An interesting film, but awfully slow and static - compare it to the previous year's Red Dust, for example, and this seems from another era. It didn't help that our print was ropey and had many sound drop outs (which to be honest were quite amusing - probably a better print doesn't exist). Wall-to-wall stock music not welcome, either.
In flashback (Preston Sturges' screenplay structure is one of the interesting things about it) we learn about the life of tough railroad tycoon Spencer Tracy, and his wife silent star Colleen Moore, told through the eyes of faithful employee Ralph Morgan. Sturges based it on the life of a relative and found that when his wife told him 'the lack of chronology interfered not at all with one's pleasure in the stories'. He noted too that it was the first film to be written not for commission but sold to a studio on a royalty basis, and the first film with 'narratage' where the narrator's word speak over those of the character. He also had the freedom to watch the entire film being shot, occasionally explaining a line read to the actors, and it gave him a taste for directing.
James Wong Howe was using a new fast film stock allowing him to use less light; Ern Westmore was responsible for the aging make-up. It was well received.
With Helen Vinson, Phillip Trent, Henry Kolker. Fox.
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| Howard. Colleen Moore, Sturges, Tracy |
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