What a pleasant little movie this is, and I mean that in the best possible way. This older man, younger woman romance moves swiftly, has gorgeous sets and attractive costumes. I now see why George Brent was one of the more popular stars of his day. He has the unusual ability to be stoic and sensitive at the same time. You can feel his uneasiness and his pain as he realizes he is falling in love a woman he should not be. Jean Muir, as the object of his affection, is cute, perky, and marvelous. Verree Teasdale is cast perfectly as the mother.
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lstallings22 January 2002
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This film is about a hidden daughter. It seems that a very vain and rather awful stage actress has kept her daughter hidden from the world for many years. We aren't sure why, but assume it's because the awful mother doesn't want anyone to see how old she actually is OR because she didn't want to be bothered with a child (or both). The mother simply has no interest in the kid--and now that she's grown, she STILL wants to keep her a secret.
When nice-guy George Brent accidentally meets this secret 19 year-old, he's taken by her innocence and how unlike her mother she is. In fact, while he takes on the role of a 'Dutch uncle' (like an unofficial guardian or protector), it's obvious he's falling in love with her. Amazingly, the daughter (Jean Muir) seems to have no inkling that this has occurred and sees him as a good friend...and that's all. While this isn't exactly a 'May-December romance', Brent's being in his 30s and she not quite 20 is a bit problematic. So he keeps this hidden desire to himself. What will become of this? Will the love continue unrequited? Will this sweet girl continue to allow her mother to treat her like an unwanted carbuncle? Tune in and see.
I liked the plot of this film. It is unique and interesting. My only serious reservation is that Muir's performance in the beginning is a bit too 'aw, shucks' naive for my taste. She seems like an 8 year-old who's just come to the big city and her wide-eyed innocence seems to have been put on a bit thick. However, I did like her character later as she matured a bit. This persona did change a bit and she gained a lot of strength as the film progressed. I liked this--but just wished they'd toned down her initial characterization. Still, it's a nice little movie that packs a nice, though somewhat predictable, punch. -
ksf-214 May 2020Jean Muir, George Brent, and Verree Teasdale star in this oldie from Warner Brothers. Big, movie star Helen (Muir) gives her key to her boyfriend Stuart (Brent). when Stuart arrives, he meets the daughter Lois (Teasdale). similar plot theme, where Mom's boyfriend seems to be spending a lot of time with her daughter, in Mildred Pierce, or maybe Imitation of Life, with Claudette Colbert. Directed by the feisty Archie Mayo. he was probably best known for directing bogart in petrified forest. Screenplay by Mary C. McCall, who had written a couple novels, and did a whole lot of writing for hollywood, including a bunch of the Maisie films. It's quite good. snuck in just BEFORE the film code was being so strictly enforced, so the fact that Helen gave her apartment key to a man would be just shocking a couple years later. it's insinuated (implied ?) that Helen gave mac the key for a reason... hint. hint. it's pretty good.
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Mozjoukine16 December 2002The Warner movies of the early thirties with a more female sensibility are forgotten. Here this traces back to the script by Mary McCall who also did IT'S TOUGH TO BE FAMOUS.
They pussyfoot round the scandalous issue of Brent sparking both actress Teasedale and daughter Muir and that stops this from being the strong melodrama it might have been but the team are still at the peak of the form that made the studio excel in the first years of sound and this one plays well and is full of imaginative minor touches of the kind that would fade from director Mayo's later work - Teasdale's success shown in a view of the audience the curtain shadow falls across, her passing the key seen silent through a window or an unseen doorman dismissing a taxi.
There's even a night life montage with champagne glasses.
The cast are in their element and, with a less rushed ending, this could have been a notable item. -
mark.waltz16 August 2018Aging middle aged actress Verree Teasdale is starring in the latest dramatic potboiler on Broadway, a tearjerker that has the men's mouths ajaw (probably from their awareness of how bad it is) and the women dabbing their eyes. A gold digger asks "daddy" for the same yellow dress that she wears in the closing scene, even though the movie viewer only hears Teasdale, not seeing her. In the audience is handsome George Brent, one of those with their eyes rolling over how bad it is (a sentiment echoed by one of the financiers he sees in the audience), and soon Brent is spending time with the vain Teasdale. One night while waiting for her, Brent is interrupted by the arrival of young Jean Muir whom Brent finds out is the daughter that Teasdale has been hiding away in boarding school, the product of a brief marriage during Teasdale's poorer days that was easier to hide. Teasdale wants to send Muir off to an aunt's while the school quarantine is on, but Muir doesn't want to go. In fact, she's become enamored of Brent and wants to stay. Having no choice, Teasdale introduces her to society, but the snobs of the uppercrust are not Muir's type, and an engagement to stuffy Charles Starrett results in a party where all of Muir's frustrations are revealed thanks to his snobby mother Virginia Hammond's demands on Muir's behavior.
The glamorous Verree Teasdale is forgotten outside the legion of classic movie fans (so memorable in two other 1934 Warner Brothers movies, "Dr. Monica", also with Muir, and "Fashions", as the rival to Bette Davis), and I once had to explain to a tour guide of the Hollywood Cemetery that she was so much more than just Adolph Menjou's widow. Tall and regal with a very lady like presence that could turn acidic if you crossed her, Teasdale reminded me of another forgotten tall supporting player, Natalie Moorehead. In this film, Teasdale is trying to hold onto her image as a glamorous star, not the shop girl of her youth who married a poor man and got widowed early on, only to rise through the ranks to become a popular actress. She is desperate to hold onto what she has gained, so daughter Muir, as much as she loves her, becomes the bane of that attempt especially when Muir's feelings towards Brent become obvious. Muir, a rising starlet, could have become as big at Warner Brothers as Bette Davis was, but like another star at Warner's at the time (Ann Dvorak), Muir had other ambitions that couldn't be controlled by the studio system. Brent shows once again how he can make his leading ladies look good just by standing next to them in evening clothes and never upstaging them. This is an interesting and glamorous entry in the usually tough Warner Brothers line-up of pre-code movies, quite subtle in its display of sin, but obvious to those of us who look past what the script is telling us to see. -
jarrodmcdonald-123 December 2022Two things come to mind when watching this Warner Brothers melodrama that hit screens in the fall of 1934. First, the story had probably been in development before the production code was fully enforced. So it has residual precode elements. If it had been released by the studio earlier in the year, the more scandalous elements of the plot would likely have been played up.
Second, this seems like exactly the type of vehicle Kay Francis would have done. And one wonders why she didn't take the lead role, since it was given to Verree Teasdale instead. Miss Teasdale, wife of Adolphe Menjou, is not remembered as a star actress though she was certainly glamorous enough to be one. She tended to be relegated to second-tier leads, and later, she appeared predominately in supporting roles.
The story is pretty basic as far as these things go. Teasdale's character is an aging actress...cue the vanity...who doesn't want to admit she's now a bit past her prime and heading to the old folks' home. She wants to maintain an aura of sophistication and continue projecting a degree of youthfulness. Unfortunately, one thing stands in her way.
That would be her pretty daughter (Jean Muir) who has recently come home from boarding school and blossomed into an adult. It's not that Teasdale doesn't love her offspring, for she certainly does...it's just that to claim this daughter openly in a world full of theatrical snobs, she would have to admit her true age-- something she is not ready to do. In a way we have a story of a young woman coming of age, as well as the mother learning to act her age and grow older gracefully.
The scenario is ripe with complications when a handsome man enters both their lives. I won't go so far as to say George Brent's character is a gigolo, but he is a bit of an opportunist who is hanging on to Teasdale because she can spoil him with the finer things in life. However, a conflict occurs when he meets and falls in love with Muir, without first realizing she's related to his older lover. It's a triangle for the ages, told in a highly melodramatic fashion.
You can see why I think Kay Francis would have been ideal here, but maybe at this stage of her career, she wasn't quite mature enough to play the mother role. This isn't to say Teasdale isn't effective, since she definitely is, but I do think there needed to be more anguish registered in the mother's expressions, realizing she was defeated. Miss Francis would have handled such scenes with considerable skill.
A fourth character is added to the mix in the form of Charles Starrett who plays a man of society that happens to be smitten with Muir. When Teasdale realizes that Muir may steal Brent away from her, she tries to push Muir into marrying Starrett.
However, as they continue to date, Muir is unable to muster up the same amount of affection for Starrett, since she'd rather be with her mother's beau. It's interesting to see Starrett in this type of role. By the end of the decade, he'd become a star of B westerns and make quite a name for himself in the saddle.
Of course, we are not surprised when Brent and Muir wind up together, seemingly against all odds. Teasdale's character must step aside, and relinquish her crown as the queen since her daughter how now emerged victorious as the winner of young men's hearts. In their own way, both ladies are desirable, but there is a passing of the torch from one generation to the next.