Living on Velvet (1935)

Here, again, we have very rich people, in the midst of the Depression throwing what money they have away, but always being saved by their rich and fancy friends. The butler can always come in another car and bring supplies if needed, Following a needless or deliberate plane crash, Kay Francis decides she will "change" George Brent. Here the movies start to shape American women's psyches. How much is absorbed we will never know, but to say that movies -- there were many more in this vein -- were not an influence in this regard would be a mockery to the inescapable truth. She will change him -- be damned, one way or another. In the movie, she can run off to her aunt and be safe and he never becomes violent. In real life, men do become worse and worse and women who try to "reform" them cannot run off to their rich aunts.

The message this movie sends out is atrocious -- but this was before psychological studies had shown, beyond a doubt, that this kind of behavior only led to increased erraticism and violence on the part of these coddled men.

Nevertheless, this film must be judged on its entirety and on this, it cannot be scored well. The performances are not all that believable, the actions Brent takes are not all that congruent with what is allowable, and the constant attachment to the very rich in the height of the great depression cheapens and weakens this movie.