Thu 25 Feb 2010
A Movie Review by Walter Albert: PAID TO LOVE (1927).
Posted by Steve under Films: Drama/Romance , Reviews , Silent films1 Comment
PAID TO LOVE. Fox, 1927. George O’Brien, Virginia Valli, J. Farrell MacDonald, William Powell, Thomas Jefferson, Hank Mann. Photography: L. William O’Connell; director: Howard Hawks. Shown at Cinecon 45, Hollywood CA, September 2009.
J. Farrell MacDonald, an American banker, travels to a small Balkan kingdom for the purpose of making a financial investment to shore up the country’s faltering economy.
He becomes chummy with the king (Thomas Jefferson) and they plot to marry off Crown Prince Michael (O’Brien), who seems unwilling to settle down.
Their bait is Gaby, a cabaret dancer (beautiful Virginia Valli), but the machinations of Michael’s cousin (William Powell) threaten to thwart the pair’s plans and break up the budding relationship.
Hawks was quoted in the program notes by his biographer (Todd McCarthy) as saying that he was influenced by German Expressionist director F. W. Murnau in his tracking shots, lighting and editing.
It’s certainly an elegant, stylish film, with the expected polished performance by Powell, engaging characterizations by MacDonald and Jefferson, and an attractive portrayal of the developing romance by the forthright O’Brien and sultry Valli.
February 25th, 2010 at 9:42 pm
Powell, who we think of as the suave wise cracking star of the Thin Man movies or Father in LIFE WITH FATHER, played mostly villains in silent films — including the traitorous coward in the silent BEAU GESTE with Ronald Colman (the part played by J. Carrol Naish in the William Wellman version). He’s also the villain opposite Gary Cooper in BEAU SABREUR.
By the time the talkies came along he was given the role of Philo Vance in THE CANARY MURDER CASE with Luise Rainer, which is only a partial talkie. The Vance role seems to have been his transition from villain to leading man, talking films emphasizing his charm and humor over his somewhat swarthy appearance in silent films.
George O’Brien was a fairly major leading man in the silent period and also noted for his perfect body (hard to imagine thinking of the stocky figure from his talkie films). He made many of the best B westerns of his time, and often appeared in John Ford’s westerns, notably the commanding officer in SHE WORE A YELLOW RIBBON, having starred in Ford’s silent epic THE IRON HORSE.
J. Farrell MacDonald had a long career well into the talkie era in the kind of roles later played by William Frawley.
And you have to wonder of Hawks wasn’t being ironic casting Thomas Jefferson as the King.