User Reviews

There are LOTS of spoilers in this review--please feel free to read them and skip this film! Please,...you'd be doing yourself a favor!!

It's pretty hard to find an MGM film of the era with as good a cast as this one AND still be a terrible film. In fact, if it weren't for the generally good production values, the film would merit a 1--the writing was just THAT bad! The fundamental problem is that many of the characters performed almost like they had schizophrenia!! In other words, they behaved so inconsistently and stupidly that being insane and unmedicated is one of the only explanations for the way they act. It is also possible that the writers wrote up a long list of plot devices and threw them into a hat and randomly pulled them out and put them in the script--it's that confusing and inconsistent. Let's discuss some of the characters to illustrate why this movie irritated me so much.

Robert Young initially hated his future sister-in-law (Joan Crawford). Their first meeting and most of their interactions through the first third of the movie are pretty volatile and this is all due to Young's actions and attitude. But, then, seemingly out of the blue, he professes his love for her and ardently pursues her despite the fact that BOTH of them are married and in-laws!! This just didn't make sense and seemed more like a story-line from THE COLBYS or DALLAS than from a movie!

There's also the young neighbor who loves the trumpet and seems like a nice guy. Joan buys him a new trumpet provided he agree to practice more quietly--an excellent way to handle the problem of having to listen to his playing. She treats him nicely but gives no indication she is sweet on this guy. So what does he do late in the film? Yep, he attacks her and says that "she wants him"!! Get that man some medication, please!

Margaret Sullavan played a very sweet person and was at least as attractive as Joan Crawford. So, of course, her husband chases Joan. The whole time this is happening, Margaret shows no indication that she knows her husband is a jerk. So, towards the very end, she runs into a burning house and tries to kill herself!! Huh?!?!

Fay Bainter has the most interesting role in the film. She is the matriarch of the rich family that Joan marries into. From the second she meets Joan, it is obvious that she detests her and does little to hide her scorn. She is totally judgmental, cold and cruel throughout the film--and I liked this character a lot--she was mean and fun to hate! In fact, she was so full of hate and evil that late in the film she burns Joan's and her husband's home to the ground and then admits doing it! So far, so good---but then it becomes totally INSANE! First, while she admits to this evil act, she suffers no consequences--no police or an admission to the Booby Hatch!!! If one of my family members burned down my home and admitted doing it, I'd at least be a bit more miffed than this family!!! This is dumb, but then comes the absolutely WORST moment--then, only minutes later when Joan has had enough and leaves for what appears for good (Fay's wish coming true), Ms. Bainter chases after her and begs her to stay and says she's sorry!! Huh?! Crack addicts behave more consistently than this!!

Then comes Melvin Douglas--Joan's husband. While he says he loves her and chases after her like a puppy, he also says and does nothing to stop his sister (Bainter) from mistreating his wife--nothing!! What a fine caring man, huh?! He only tells her off AFTER she burns down his home, but even this is muted. No wonder Joan had doubts as to whether or not she loves him!

Actually, Joan Crawford comes off best in the film. While I have never been a huge fan of hers, I must admit she did a competent job as a city playgirl who gives it all up in an attempt to radically change her soul-less life. It must have galled Joan to have absolutely no support from the rest of the cast--all competent actors who were hamstrung by terrible roles.

It's soap opera, but it is good soap opera, with several good performances in it.

Joan Crawford is a Broadway dancing star, helped on her way up by Allan Joslyn. Joslyn would like it to be the start of a marriage, but his cynical frame of mind is not what Crawford can accept (outside of friendship). She meets wealthy Wisconsin gentleman farmer Melvin Douglas, and he gets her to agree to marry him (Joslyn is uncertain about the wisdom of the move, not only from self-interest but from concern that Crawford will be a fish out of water). Another party who is troubled by the marriage is Douglas's brother Robert Young, who thinks Crawford will be too like her friends. Despite this Young and Douglas marry, and soon are in Wisconsin. They bring with them Hattie MacDaniel, Crawford's smart maid.

(A small point about the film - MacDaniel had not gotten her Oscar yet for GONE WITH THE WIND but there are moments when the camera is concentrating on her, and when she is involved in scenes, where any other African-American actress of the period (say Louise Beavers) playing a maid would not have gotten camera time - I wonder if this was because Hattie was photogenic and the movie crews were noticing this, or because David Selznick may have noticed her and requested some additional footage for her. She handles the role with customary humor and spice.)

Crawford finds (although she has had hints) that Douglas' older sister (Fay Bainter) is cold and hostile. More about this later. Young's wife (Margaret Sullivan) is very friendly and sweet. But although Crawford warms up to Sullivan, Young (who had been initially cold to the marriage) begins showing a different attitude: he is falling in love with Crawford. Bainter takes an "I told you so!" attitude to this, and Sullivan becomes increasingly miserable. Only Douglas seems oblivious - in particular because Crawford is making every effort to remain faithful.

The climax concerns the dream house that Douglas and Crawford were planning to build a few miles from Bainter's home. Instead of being a solution to the twisted mess, it becomes a magnet for the coming disaster. It is only with the disaster that the relations are sorted out.

Now about Bainter: This film was made within three years of the renewal (and new teeth) to the Hollywood Production Code. As such, certain things could be said and certain things couldn't. In terms of the code, the film fits properly. But with Bainter, they managed (or that fine actress did) to push the envelope a little. In a confrontation scene with Douglas, Bainter reveals something about her private feelings. She hates Crawford, and tells Douglas to get rid of her, eventually saying, "I'm your sister and I love you!" Her character is a repressed spinster type (she is the oldest of the siblings), and she has never really been close to Sullivan (although the latter grew up in the area). One gets the impression Bainter has certain incestuous feelings for Douglas and even Young (and that the former chooses to overlook these, and the latter resents them). This seems to be the first time this kind of situation arises in a film prior to Geraldine Fitzgerald's performance as George Sanders' possessive sister in THE STRANGE AFFAIR OF UNCLE HARRY, but that at time was slightly more explicit.

With Frank Albertson in a supporting part as a rustic with jazz trumpet ambitions (who momentarily makes the situation for Crawford get a bit murkier).

Perhaps some audience members found this dramatic and sophisticated in 1938 (though that is questionable), but today this Crawford vehicle is entertaining for entirely different reasons, its camp value, its sets and costumes and its snippy dialogue. Crawford (in an ironically autobiographical role) plays a girl from a low-income background who has reinvented herself as a cosmopolitan dancer, complete with smashing wardrobe, deluxe apartment and affected accent and manner. When Douglas, heir and head of a major farm, falls for her and needles her into marrying him, she is transported to the country where she is faced with scrutinizing brother-in-law Young, his kind, but demure, wife Sullavan and downright hostile sister-in-law Bainter who doesn't even let her get in the door before the remarks start flying! Crawford has devoted Douglas and even more devoted maid McDaniel on her side (as well as easily-impressed Sullavan), but Bainter is in a power position and tends to ride roughshod over the others. When Young changes from judge to admirer where Crawford's concerned and she begins to reciprocate those feelings, there's a lot of trouble in store for everyone. Crawford has many fine moments here along with many loving close-ups. She's hardly an elegant enough dancer, despite her history as a Charleston champ, to warrant all the fuss she's given in the early part of the film, but she gives a stalwart, concerned performance. Her second-to-last outfit has the type of shoulder pads that she soon became infamous for (perhaps to allow her male stunt double a little bit of visual leeway?) Sullavan, often shrouded in softer focus than Crawford, is likable and natural. It's interesting to watch the Queen of controlled artifice square off against the stage-trained emotiveness of Sullavan and, when it comes to commanding the screen, it's pretty much a draw. She is generally effective up until her completely ludicrous final scene, which can't help but elicit giggles thanks to the preposterous handling, styling-wise. It's a wonder Claude Rains didn't enter the room and make a play for her! Douglas is appealing throughout, though perhaps a bit more backbone might have been desired in his character, especially with regards to Bainter and primarily with her during the denouement! Young tries hard and does well, but simply does not have the looks or the magnetism to inspire the type of passionate feelings that Crawford and Sullavan are meant to have for him. Not only does he not resemble a sibling of Douglas or Bainter, but also he just isn't a figure that would get the ladies this heated up, especially when some of his pertinent close-ups suggest a crossed-eye. Bainter gets a rare chance to play a bitch on wheels and savors it. Her character has severe and mostly unjustified mood swings, the side effect of a very unevenly written script, rendering her character nearly unplayable, but she gives her lines delicious nastiness and condescension. Her face-offs with Crawford are a highlight. McDaniel is typically enjoyable as a dot of comic relief. A year later, she'd be cuddling an Oscar for her role in "Gone With the Wind". This film heavily echoes 1933's "The Silver Cord" and it's often easy to forget that Bainter is Douglas and Young's sister and not their mother. The storyline seems to be missing key moments that would explain radical changes in the characters' feelings, but it remains compelling nonetheless. The parade of sometimes overly frilly Adrian gowns, the detailed and nicely appointed sets, the overripe dialogue and the verbal cat-fights between the characters make this a high camp masterpiece, never more so than when Young enters Sullavan's room near the finale. One woozy drinking game could be played by downing a shot every time a character refers to how hot it is, though they are always weighted down with heavy clothes!

The most unlikely and stupid behavior from supposedly smart and savvy people. No motivation or background for any of the carachters dialogue. Suddenly Robert Young falls in love with his brothers wife? The dumb wife suggests her husband and sister in law run away together? I can't imagine this snoozer being a hit on Broadway, or why anyone would green light this boring movie.