Tonight I watched the fifth and last film from my "Forbidden Hollywood Volume Two" collection, "A Free Soul" (1931), starring Norma Shearer, Lionel Barrymore and Clark Gable. Barrymore and Shearer are a father and daughter who are estranged from their wealthy society family. His wife died in childbirth, so Barrymore has raised Norma on his own, to be a free spirit and to look life square in the face and play by her own rules. This method of child-rearing might have worked better if Lionel were not a total alcoholic. His addiction has severely impaired his ability to function and has affected his daughter, too, leaving her emotionally unstable and therefore easy prey for a predator.
Still, she loves her Dad very much, calls him "darling" (I have seen this in many films from the 30s, daughters calling Dad "darling" and catering to him in an innocent romantic way. I wonder if it was a common endearment from the era or just a Hollywood movie invention?).
Anyway, Shearer's bond with her Dad is so strong that she overlooks his drinking and hopes it will go away. And he is not just a lush, but is also a top notch defense lawyer. As the movie is getting underway he is about to present his final argument to the jury on behalf of his client (Gable), a gambling hall owner accused of murder. Using a Johnny Cochrane technique, he produces a hat taken as evidence from the murder scene, has Gable try it on, and it is way too small.
"If the hat don't fit, you must acquit".
O.J. got away with murder, and so does Clark Gable, but worse than that - for Barrymore - is that his Free Spirit daughter has now met the charming thug Gable in the courtroom. She is immediately enthralled, and though she is already engaged to staid, plain-vanilla Leslie Howard, a champion polo player, she quickly runs off with mobster Gable, to live with him in the penthouse apartment above his casino.
There is all sorts of pre-code stuff going on here, besides the sheer negligees and nightgowns Shearer walks around in. I mean, even today a girl breaking an engagement to run off with a gambler is the stuff of scandal. But back in the 1930s? Such a woman would have been ostracized.
Lionel Barrymore finds out about his daughter's illicit arrangement, and - dependent as he is on booze - he still musters the strength to show up at the casino to try and bring her back home. He tells Clark Gable in so many words : "You are scum. Just because I defended you doesn't mean I like you".
And he sure doesn't want his daughter anywhere near the guy. Gable, naturally, sees it the other way.
Shearer willingly ran off with him, therefore she must be crazy about him. He is gonna try and force her to stay.
But she is just a kid. She doesn't know what she is doing.
Meanwhile, generic good-guy boyfriend and erstwhile fiancee Leslie Howard, a loyal chap in reality, is hanging tough behind the scenes. Dad Barrymore likes him and hopes Norma will come to her senses.
"A Free Soul" is a very early Talkie, so you have some remnants of Silent Movie acting histrionics with Norma Shearer, but mostly she is very good in another of her Modern Woman roles. And later in the movie, when she has to get serious and face the music for the bad choices she has made, she really turns on the drama and shows why she was considered such a great early motion picture actress. Her style is so natural that you feel you are watching a real person onscreen.
As for Lionel Barrymore, I have always felt that he was the best of the Barrymore clan of actors, and though he certainly chewed his fair share of scenery over the years, his performance here as the debilitated, negligent father is worthy of the Best Actor Oscar he won for the role.
As in many early Hollywood scripts, there is a final courtroom scene in this film, where Barrymore lets it all hang out. It is one of his few non-wheelchair roles, as he was still ambulatory at this point in his life, and he knocks the scene out of the ballpark.
This is also a film that brought notice to a young Clark Gable, who seemed to be cast as bad guys in his early roles. He is tough as nails here, a total misogynist, who ultimately meets his match in encountering "The Free Soul".
Two Big Thumbs Up. This is a major league drama, quite competent for 1931 as an Oscar worthy film, and totally involving on an emotional level, for any era. The themes presented are the themes of today, nearly 90 years later. ////
That was the last film from my second Forbidden Hollywood collection, so now I'll have to get Volume Three. Every movie I have seen in the two collections I own has been very good. I am a champion of Golden Era Hollywood because the movies told great stories, with great style. ////
We had great singing in church this morning. Our anthem was called "Soon And Very Soon", a gospel song by Andrae Crouch, who was a multiple Grammy winner and also a pastor nearby in Pacoima. His song is one of my favorite types to sing, because it is so full of emotion and you can belt it. Our choir director told us to sing as loud as we could, so I did. I love singing in choir. ////
I am hoping we will have some warmer temperatures soon, but until then, much warmth is sent your way.
And love. xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
See you in the morning.
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