Wayward (1932) User Reviews (6)

Nancy had been charming, but...

[sb-47-608737 · 7/10 · 7 May 2019]

This is a typical soap opera of today, the one I (or rather my other half, and other of the gender) devour on TV. Man - crushed to pulp between two of the opposite gender and camp - mother and wife - and in fact the next gen, though infant, the daughter. Plot wise, on today's standard, it has nothing new to offer, though I don't know of those times - I haven't in fact come across any of this viciousness earlier to it - may be except one or two - like 'Way Down East' - but even that wasn't this vicious, and there was a reason, if the old man in that was. Looking at the characters - there are four major players - The wife, husband, Mother-in law and wife's seducer, and a couple of major-minor characters - Mother-In-law's brother, and the Husband's cousin, who is the seducer's wife.

Of all these characters - there is only one angel (naturally the wife) and all other are in opposing camp. Some are willingly - the Mother-In law and her brother, the uncle - due to hatred of the mesalliance, the cousin, due to snobbery, and the cousin'e seducer husband - due to call of the flesh, and one, the husband, unwillingly, having been completely brainwashed against the wife. I won't find anything against the plot - though a soap, if there was one. But unfortunately for that to pull through the characters should be believable. The roles can become believable only when the actors portraying the roles integrate into it.

Unfortunately in this movie - except Nancy Carroll, no one could. I could only give an 'attempt to' credit to the husband, portrayed by Arlen - though not very convincingly. But all other - probably didn't get over the hang-over of Silent times - and acted as if in Theater - through limbs rather than the face - and the major culprit in it was the second most important character in the movie, the Mother In law. Even John Litel, the cousin-in-law wasn't too convincing as the one who was coveting the heroine and ready to go to any extent (I wonder what happened to him, after he was rebuffed? he simply went out of the movie radar) Whatever stars are there are for Nancy, she looked, acted, and convinced me to be angelic - and half of a star for plot - that isn't unconvincing - if it became so - it was due to the other actors, who added to the negative marks. Watchable for those who liked Nancy, after all she has more than half of screen time, otherwise, just one of the mediocre - or a notch below movie.

Carroll triumphs in sentimental story

[rhoda-9 · 7/10 · 14 February 2019]

When Richard Arlen brings Nancy Carroll home to mother, she is positive, after hearing that the bride was a chorus girl he has known for a week, that Carroll is a gold-digging tramp. Pauline Frederick, as the mother-in-law from hell, is probably the only person in the universe who could sustain such an opinion after one look at Nancy Carroll, probably the most adorable actress of the early talkies (her only competition was Alice White, who did not reach the same heights). With a face like a little valentine, a fluffy hairdo, and a pretty laugh, Carroll is an utter delight to look at and listen to.

The rest of the picture is not on the same level. It is the simple, often trite, story of an ordinary girl who marries into a snobbish, rich family. As maid Dorothy Stickney says, "They hate each other separately, but they get together to hate outsiders." This attitude takes its toll on the young couple, and it gets worse after Carroll has a baby and Frederick brands her an unfit mother. Though the plot is banal, it is also touching, and there is a sad realism about the heavy drinking that did not end with Prohibition and that is used by the unhappily married to forget their troubles.

The one-note part doesn't give Frederick, a great lady of the stage, much of a chance to shine, and Margalo Gillmore, another Broadway star, is disappointingly given a role with about six words. But the picture belongs to Carroll, who is in almost every scene, and who shines like a whole galaxy. There is also a wonderfully raffish scene at the beginning with the chorus girls who urge Carroll to take up with one of the rich men who pursue them, pointing out that love doesn't keep you nearly as warm as chinchilla.

Who Could Resist Nancy Carroll?

[kidboots · 7/10 · 19 November 2019]

Could any movie with Nancy Carroll be bad - I don't think so!! Judging by the reviews of the day people were getting over "give me back my baby" themes pretty quickly. Critics felt that Nancy, Richard Arlen and Pauline Frederick gave it their best but were defeated by the dull and hokey script. The movie starts promising with dancing chorus girls over the credits and Nancy in a little song and dance but she is much too excited about her new admirer David Frost to be worried about back stage ribbing (that's Mae Questal).

Meeting the family becomes a nightmare as Pauline Frederick drips vitriol. "Is that a stage costume" she says, aghast, when Daisy is just about to enter the room. The family are awful and treat her like dirt beneath their feet - all except Bob who is the black sheep of the family and can see Daisy as the only one who can see his sense of humour. They are both caught poking light-hearted fun at the other guests and before the night is over both Mrs. Frost and Uncle Judson have offered her money to leave.

Daisy and David try to make a go of it on their own but David's cushioned up bringing makes it hard for him to economize. When their baby becomes sick they are back again with mother and when she organises a little get together with David's high school sweetheart as guest of honour that's the last straw for Daisy - she impulsively jumps at Bob's suggestion that they leave. Daisy is drunk but Bob plans to compromise her as he's fallen in love with her.

I obviously liked it far more than the other reviewers - it's a treat to see Nancy in anything and she is so enchanting in this. Like Barbara Stanwyck she always has an emotive scene and this one came at the end when, after taking six months to establish herself in a job, she returns to claim her child and to realise that Mrs. Frost has never revealed to David that she returned that night!! So David has always believed she ran off with the town drunk!!

Gertrude Michael, just at the start of her career, plays David's old sweetheart who has surprising sympathy for Daisy. Pauline Frederick played a few of these odd ball matriach roles ("The Phantom of Crestwood" anyone) and in this, while she was more restrained, she was still able to give the part an icy dignity!!

Selfish Love

[boblipton · 6/10 · 10 December 2019]

Old-money Richard Arlen and showgirl Nancy Carroll fall in love and get married. When he takes her home to meet the family, new mother-in-law Pauline Frederick is stuffy and disapproving. Amidst meeting a plethora of elderly relations, Miss Frederick tries to buy off Miss Carroll. She is not for sale, and Mr. Arlen and she set up in a small cottage, whence he goes to work as a manual laborer. After a few years, after a quarrel about money and the baby, she tries to get a job. She's not successful, but coming home, she runs into family connection John Litel, who has been decent to her. In the meantime, the neighborhood girl who has been watching the baby does something wrong, and grandma is called in. By the end of the evening, Arlen and their daughter are installed in Miss Fredericks' mansion and Miss Carroll is thrown out.

It's a common story of the era, about the snobbish rich, but it has a little more under the direction of Edward Sloman: the evils of selfish love. Miss Carroll suffers adorably from the get-go, Miss Frederick is marvelous as the evil mother-in-law, and Mr. Arlen is pretty much the stiff nullity they fight over. Dorothy Stickney has a fine small but key part as the housemaid who cares about Mr. Arlen, accepts Miss Carroll at face value, but is too timid to face up to her employer. It's a welcome relief from the sassy domestic so often seen in movies of this era.

Although Miss Stickney appeared in only 15 movies, she had a long life, dying in 1998 at age 101. A sturdy and steady actress, her best-remembered role was as the Queen in the original Julie Andrews broadcast of the Rodgers-Hammerstein CINDERELLA in 1957.

No Wonder Nancy Carroll's Career Went on the Rocks!

[JohnHowardReid · 2/10 · 20 August 2012]

I'm giving this movie two points because it does have a fairly agreeable song number right at the start. After this happy introduction to the Nancy Caroll character, the movie goes firmly downhill. As Mordaunt Hall correctly noted in his New York Times review, the story of "Wayward" is "not precisely engrossing". In fact, not to put too fine a point on it, the script is dull, stupid, ridiculous, super boring and a complete waste of Miss Carroll's talents. Adapted from the 1930 novel, "Wild Beauty" by Mateel Howe Farnham, the ridiculous plot has super boring leading man, Richard Arlen, giving the super-lovely Carroll the air because he thinks she's encouraging the town drunk (lifelessly played by John Litel) to give her some attention. The lifeless Arlen is put up to this incredible maneuver because he's actually not a man at all but a puppet. And who should be pulling the strings, but Pauline Frederick? Pauline Frederick -- the world's greatest actress of the 1920s -- reduced to playing the role of a superfluous, hateful, illogical, time-wasting harridan! No way, Jose! There should be a rating lower than zero for "Wayward", an annoying rehash of gaslight hokum that makes "An Undesirable Lady" (the 1933 Broadway melodrama in which Miss Carroll had the misfortune to star -- it ran exactly 24 performances) seem like a masterpiece.

Wow...talk about your Oedipal complexes!!

[planktonrules · 8/10 · 26 January 2020]

David Frost (Richard Arlen) is smitten with a showgirl, Daisy (Nancy Carroll) so they elope. However, this is ill-advised as David is in many ways a weenie--a 'little boy' who allows his rich and powerful mother to run his life. But the problem runs much deeper than his mother just being a stuffy lady. No, she wants to control David and through the course of the film you realize that the reason she hates Daisy so much isn't because Daisy is 'common' but because no one is good enough for David...other than his Mama! Yes, Daisy's walked into a full-blown Oedipal complex and it seems that no matter how much she tries, Mama is going to twist everything Daisy does to make it seems sleazy. Mama also works hard to give Daisy the cold shoulder and make her feel about as welcome as a stripper at a Baptist barbecue! Is there any wonder that eventually Daisy's had enough of this?! Or, should he consider having all his towels embroidered 'His' and 'Mother's'?

Fortunately for the audience, things end well. But between the beginning of the film and the end, it's very soap opera-like....and it's written quite well for what it is. The acting isn't bad either--particularly by Pauline Frederick who plays the mother. Very much worth your time.