Director: Frank Borzage
Distributor: Fox Film Corporation
Top Billed Actors: James Dunn, Sally Eilers, Minna Gombell
Won 2 Oscars:
Best Director - Frank Borzage
Best Adaptation - Edwin J. Burke
Nominated for 1 more:
Outstanding Production - Fox
Plot: A hardworking man never wants to get married so he go gets married.
Distributor: Fox Film Corporation
Top Billed Actors: James Dunn, Sally Eilers, Minna Gombell
Won 2 Oscars:
Best Director - Frank Borzage
Best Adaptation - Edwin J. Burke
Nominated for 1 more:
Outstanding Production - Fox
Plot: A hardworking man never wants to get married so he go gets married.
Frank Borzage stuns me yet again with another one of his romance dramas. Bad Girl (1931) yielded Borzage, the original winner of the Best Director Award, his second Oscar. Breaking away from the Janet Gaynor-Charles Farrell duo, he shows his skill with two relatively unknown actors. James Dunn and Sally Eilers pick up where Gaynor and Farrell left off in a beat-the-odds romance plot. We see certain events around Dunn's and Eiler's lives as a married couple in New York. It is interesting to see how the culture and certain ideals were established in the 1930s. For instance, Dunn's character states that he would never let his wife work. A working woman in the house would bring him disgrace. This and other stark differences between today's culture and the culture of this time period are really apparent as the setting of this film was very contemporary at the time.
This snapshot of the times is fascinating. The movie had other things going for it as well. The pace of the film was phenomenal. I don't usually enjoy romance-heavy dramas, but I always find myself itching to see what comes next in these Borzage pictures. The plot progresses fast enough and the fact that the audience knows about certain situations in which other characters do not leaves the viewer on the edge of the couch. The acting by Eilers as the lead woman is also excellent. What's more, she does this with a sub-par partner, which is very reminiscent of the Gaynor-Farrell movies.
The acting by Dunn makes certain sequences unbearable. The stereotypical New York accent and ending many sentences with "see?" really date this movie. Whenever Dunn speaks, it also feels very scripted. Needless to say, Eilers steals the show with her pretty face and her superior acting. Another sequence I did not enjoy involves the character development towards the beginning of the film. When trying to establish how the woman is always hit on and how the man never wants to start a family, the dialogue is very over the top. It eventually settles down and the characters become likeable, but I just chuckled when their viewpoints about relationships are first introduced.
Overall, this movie fits in with other Borzage romance films in that I get turned towards a genre I typically do not enjoy. Eilers' acting in a fast moving plot overshadows some of the minor negative aspects of the picture.
My Score: 6/10
This snapshot of the times is fascinating. The movie had other things going for it as well. The pace of the film was phenomenal. I don't usually enjoy romance-heavy dramas, but I always find myself itching to see what comes next in these Borzage pictures. The plot progresses fast enough and the fact that the audience knows about certain situations in which other characters do not leaves the viewer on the edge of the couch. The acting by Eilers as the lead woman is also excellent. What's more, she does this with a sub-par partner, which is very reminiscent of the Gaynor-Farrell movies.
The acting by Dunn makes certain sequences unbearable. The stereotypical New York accent and ending many sentences with "see?" really date this movie. Whenever Dunn speaks, it also feels very scripted. Needless to say, Eilers steals the show with her pretty face and her superior acting. Another sequence I did not enjoy involves the character development towards the beginning of the film. When trying to establish how the woman is always hit on and how the man never wants to start a family, the dialogue is very over the top. It eventually settles down and the characters become likeable, but I just chuckled when their viewpoints about relationships are first introduced.
Overall, this movie fits in with other Borzage romance films in that I get turned towards a genre I typically do not enjoy. Eilers' acting in a fast moving plot overshadows some of the minor negative aspects of the picture.
My Score: 6/10