Washing His Filthy Mark From Our Souls This is a complicated film that is partly about extra-marital coitus when such a thing was considered extremely shameful.
Norma Shearer has an alcoholic father and a gangster boyfriend and no control of either situation. Barrymore (father) has deep seated disdain for Gable (boyfriend). When Gable tells him he's interested in marrying his daughter, Barrymore says,"The only thing I hate about democracy is when one of you mongrels forget where you belong." Geeze, you just defended the guy.
The hopelessly drunk father confronts his daughter who has "been" with Gable and it is the daughter who is ashamed. I guess because her vice is a newer development. Is it possible that there were more drunks around in 1933 than willing and available women? Talk about a depression. Later, Gable tries to manipulate Shearer by threatening to reveal their cohabitating past.
SMOKING RITUAL:
There's a turning point at 1:02 when Gable forgets to light her cigarette. My favorite Lit professor at UT Arlington would call this the inciting moment. You see in this instant this slight means she no longer has the same hold on her man. She flops onto the couch like a pitcher hitting the bench after a 5-run first inning. This is how strong the failure to offer her a light, when he was lighting his own, is seen in her eyes. She might as well be the laundry lady. Gable, however, carries on as if everything is copasetic.
While reflecting on her alcoholic father's mortality she dreamily says, "said he, and suddenly the moonbeams turned to worms and crawled away." She delivers this existential line while staring at an inch long cylinder of ash on her burning and neglected cigarette. Foreshadowed is the isolated neglect her aging, drunken father faces.
ODDS AND ENDS:
There's a recognizable character actor who stuttered through a whole career providing comic relief DURING a drive by shooting.
They must have spent so much on Norma Shearer's sexy gowns, they couldn't afford her underwear. It's all very revealing. All her contours are proudly displayed while maintaining the thinnest of coverings.
One of Gables minions (slouch) explains an attempted murder with a blistering string of 1933 hep talk that ends with something about "typewriters" and "ukuleles" (I'm thinking firearm references?).
One week into their three month camping trip, Dad is seen sleeping with a cigarette in his mouth (howzat?). Later, he apparently jumps a freight train that is going full speed. Impressive for a guy who hasn't been walking so well for the whole film.
Barrymore tells James Gleason, "Give this problem a thought, Mr. Einstein." Already, in 1933 the name Einstein is a stand in for brainy problem solver.
Finally, I don't get Gable. I do recognize his notable masculine handsomeness, but he's an actor who always sounds like he's acting. I never buy into his character. He bites off his lines like a detective in an old radio drama. When he says, "You're mine and I wancha" I wonder how this would sound if it weren't grunted out at top speed.