Sat 1 May 2010
A Movie Review by Walter Albert: LOVER COME BACK (1931).
Posted by Steve under Films: Drama/Romance , Reviews[3] Comments
LOVER COME BACK. Columbia, 1931. Constance Cummings, Jack Mulhall, Betty Bronson, Jameson Thomas, Katherine Givney. Screenplay by Dorothy Howell and Robert Shannon, from a story by Helen Topping Miller; photography: Joseph Walker. Director: Erie C. Kenton, director. Shown at Cinecon 45, Hollywood CA, September 2009.
There were films with the same title released in 1946 (with Lucille Ball and George Brent) and in 1961 (with Doris Day and Rock Hudson).
I’ve not seen the two later films, but none of the IMDB postings suggests any connection between the three except the title. In any case, the situation as it developed in the 1931 film would never have made it to the screen in the later periods in anything resembling its treatment of sexual relationships.
Constance Cummings is a secretary who’s had an affair with Jack Mulhall, general manager of the firm for which she works. When he breaks off their relationship and marries Betty Bronson (groomed by her mother, Katherine Givney, for a suitable marriage) Cummings accepts the longstanding offer of her boss, Jameson Thomas, and moves into a Park Avenue apartment he’s set up for her.
She continues to work at the firm as the organizer and hostess of parties entertaining out-of-town clients. When Bronson begins an affair with Thomas, Cummings attempts to protect Mulhall from the knowledge of his wife’s indiscretions, but eventually Bronson’s blatant cheating precipitates the film’s not-too-surprising climax.
Beautiful Constance Cummings may be the victim of a blind lover and a scheming rival, but she has a strong will and an intelligence that make it clear who’s going to carry the day.
She gives a commanding performance in a frank treatment of sexual relationships that may seem astonishing to someone who’s not familiar with Hollywood’s license for sinning in the pre-code era.
May 1st, 2010 at 5:04 pm
My movie-watching career is sadly lacking, I have to admit. I’ve looked through Constance Cummings’ credits on IMDB, and except for BLITHE SPIRIT, which I watched so long ago I might has well not have, I have seen none of the other films in which she appeared.
Not even BUSMAN’S HONEYMOON, in which she played Harriet Vane to Robert Montgomery’s Lord Peter Wimsey, you ask?
Not even, hanging my head in embarrassment.
May 1st, 2010 at 5:18 pm
Steve,
IMHO the film version of BUSMAN’S HONEYMOON is really dull.
Hard to believe, as Sayers can be such a colorful writer.
Erle C. Kenton made an enjoyable, and luridly explicit pre-code satire THE SEARCH FOR BEAUTY. It came out on DVD last year. It’s a rent-not-buy movie, but lots of fun.
May 1st, 2010 at 7:21 pm
Save for historical purposes skip BUSMAN’S HONEYMOON, the best thing in it is Seymour Hicks Bunter. Robert Newton seems to be in a completely different movie than the rest of the cast, and the attempt to do a British Nick and Nora Charles with a miscast Montgomery and Cummings (since when was Harriet Vane glamorous?)falls terribly flat. And frankly it wasn’t a very good book or play to begin with.
Of the Constance Cumming’s filmography other than BLYTHE SPIRIT there are three to see — SEVEN SINNERS with Edmond Lowe is based on Arthur Ripley’s barn-burning play THE WRECKER about a madman wrecking trains and trying to extort millions from the goventment. It’s a fast paced mystery and a good deal of fun. Cummings and Lowe are very good together in his slick breathless film.
REMEMBER LAST NIGHT? is likely the screwiest of the Nick and Nora Charles wanna be’s with Robert Young and Cummings a pickled pair of millionaire’s aiding New York sleuth Edward Arnold, and features they magnificent Gustav Von Seffertitz. Add to that it is directed by James Whale and based on a really odd book by Adam Hobhouse, and it is a must see for any mystery fan. You may want to look the other way at the minstrel show though. I suppose Whale was still under the influence of directing SHOWBOAT.
Finally, THE FOREMAN WENT TO FRANCE, based on a true story written by J. B. Priestley, is a droll documentary style tale of a British engineer sent to France to get top secret high tech machinery out ahead of the advancing German’s. Cumming’s is a refugee complicating things. The film was a major hit in its time with the British public, and features the wonderful Robert Morely.