has done everything conceivable to ruin his life, his health and his marriage. (Sounds like a no-brainer to me.)

This movie is Robson's all the way. An extremely talented actress who spent most of her career in obscurity, but who was fortunate enough to reach near-stardom in lead roles at an advanced age, Robson displays a wide range of emotions here in a role that could easily have toppled into melodramatics. The script gives Robson several long speeches: the movie stalls at these points, but Robson's characterisation is excellent.

SPOILERS COMING. After going to such lengths to establish Hattie Breen as an utterly ruthless businesswoman who cares about nothing but profits (and controlling other people), the movie then does a volte-face and reveals that, deep down, Hattie has really got (all together now) a heart of gold. Astonishingly, her son and her former secretary both decide to remain loyal to Hattie: this is barely plausible for the son, but not remotely plausible for the secretary. Hattie comes through for the cheated housemaid Maria. The last scene is extremely annoying, as it requires Hattie to set up a highly contrived situation merely to pull a pointless 'joke' on her son. Hattie tells Tom that his wife Peggy is intimately entertaining the president of the Mohawk Central Railroad. It turns out that Peggy is nursing her infant son ... whom Hattie has just appointed to the presidency of a railway she owns! (Must be an interesting stockholders' meeting.)

'The She-Wolf' is a bizarre film. Significantly, the least plausible portions of this film are the fictional inventions and contrivances, while the most plausible portions are the scenes in which Hattie Breen's behaviour emulates that of the actual Hetty Green. I'm astonished that nobody has yet made a film about the real Hetty Green, whose true story is far more fascinating than anything in 'The She-Wolf'. I'll rate this Hollywood concoction 7 points out of 10.

After all, Andrew Carnegie, Jay Gould, John D. Rockefeller and J. P. Morgan were all actual tycoons who were extremely ruthless with their own employees, who wanted to privatize their gains and socialize their losses, who never failed to kick any debtors when they were down, yet nobody finds their stories remarkable. Could it be Universal found this story film-worthy because Hetty Green (model for the film's protagonist) was a female tycoon at a time (late 19th, early 20th century) when no woman took charge of her own fortunes, especially after marriage, and prevailed? Plus, given her Quaker roots, her stinginess in her personal life was legendary while the aforementioned male tycoons made ostentatious displays of their wealth. I think these two things set Hetty apart. The reason I am talking about all of this is, as other reviews have noted, this film is supposed to be based on the life of Hetty Green, with the main character being Harriet Breen, skillfully played by the wonderful May Robson.

For all but the last 15 minutes or so you are convinced that Harriet cares about nothing but money. She disowns her son when he runs up a gambling debt and uses his inheritance to back the loan given to him by Breen's worst enemy, fellow tycoon William Remington. She fires the right hand man in her finance company when he falls in love with her daughter. Harriet won't let her daughter go out and be young, instead insisting that she study bookkeeping and investing so she can handle her inheritance when the time comes. She also berates the family servant to the point where the poor woman behaves like an often kicked dog. Finally, Harriet dresses in drab black outfits that others make fun of. And then comes the ending....

Surprise! (or not!) Harriet really has a heart of gold! She has been pretending all of these years and being hard on everyone she cares about just so her enemies won't use the love that she hides so well against her! And her real mission in life? To stop Remington from messing with the price of wheat and causing people to starve. It's Harriet to the rescue who has bought up all of that wheat and plans to distribute it to the hungry. Oh, and by the way, all of the villains are ruined financially by her other maneuvers. She takes back the son she really never actually disinherited and gives her blessing on her daughter's romance. The thing that is really crazy here is Harriet reveals all of this "Thin Man" style - with the villains all gathered in a room - and with Harriet wearing a grand evening gown that the actual Hetty Green would not have been caught dead in! So even in the precode era, the heroine MUST be feminine (thus the evening gown when she reveals her true self) and must have a kind heart.

Robson blows away every other performer on screen, as usual. About the only negative thing I can say is May Robson at the time this film was made was 73 years old, much too old to be playing the mother of two people in their early 20s at most. Also, as I've said before, her energy almost makes you forget the improbability of the age differences. I'd recommend it if it ever comes your way.

If you decide to run Mother's Millions (1931) – it was available on a good VintageFilmBuff DVD – save yourself a good deal of anger and annoyance by just watching Acts One and Two. Act 3 is totally superfluous and merely repeats – or provides boringly elongated visual illustrations -- all the information you've already obtained from May Robson's skillful performance in her previous scenes. As might be expected, Robson doesn't portray Hettie Green (1834-1916) as the unrepentant miser she actually was, but as a pretend miser who merely puts on the act to hide her heart of gold. Also, as she obviously doesn't want people to take advantage of her good nature, she plays the abrasive skinflint to a "T". As I inferred above, however, the essential information that she is actually putting on an act, is provided not in the actual dialogue but either in the inflection of Robson's powerful voice or simply a twinkle in her eyes – and even on two or three occasions, a quick, unexpected smile in which she turns her back on the players and gives us, the audience, an earnest of her real nature and intentions. (I had an aunt who was just like that! She disguised her soft heart by playing all her real-life roles in a really abrasive manner. But I saw through her. She had a heart like melted butter)! Anyway, getting back to Miss Robson, hers is astonishingly brilliant, really gripping performance! It's obvious that director James Flood's input in these scenes in which Robson is always the dominant figure, is nil. In fact the only other character we really notice in Acts One and Two, is Lillian Harmer who boldly plays Hettie's put-upon and apparently exploited housekeeper, Maria. Even Frances Dade who plays the daughter and Lawrence Gray who enacts the son, come across as little more than background puppets. James Hall's act as the Green lawyer is also almost wiped right off the screen by Miss Robson. Unfortunately, director Flood and all these minor players get their vocal innings in a super-boring, ruthlessly elongated Act Three in which even Miss Robson is reduced to little more than a talking empty-head. (The movie is also known as The She-Wolf – a most unsatisfactory title if ever there was one)!