The Kiss Before the Mirror

This racy pre code courtroom drama is not very good,but it is well acted by a good cast. Frank Morgan plays a Viennese lawyer who defends his friend, Paul Lukas, who has murdered his wife played by an absolutely beautiful, Gloria Stuart(who has a brief,surprising nude scene-we see her back as she strips).Morgan finds himself suspecting his own wife, played by Nancy Carroll,of infidelity. The film is wonderfully photographed and does a good job showing us the life of these wealthy Austrians.The boyfriend,played by an early Walter Pidgeon,is shown in the opening scene in a magnificent home which is sumptuously decorated.The visual style as in many Whale movies is striking.Unfortunately,the original play that this is based on,seems unbelievable and rather florid, although the infidelity elements are not that dissimilar from Kubricks,Eyes Wide Shut, also based on a Viennese original.

This film begins with a husband following his wife to a rendezvous with her lover. There, he savagely kills her with a revolver--shooting her repeatedly as she fell to the ground. The husband, Paul Lukas, immediately phones the police to turn himself in for murder. However, his lawyer (Frank Morgan) works hard for his acquittal or a lenient sentence, since the husband was driven to this by his wife's behavior. Morgan's insistence of Lukas' innocence is important, since Morgan himself realizes his wife is also committing adultery and proving Lukas' innocence is, in a way, vindication for Morgan if he, too, decides to kill his wife.

As for Morgan, his performance is quite atypical. Instead of the usual nice guy or comical figure, here he plays a highly emotional and almost unhinged man. He's a bit over the top in his acting, but his melodramatic behavior is fun to watch.

The film was directed by James Whale--the same man who directed Boris Karloff and Colin Clive in the first two of Universal's Frankenstein movies. Like these films, THE KISS BEFORE THE MIRROR is notable for having many quiet moments where there is no incidental music. This is important because it adds to the tension and drama--producing a stark but intense film. Additionally, the film manages to do a lot in only a little over an hour--a sign of excellent direction. The only negative is that the final scene with Morgan's wife is a bit too melodramatic--too shrill to be realistic.

Overall, rather entertaining and different.

Kiss Before the Mirror, The (1933)

*** (out of 4)

An attorney (Frank Morgan) defends his best friend (Paul Lukas) accused of killing his wife (Gloria Stuart) after learning she's having an affair. The attorney soon discovers that his own wife (Nancy Carroll) is having an affair so the trial because a learning process so that he can discover whether or not he could get away with murder. Fans of the director will certainly want to check this film out as it features some of his typical comedy as well as stylish director. The film is a rather dark one about madness and this comes through with the performances. Some might call the performance of Lukas over the top but I see it as pure madness. The scene where he goes over what he has done before breaking down has a nice intensity to it. Several other scenes also have this including the final courtroom scenes as well as the opening murder. The opening murder sequence is brilliantly filmed by the director who makes this one of his most stylish scenes. The way the camera captures everything in a couple rooms then cuts to the outside looking in was very well handled. Whale also mixes in some black comedy with most of it coming from an unmarried woman working with the defense who makes several jokes about women being killed. Morgan and Carroll are both very good as is Stuart in her small role. Walter Pidgeon and Donald Cook play the lovers in the film. Fans of Whale's FRANKENSTEIN will also be very interested in watching this because this film uses the same sets as the horror classic. It's was rather funny seeing the jail cell being the same place that the monster was tied up. The village is the same and several sets take place inside Frankenstein's castle. Ted Billings, a bit player in FRANKENSTEIN and THE INVISIBLE MAN, appears here briefly. Whale would remake this five years later in WIVES UNDER SUSPICION.

James Whale, the director of FRANKENSTEIN and BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN already proved that he was not only a horror and fantasy film maker, but also a solid director in any domain. This tremendous little and short film offers, proposes a very unusual and unpredictable plot which the scheme has not been used much since. I have rarely, if not never, seen this before. Maybe I am wrong. Anyway, the much talking is unavoidable for a 1931 and it is the only flaw of this feature. The quality of the copy I just saw was excellent and this enhances the great photography of this film. Unfortunately the last part, last reel, smashes the whole material. The ending is awful, I expected far more. But this film remains a gem.

The only other James Whale movie that I have seen, except for his classics, "Frankenstein," "Bride of Frankenstein" and "Invisible Man," was "the Old Dark House." I liked "the Old Dark House," but it wasn't a masterpiece like the other three.

I have never seen "Wizard of Oz" title character Frank Morgan in a leading role, so I always assumed he was a character actor, but he easily carries the film in this case. His wife is played by Nancy Carroll who starred in some 35 films from 1928 to 1935. She is quite fine. Gloria Stuart, famous for the Titanic (1997) has appears briefly in the film. Jean Dixon, as a very sharp statuesque woman lawyer nearly steals the picture with a sharp sense of humor.

The movie is about obsession, love and murder. Whale does a wonderful job of balancing comedy with tense scary moments as he did in "Bride" and "Invisible Man." The movie is very humanist and really solidifies the idea of him being a great auteur director. There's an hilarious scene of two gay newspaper men commenting on the trial. The movie is tight and short, barely over an hour, so it can't be called a masterpiece, but it does manage a lot of emotional intensity for a film of this length and this time period.