Monday, September 8, 2014

Review Roundup: VIRTUE (1932) / SEARCH FOR BEAUTY (1934)

Hello Readers!  It's been way too long since I checked in -- hope everything's going well with you all.  Things are going great for me because every Friday in September, TCM is playing pre-Codes!  All the lurid goodness you can handle for 24 hours.  Paradise for this film fan!

Two that I enjoyed over the weekend (hooray for DVR):



VIRTUE (1932) is a gritty little melodrama about Mae (Carole Lombard), a prostitute ready to walk the straight and narrow instead of the streets, and Jimmy (Pat O'Brien), the taxi driver she begins a new life with -- only to have the old one rear its ugly, two-faced head.

I was going to write a full review, but Danny at Pre-Code.com has done a marvelous job of that already, so go have a look!   Allow me to add that Lombard is on par with Barbara Stanwyck in this -- the entire film feels more like a down-and-dirty WB production rather than Columbia.  Top-notch and I recommend it highly.


SEARCH FOR BEAUTY (1934) is crazy.  The plot of a health-and-fitness magazine trying to run a beauty contest almost doesn't matter; this whole film is sex on screen with a healthy thumbing-of-the-nose at the Hays Code.  It's gotta be the most salacious of the pre-Codes I've seen (and that's saying something)!  Danny at Pre-Code.com again does the honors with his review.  YOU HAVE TO SEE THIS MOVIE.  Also: Toby Wing Speaks!  She gets actual billing!  

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You may wonder why I'm no longer doing my own reviews.  Well, the fact is: there are so many other bloggers that are much, much better at it than I am!  So you'll continue to see poems, actor profiles, and other interesting tidbits on FF+SS, but reviews will be from other film bloggers worth your attention (and boy, are there some wonderful ones)!  I'll still be adding my two cents though. ;)


4 comments:

VP81955 said...

I find "Virtue" Carole Lombard's best performance prior to her pivotal role in "Twentieth Century." She exhibits a toughness similar to Stanwyck and gives her Mae a multidimensional texture. If it is reminiscent of a Warners film, it might be because several months before, Carole rejected a loanout from her home studio of Paramount to Warners to make "Taxi!" with James Cagney, deeming it a demotion of sorts. Loretta Young took the female lead, "Taxi!" became a substantial hit, and Lombard long regretted her decision.

"Virtue," written by Robert Riskin (who would romance Lombard between her dalliances with Russ Columbo and Clark Gable), has much of a "Taxi!" feel to it, down to the cabbie as male lead portrayed by the poor man's Cagney, Pat O'Brien.

Flapper Flickers + Silent Stanzas said...

She really is fantastic in this, hard-edged yet vulnerable.

Danny said...

Thanks for the shout outs, it's much appreciated! And I'm with VP (so far at least), Virtue is a beaut.

Flapper Flickers + Silent Stanzas said...

You're welcome! Your reviews are fabulous!