Topaze

Yes, indeed. Barrymore at his best. Charming story about a French schoolmaster who is unwittingly embroiled in a controversy that forces him to face truth, honesty and integrity outside of his classroom walls.

Barrymore and a fresh-faced Myrna Loy are the stand-outs in this engrossing part melodrama, part comedy. And I mean comedy in the most strictest, serious forms. Full of pathos and irony.

The final scenes of comeuppance and the balancing of justice have been done over and over in many movies since and probably before, but never so deliciously biting as in this simple but strong story.

Recommended without reservations.

John Barrymore is "Topaze" in this 1933 film based on a French play. The film also stars a young and beautiful Myrna Loy. Professor Topaze is a very morally grounded teacher who is always honest, and when a student does bad work, he's marked down for it. Unfortunately for Professor Topaze, the mother of one of the students manages to have him fired. Bloody but unbowed, Topaze has been recommended for a tutoring job and goes to an apartment to see about it. Little does he know, the father of the boy, Baron Philippe de la Tour, is the one who had him recommended and now no longer wants him. de la Tour is at the home of Coco, his mistress (Loy) which Topaze doesn't pick up on until much later. de la Tour is selling bottled water - except it's from a tap - and his main endorser has just walked out. Who can he get to endorse his water? In walks Professor Topaze, who has a background in science. Without realizing what's going on, Topaze throws himself into the work of developing a fabulous water.

The only thing about this film that's of any interest, to me anyway, is the performance of John Barrymore as a bearded, badly put together, innocent professor who lives in another world. In one scene, he's given some liquor; not being a drinker (now that's real acting) he downs it in one swallow. To watch the liquor take its effect is very funny, as Topaze makes a joke and then laughs, his voice cracking. He crosses his legs. He starts staring at Myrna Loy.

Loy is lovely, but she has what is strictly an ingénue role and not much to do. Jobyna Howland is the Baronness de la Tour, and she's a scream.

Definitely worth seeing for the performances.

This film proves that just because a film is old doesn't mean it isn't worth seeing! This simple film captivated me with the cleaver plot and the acting of John Barrymore as he lights up each scene! The story is about a company that is looking for a stooge to be the figurehead for their bottled water company. They want some obscure scientist to state that the liquid has health-inducing properties even though it's nothing special. They happen upon Barrymore--an apparently simple-minded old professor who is a paragon of virtue. They use his good name to hoodwink the public and the good professor who appears to have no idea what is going on around him,...or does he? Watch the movie through to the end, as it really grabs you when the eventual show-down occurs!

By the way, this film was from a story by the wonderful French writer, Marcel Pagnol. Try to find the original French language version if you get the chance or any of his other wonderful films, such as THE BUTCHER'S WIFE or the FANNY trilogy.

TOPAZE (1933) is a funny movie. It is also a dramatic tale of how corrupt the writers (Ben Hecht/Benn Levy) find the capitalists to be. The capitalist in question is the Baron Philippe de La Tour (Reginald Mason) who is carrying on an affair with a girl called Coco (Myrna Loy). There is no compunction involved, and they carry on as if married. Only they're not.

The Baron La Tour wants to sell bottled water but his "scientific backing" bails on him because the water is not what is advertised. With the help of his paramour Coco, Baron Le Tour finds another scientist in the form of his son's recently fired schoolmaster, Professor Auguste A. Topaze. Unwitting and somewhat naïve, Topaze lends his name to the water which henceforth bears his name, Sparkling Topaze.

Dr. Topaze eventually discovers that, by gosh, he's being used. What he does is the perfect answer to capitalism, because it is done like a true capitalist.

The "evil capitalist" argument has never died, in this era when corporations and oil companies and big pharmaceuticals, etc., are blamed for the sundry world ills, so the story is not really dated. Barrymore is brilliant, owning the role, and Myrna Loy is dazzling. Mason is quite good as the Baron, Jobyna Howland delightful as his wife, and Jackie Searl is a joy as their son, Charlemagne de La Tour, who is something of the nemesis of Dr. Topaze.

This movie is a gem.

"Topaze" is another of those quality movies from the early 1930s that showed in theaters once, and then vanished for decades. There was a laser disc release of this movie on the CBS label 60 years after "Topaze" original release in 1933, but nothing in between. TCM probably showed the movie, but I never spotted it on that cable channel's schedule. John Barrymore was at the peak of his Hollywood career when he made this movie, playing Professor Topaze, who learns the hard way that nice guys finish last. "Topaze" was just another movie on the studio production schedule, but try and find now a movie with the quality and entertainment value of "Topaze," along with commentary thrown in on the world of business.

Ben Hecht wrote that he only spent a few weeks writing the screenplay for "Topaze," considering the work just another job for hire, fast money. That attitude, take the money and run, probably applied to John Barrymore, who worked for the studio that agreed to pay his $25,000 a week salary. David O. Selznick, the movie's producer, knew that RKO Studios was in financial trouble, heading for bankruptcy, but Barrymore was one of the biggest Hollywood stars in the early 30s, worth the money. "Topaze," the end result of the work of the talent RKO brought to the screen, is part cynical take on business, part romantic comedy and all original for Hollywood. Henri d'Abbadie d'Arrast, the movie's director, does a great job of pacing this story of a school teacher thrown in the big world as a pitchman for a company selling tainted bottled water. D'Abbadie d'Arrast had no career in Hollywood after this movie flopped.

In one scene in the movie, the backers of the bottled water, thinking over who they can get to promote the water, think about hiring a famous general as their shill. Instead, they decide on a teacher named Dr. Topaze, a teacher at the school one backer's child goes to, and name their product Topaze water. Over 70 years later, advertisers still use researchers and scientists in their commercials to push their products.

Maybe D'Abbadie d'Arrast career went south after going over budget on the movie by not doing everything possible to film all of Barrymore's scenes within two weeks, as William Wyler did making a later Barrymore picture, "Counsellor at Law." Hollywood lost a top craftsman when D'Abbadie d'Arrast stopped directing movies. In "Topaze," Barrymore is great as Dr.Topaze, Myrna Loy looks great and the audience even learns something about the Punic Wars. What a class picture.

FYI: At the 42 minute mark of Topaze, John Barrymore and Myrna Loy are in a cab driving down a main thoroughfare in Paris during a rainstorm. The rear window of the cab shows the traffic behind them and, once or twice, a pedestrian behind them crossing the street in the rear projection shot. At 44 minutes, the image dissolves for a fraction of a second, whiting out, and the special effects technician replays some of the one and one half minutes of stock footage previously rear-projected. Someone at RKO made a copy of the stock footage and spliced some of this copy footage to the end of original footage to end up with the two or so minutes of rear projection footage needed for the cab scene. Clever, huh, and you would never notice it if not for that momentary glitch as the rear image whites out. All routine for Vernon Walker's RKO special effects unit. But, as usual, very well done.