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Post by topbilled on Oct 26, 2022 17:45:35 GMT
Reviews for MGM films will be placed here.
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Post by topbilled on Oct 30, 2022 15:38:44 GMT
This neglected film is from 1952.
Romantic thriller with neo-Nazi elements
 Scenes from this MGM picture were filmed in Germany and Austria, so naturally, the exterior shots of Bavaria are breath taking. We are told the story is a composite of case histories taken from U.S. Army files. It is set in 1947 and recounts events that happened just after the war had ended.
Gene Kelly, on sabbatical from musicals, plays an army officer who returns to Germany where he had been stationed three years before. During his time there during the war, he had been captured and sent to a prison camp. However, he had escaped and a kind German family had hid him from the Nazis until he was able to get back to his unit.
Now he’d like a chance to see this family again and to properly thank them for saving his life. However, sad news awaits him when he goes to their home. He learns they were killed in an American air raid.
After some investigating, Kelly and a pal (Richard Egan) learn that the family’s daughter (Pier Angeli) is not listed among the casualties. There is a chance she survived and is still living somewhere in the area. Kelly tells Egan how important it is for him to locate the girl, who would now be around 18.
Since Egan knows a lot of the local establishments (translation: bars), he takes Kelly around to search for the girl. One evening they frequent a place called the Silhouette nightclub, and Kelly is glad to discover that Angeli works there. Unfortunately, he doesn’t have a joyous reunion with her, since she no longer thinks very highly of Americans after the death of her parents.
In the scenes that follow Kelly tries to tear down her defenses. Gradually she remembers their tender friendship and renews her old feelings for him. If not, there would be no romance.
Miss Angeli projects the right sort of innocence required for the role. It is suggested that her character had to do certain things to stay alive after her folks’ demise…such as smuggle stolen good and possibly prostitute herself. As for Mr. Kelly, I may be in the minority, but I always enjoy his non-musical performances. Especially in films like this one, BLACK HAND and INHERIT THE WIND.
While the two become reacquainted and realize their deep affection, there are various political intrigues taking place in the background. For instance, Kelly learns that while Hitler and his cronies are either dead or in prison, there is a revivalist movement afoot.
In this regard, the picture’s story presents an early neo-Nazi tale. Obviously Kelly will have a part to play in the downfall of this new political group. He is instructed by his superiors to remain in the region and find out as much as he can.
Meanwhile there is a comic (Claus Clausen) who performs at the club where Angeli is employed. Though not revealed at first, this seemingly harmless comedian is actually the mastermind of the neo-Nazi group that Kelly seeks to expose. It all leads to a spectacular chase through the streets and down snow-covered roads.
The final sequence occurs in a house owned by Hitler that would soon be demolished by the West German government.
To up the drama, the scenarists have Clausen shoot Angeli who gets caught in the crossfire. She will recover to facilitate the happy ending. The film functions as a document of Germany’s then recent past, as well as a signifier that the hard-won liberation from the Nazis would not be sacrificed at any cost.
The prevailing romantic note of Kelly and Angeli’s love story tells us the Americans and the Germans have united in creating a new generation that values peace above everything else.
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MGM
Oct 30, 2022 16:18:00 GMT
Post by Fading Fast on Oct 30, 2022 16:18:00 GMT
After reading your first few engaging paragraphs (and looking at the pics), I stopped as I was so sold on the movie that I want to experience it without knowing what happens. So now, I'll keep an eye out for the movie.
Separate technical question: You seem able to "re-size" the pics you import as they all are about the same size, how do you do that? I copy the image address into the URL box of the "insert image" box, but don't see away to adjust the size. Any hint will be appreciate.
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Post by topbilled on Oct 30, 2022 16:35:21 GMT
After reading your first few engaging paragraphs (and looking at the pics), I stopped as I was so sold on the movie that I want to experience it without knowing what happens. So now, I'll keep an eye out for the movie.
Separate technical question: You seem able to "re-size" the pics you import as they all are about the same size, how do you do that? I copy the image address into the URL box of the "insert image" box, but don't see away to adjust the size. Any hint will be appreciate.
***
THE DEVIL MAKES THREE is currently available for streaming on the Russian site. And a DVD copy is probably available through most library systems. |
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Post by Fading Fast on Oct 30, 2022 16:54:40 GMT
After reading your first few engaging paragraphs (and looking at the pics), I stopped as I was so sold on the movie that I want to experience it without knowing what happens. So now, I'll keep an eye out for the movie.
Separate technical question: You seem able to "re-size" the pics you import as they all are about the same size, how do you do that? I copy the image address into the URL box of the "insert image" box, but don't see away to adjust the size. Any hint will be appreciate.
***
THE DEVIL MAKES THREE is currently available for streaming on the Russian site. And a DVD copy is probably available through most library systems.
And thank you Re "The Devil Makes Three - " the RU site it is. |
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Post by topbilled on Nov 6, 2022 17:20:45 GMT
This neglected film is from 1938.
Multiple styles within the same performance
Luise Rainer passed away in late December 2014, about two weeks before her 105th birthday. There is a speech her character recites in THE TOY WIFE, praying to St. Catherine inside a church, where she asks the saint to help her live a long life. The scene occurs after she is stricken with pneumonia.
I am not saying that something filmed in 1938 has a direct connection to the actress’ own death decades later, but I do think art and life imitate each other to a certain extent.
Miss Rainer made this film at MGM after completing two Oscar-winning roles. The first award was for her interpretation of Anna Held in THE GREAT ZIEGFELD. In an interview, she said she had been influenced by theatrical director Max Reinhardt back in Europe, and how in the much-lauded telephone scene of the movie, she used techniques developed with Reinhardt and other directors, from various plays she had done on stage.
Rainer’s second Oscar was for her memorable work in THE GOOD EARTH, which Metro had adapted from Pearl S. Buck’s novel. She gives a very moving portrayal of a long-suffering Chinese woman, spanning many years and a myriad of complex emotions. While the part of O-lan in THE GOOD EARTH required great precision and delicacy, I think she practices even more finesse in THE TOY WIFE.
With this particular assignment, she demonstrates an ability to layer multiple styles within the same performance. She combines drama, comedy and romance, then superimposes it on to the character. As in the prayer to St. Catherine, she seems to step outside what is in the original script in order to take us to another level.
THE TOY WIFE is a somewhat overlooked costume drama that MGM produced while Warner Brothers was making JEZEBEL and David Selznick was making GONE WITH THE WIND. Miss Rainer is cast alongside studio heartthrobs Melvyn Douglas and Robert Young.
She plays the flighty daughter of a Louisiana plantation owner (H.B. Warner). Though the character’s given name is Gilberte, she is nicknamed Frou Frou, because of the delicate fabric of her favorite type of dress. Frou Frou is without a mother, and she is often looked after by an older sister (Barbara O’Neil). In early scenes, she flirts with a playboy (Young) but ends up snagging her sister’s intended beau (Douglas) and marries him. As the narrative continues, she proceeds to charm others in her orbit.
While she is initially happy with Douglas and learns to love him, her childlike personality makes it nearly impossible for her to assume a wife’s usual duties or the responsibilities of running a household and maintaining servants. She and Douglas have had a child, but she is more a playmate to the boy instead of a real mother.
If you watch Luise Rainer very carefully in this movie you will notice a few things. First, she takes an unsympathetic role that someone like Bette Davis or Miriam Hopkins would have turned into an out and out witch, and makes her pitiable– a character that cannot really be hated or reviled though she probably should be!
Specifically, Rainer takes the wretched melodrama that screenwriter Zoe Akins has churned out and redirects it as a witty, biting satire. That takes a great deal of skill. Though Douglas and Young, her leading men, seem to play it straight, she plays it decidedly light. As a result, Frou Frou’s foibles cannot really be taken seriously. But the men, in all their vainglorious efforts to tame her, seem utterly ridiculous.
It has been said that Miss Rainer had many disagreements with studio boss Louis B. Mayer over the quality of the material she was asked to perform, and I do not doubt it. It is my sincere belief that she took lackluster scripts and did all that she could to elevate them. She felt the audience deserved more…and because of this, toy wife (trophy wife) Frou Frou is worth watching.
The scene where she is dying and asks to be buried in her favorite dress is a real tearjerker.
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Post by topbilled on Nov 11, 2022 15:17:24 GMT
This neglected film is from 1957.
Post-war malaise and adventure
Robert Taylor’s first appearance in an MGM film occurred in 1935, over two decades before this picture was released. He would remain with the Lion for a few more years, so this wasn’t the end for him. Part of Mr. Taylor’s long-term success was his ability to adapt to different trends in the motion picture industry.
He headlined films in all sorts of genres, though MGM execs were reluctant to feature him in musicals. Interestingly, he has a short musical number here with costar Dorothy Malone at the piano…proving he has a fine singing voice.
As for Miss Malone, she was coming off a recent Oscar win for her role as a sultry schemer in Universal’s WRITTEN ON THE WIND. She is not a sexual predator in this picture, but she’s still quite a siren and suitably glamorous. Dorothy Malone once told an interviewer she preferred working in westerns, maybe because those roles complemented her down-to-earth Texas manner. But she’s great in sudsy melodramas.
TIP ON A DEAD JOCKEY is a mixture of romantic melodrama, post-war malaise and adventure. Taylor and Malone are on the verge of divorce when the story begins. She leaves Reno, deciding to give the union another try and hurries off to Madrid where he’s living as an expatriate with a comical roommate (Marcel Dalio).
There is also a handsome neighbor (Jack Lord) who flew with Taylor in the war.
Complicating matters is Lord’s European wife (Gia Scala) who is pregnant and happily married to Lord…but still an object of desire, or at least considerable affection, for Taylor.
When Malone arrives, she initially keeps the truth about their marital status from Taylor, who believes the divorce was finalized. In fact, he’s been celebrating his “freedom.” One thing I really like about the script is how writer Charles Lederer drip-feeds pieces of information about the characters’ pasts and their present-day motivations. As a result, we gradually get more absorbed in the goings-on of the group and become part of their conflicts and struggles to be happy.
The adventure portion of the drama kicks in when a mysterious tycoon (Martin Gabel) offers Taylor a job to retrieve a locked box from Cairo and transport it back to Madrid. Taylor is told that only cash is inside the box. But there are also drugs.
At first Taylor turns down the risky assignment and Lord signs on instead. But when it becomes too dangerous and Lord nearly dies, Taylor steps in and takes over. This allows Taylor’s character to be heroic and exorcise some demons, since he cracked up in Korea and hasn’t flown since that time.
The flight sequences are impressive. The psychological angle about Taylor’s inability to fly seems like a metaphor for Taylor being sexually impotent. Hence, his need to separate from Malone…before he regains his mojo. Fortunately, he completes the mission and reunites with Malone before the final fadeout.
As for the meaning of the title, there is a jockey who appears midway during a racetrack sequence. Taylor originally refuses to haul the smuggled goods, because he thinks he will win big on a horse he owns at the track. Gabel has the jockey killed during the race, so Taylor will lose on the bet and need to fly the man’s plane.
I enjoyed the story so much, I watched the film again a short time later. It contains shades of corruption and the threat of heartbreak, before last-minute redemption.
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Post by Fading Fast on Nov 11, 2022 15:59:09 GMT
Great write up. I'm going to have to see this one soon.
As to La Malone, she did her best screen work ever in a bookstore and that is a hill I'm willing to die on. 
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Post by topbilled on Nov 23, 2022 15:08:08 GMT
This neglected film is from 1950.
Until the next adventure takes place
A few years ago I recorded some Joel McCrea films that were broadcast on the Encore Westerns channel– Warner Brothers’ COLORADO TERRITORY (1949), Paramount’s THE VIRGINIAN (1946) and MGM’s THE OUTRIDERS (1950). Three different productions at different studios, since McCrea was freelancing at this point in his career.
Of the three McCrea westerns I recorded on disc, I’d say the Paramount title has the best production values. The WB title is the cheapest looking one, and its story is riddled with bullets and cliches. The MGM title, while not superior, certainly has an impressive outdoor sequence including some thrilling scenes shot in the middle of a raging river.
Joel McCrea was not the world’s best actor, but he usually works well with his costars. In this case, he seems to have an amiable relationship with Barry Sullivan, though Sullivan’s character turns quite villainous as the story develops. At the same time studio contract player James Whitmore provides the requisite dose of ‘character’ as a grizzly mountain man, a warm-up for his role a year later in ACROSS THE WIDE MISSOURI.
We also have young Claude Jarman playing a teenaged lad who is anxious to become a man. Gorgeous Arlene Dahl is on hand as Jarman’s older sister, serving as a potential love interest for both McCrea and Sullivan.
Each studio favored certain palettes in their use of Technicolor. The schematic hues MGM chooses consist mostly of orange and dark yellow, with some vivid shades of red. This gives the story an almost surreal quality, which neither hurts nor really aids our enjoyment of the picture. Though I suppose it helps accent Miss Dahl’s flaming red hair.
Irving Ravetch’s script features a lot of action. THE OUTRIDERS starts as a tale about three Confederate soldiers breaking out of a Union prison. They end up on the run after killing a guard in what amounts to a very violent on-screen death. I was somewhat surprised by how bloody this part was, given the constraints of Hollywood’s production code.
In the next part the men join up with Quantrill’s raiders. While they are roaming the countryside with this group, we learn McCrea, Sullivan and Whitmore had basically been bandits before they were drafted into military service. A stint in the war functioned as a cover for their criminal ways!
This morphs into an adventure drama about a hidden stash of gold. In the background there are native tribes none too happy with the white men in the territory. And we have the end of the Civil War occurring. On top of all this is the love triangle between the three leads.
McCrea’s character eventually professes deepening feelings for Dahl’s character. Of course, this requires him to get rid of Sullivan, whose ways as an outlaw are now even more apparent.
Once Sullivan is effectively out of the way, McCrea is free to spend the rest of his life with Dahl. Or at least until another wild west adventure takes place.
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MGM
Nov 24, 2022 1:17:37 GMT
Post by Hrothgar on Nov 24, 2022 1:17:37 GMT
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Post by topbilled on Nov 29, 2022 15:10:28 GMT
This neglected film is from 1954.
Peace and freedom
Ronald Reagan only made two films at MGM. The first one was a Wallace Beery vehicle in 1940, on loan from home studio Warner Brothers. The second one was this war film which he made in the mid-1950s as a freelancer. Reagan was often used in support of other big name stars at WB in a variety of genres. Later, during a multi-picture deal with Universal, he was primarily assigned feel-good westerns and domestic comedies.
To say this is a different type of undertaking for the future president is an understatement. He has the lead role here, playing an officer who becomes a POW. Mr. Reagan had served in WWII, not in Korea which is the focus of this tale. And as many know, he took a hardline conservative stance about Vietnam while he was governor of California in the 1960s, after leaving acting.
The story begins with a message about the strength of the human spirit, in spite of communist tortures. Reagan is an officer being sent off on a mission to investigate abuse in North Korea. He parachutes into a forest and soon joins a group of soldiers that have been taken captive by enemy forces.
On their way to a camp, Reagan learns from a soldier (Steve Forrest) that their captors would likely prefer them to be dead.
One thing that impresses me here is the stark black-and-white cinematography. Also, the use of wind and snow to convey the bitter cold, harsh environment. Frequently, there are cutaway shots of corpses along the roadside. Still the men carry on.
This is a gritty story, with grim vibes. Supposedly an army captain named Robert Wise (not the director) served as a technical advisor; he had been an actual POW. Some contemporary critics complained that the film over-exaggerated the extreme conditions faced by these men. Unless a critic had actually been in such a situation, how would he know?
In addition to the rugged physical terrain, the lack of nutrition and the homesickness experienced by the men, there are deep psychological wounds that are inflicted on them. These abuses are overseen by a cruel Russian colonel (Oskar Homolka).
Of course the mental anguish includes brainwashing, which we see with Forrest’s character. He refuses to let his mind be controlled, so he is ultimately strung up and hanged like a warrior Jesus on a crucifix. These scenes are a lot more chilling than what we find later in THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE (1962).
One has to wonder how many men still living today served in the Korean war, and what they might still recall about what happened to them in a prisoner of war camp. Maybe a better question is whether their sons, grandsons and great-grandsons appreciate what it cost to maintain peace and the freedom we all enjoy today.
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Post by topbilled on Dec 4, 2022 15:28:20 GMT
This neglected film is from 1942.
Born to fill in for Garland and Rooney
Eleanor Powell was born to dance. Lawrence Tierney was born to kill. And in this adolescent musical Virginia Weidler and Ray McDonald were born to vocalize. The duo were MGM’s backup teen couple in 1942. And by backup, I mean they were given scripts that Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney were either too busy to do or had turned down.
Miss Weidler first made her mark as a child performer in Hollywood at Paramount. She appeared in hit films with Gary Cooper, Claudette Colbert, George Raft and W.C. Fields. After Paramount cut her loose, she freelanced at RKO and Columbia before snagging a contract at Metro in 1938. She was still playing child parts in important studio films– as Norma Shearer’s daughter in THE WOMEN and as Katharine Hepburn’s kid sister in THE PHILADELPHIA STORY.
By 1942, Weidler had matured significantly. So at this point in her screen career, she was taking on older roles after hitting puberty. Though she had a memorable song in THE PHILADELPHIA STORY, she was not exactly a singer on par with Miss Garland. MGM did use Weidler in another musical a year later, BEST FOOT FORWARD, but her contract was not renewed. She went east to do a role on the stage in a short-lived Broadway production. But that was basically it or her as an actress.
As for Ray McDonald, he had several notable Broadway successes in the 1940s. He performed with his sister Grace, as well as with his wife Peggy Ryan, a juvenile star who worked for Universal during this period. Mr. McDonald’s last film would be a Columbia musical in the 1950s.
I don’t think BORN TO SING is a terrible motion picture, but it’s not a great one either. It seems to borrow its ideas from the teen flicks made at low-rent studio Monogram, where the kids are up against a legal system trying to sort out an injustice.
The musical numbers contain a lot of energy, and the whole cast seems to be trying awfully hard to make a turkey fly.
I would say it’s more a matter of the script needing a bit more polishing, and probably a lot more inspiration. The production is highly formulaic, not very different from those Babes musicals with Garland and Rooney, who let’s face it, did it better when these threadbare concepts were still fresh.
The best, or rather most memorable, sequence is the last one. This is where we have Weidler, McDonald and the supporting cast go full throttle in a rousing morale booster number. I’m sure it helped pep up wartime audiences and renew a sense of patriotism, which wasn’t in as short supply then as it is now.
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Post by topbilled on Dec 18, 2022 15:30:44 GMT
This neglected film is from 1932.
Precode generation gap
The basic idea for this MGM precode, based on a play by John Van Druten, is that parents don’t always understand their children. And the reverse is apparently also true– children don’t always understand their parents. To say that a generation gap is occurring, well that would be an understatement.
The stuffy middle-aged folks are played by Metro stalwart Lewis Stone and Laura Hope Crews. They are decidedly stuck in their ways, but not so old-fashioned that they are entirely out of touch. At the same time, the couple's offspring (Robert Young and Margaret Perry) have their own ideas about how to live.
Mr. Young is particularly impressive, milking the more comedic aspects of his role as a lazy son with no real ambition in life. This includes no desire to take over his father’s business. The carefree attitude that he exhibits is on full display when we see him and his sister shirk family obligations in favor of partying with their friends.
The party scenes are especially precode in nature. This is a hedonistic bunch of kids living in the here and now. They have no regard for the future…no sense of propriety or responsibility. As with most situations of this sort, reality sinks in. They start to learn that their actions eventually have consequences.
The daughter falls for a married man who eventually leaves his wife for her. But mother and father cannot accept such scandalous behavior under their own roof, so she must leave home to be with her lover. Her choice is shown in a sympathetic light, which of course would be verboten two years later in Hollywood after the production code was fully enforced.
Meanwhile the son chooses to leave the roost as well. In his case, he jets off to Paris to find himself and begin a career as an artist. He doesn’t quite succeed and ends up returning home, more out of sorts than ever. So much for his attempt at a Bohemian lifestyle.
In some ways the expectations, disappointments and failures of these characters reminds me of Merchant-Ivory’s MR. AND MRS. BRIDGE. In that later picture, a ‘perfect’ family is in continual danger of falling apart while trying to maintain a specific image and project successfulness to the outside world.
Interestingly, NEW MORALS FOR OLD shows the adult children come full circle. They mature to where they’ve gained a newfound appreciation of what came before and the importance of family. Perry’s character becomes a mother, while Young’s character learns a valuable lesson after after romancing a beautiful woman (Myrna Loy). What we have in the last few minutes on screen is an ironic happy ending.
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Post by Fading Fast on Dec 18, 2022 16:39:14 GMT
New Morals for Old from 1932 with Robert Young, Margaret Perry, Lewis Stone, Laura Hope Crews and Elizabeth Patterson
It's easy to understand why New Morals for Old has all but disappeared today as, even for a pre-code, it's stagey, early-talkie clunky and slow moving in parts, but if you can see past all that, it is a good "circle of life" story with some pre-code sexual naughtiness tucked in.
The parents, played by Lewis Stone and Laura Hope Crews, of a wealthy New York family are worried about their two partying-every-night adult children. The son, played by Robert Young, wants to leave the family business to study painting in Paris and the daughter has become distant.
"The kids" feel very modern as they like to sleep in, ignore their parents, be casual in their manners and not take life seriously. The parents feel their kids are disrespectful and spoiled, but in their own words, "being modern parents," they try to give the kids space. Despite being ninety years old, the family's problems, adjusted for style and period norms, have a very contemporary feel.
The daughter, played by Margaret Perry, has become distant because she's dating a married man whose wife won't give him a divorce. In a very pre-code manner, she moves in with her still-married boyfriend, which rocks her parents, but what can they do?
Young, after his father passes, leaves for Paris, but quickly learns he doesn't have the rare talent to make it as an elite painter. He stays on in Paris, though, driven by pride, trying to scratch out a living as an artist.
While there, he also has a quick affair with a Parisian played by, get ready for it, Myrna Loy - looking incredibly young but with not-yet-Hollywood-tamed frizzy hair. Even so, she lifts off the screen with star quality. The affair, which quickly fizzled, is handled with an incredibly modern nonchalance.
The rest of the movie is "the kids" maturing and settling into more conventional lives as we see "the circle of life" assert itself.
The end of the story has an almost "Hallmark" feel, but the real fun in this one is seeing Young and Loy at the beginning of their acting careers, plus the always enjoyable Lewis Stone (soon to become Andy Hardy's father for several movies), once again, play a stern, but underneath it, compassionate dad.
It's also enjoyable to see stage actress and Broadway director and producer Margaret Perry in one of her three movie roles, as well as, veteran performer Elizabeth Patterson as the disapproving, but not mean-spirited aunt tsk-tsking all the "bad" choices "the kids" make.
Today, most couples live together before they get married and one-night stands and brief sexual relationships are no big deal. While those were "big deals" back then, you can also see how the young adults of that era still engaged in those activities. Human nature has a way of asserting itself regardless of the "rules," "norms" and prevailing societal pressures of the times.
The value of pre-codes like New Morals for Old is the four-year peek they give us today into the actual morality and sexual behavior of America in the 1930s, before the Motion Picture Production Code snuffed out so much real life from the big screen. |
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MGM
Dec 21, 2022 20:13:22 GMT
Post by marysara1 on Dec 21, 2022 20:13:22 GMT
New Morals for Old from 1932 with Robert Young, Margaret Perry, Lewis Stone, Laura Hope Crews and Elizabeth Patterson
It's easy to understand why New Morals for Old has all but disappeared today as, even for a pre-code, it's stagey, early-talkie clunky and slow moving in parts, but if you can see past all that, it is a good "circle of life" story with some pre-code sexual naughtiness tucked in.
The parents, played by Lewis Stone and Laura Hope Crews, of a wealthy New York family are worried about their two partying-every-night adult children. The son, played by Robert Young, wants to leave the family business to study painting in Paris and the daughter has become distant.
"The kids" feel very modern as they like to sleep in, ignore their parents, be casual in their manners and not take life seriously. The parents feel their kids are disrespectful and spoiled, but in their own words, "being modern parents," they try to give the kids space. Despite being ninety years old, the family's problems, adjusted for style and period norms, have a very contemporary feel.
The daughter, played by Margaret Perry, has become distant because she's dating a married man whose wife won't give him a divorce. In a very pre-code manner, she moves in with her still-married boyfriend, which rocks her parents, but what can they do?
Young, after his father passes, leaves for Paris, but quickly learns he doesn't have the rare talent to make it as an elite painter. He stays on in Paris, though, driven by pride, trying to scratch out a living as an artist.
While there, he also has a quick affair with a Parisian played by, get ready for it, Myrna Loy - looking incredibly young but with not-yet-Hollywood-tamed frizzy hair. Even so, she lifts off the screen with star quality. The affair, which quickly fizzled, is handled with an incredibly modern nonchalance.
The rest of the movie is "the kids" maturing and settling into more conventional lives as we see "the circle of life" assert itself.
The end of the story has an almost "Hallmark" feel, but the real fun in this one is seeing Young and Loy at the beginning of their acting careers, plus the always enjoyable Lewis Stone (soon to become Andy Hardy's father for several movies), once again, play a stern, but underneath it, compassionate dad.
It's also enjoyable to see stage actress and Broadway director and producer Margaret Perry in one of her three movie roles, as well as, veteran performer Elizabeth Patterson as the disapproving, but not mean-spirited aunt tsk-tsking all the "bad" choices "the kids" make.
Today, most couples live together before they get married and one-night stands and brief sexual relationships are no big deal. While those were "big deals" back then, you can also see how the young adults of that era still engaged in those activities. Human nature has a way of asserting itself regardless of the "rules," "norms" and prevailing societal pressures of the times.
The value of pre-codes like New Morals for Old is the four-year peek they give us today into the actual morality and sexual behavior of America in the 1930s, before the Motion Picture Production Code snuffed out so much real life from the big screen. |
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