Topaze

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.

Watching Topaze this morning I was amazed at how well John Barrymore was playing the title role in this film and how he seemed to be getting inspiration from Frank Morgan. Then I did some research and found out that in the American debut of Marcel Pagnol's play Frank Morgan did indeed play the lead.

The play ran for 215 performances on Broadway in 1930 and it concerns a French school teacher who's a rather old fashioned pedantic fellow who believes the simple maxims of life about honesty and decency. His reputation is such that an unscrupulous industrialist wants to use his name on a soft drink that is not manufactured with the highest of standards.

When he finds out and how he deals with it are the subject of Topaze and let's just say this mild mannered school teacher turns out to be more than capable of dealing with the cold and cruel outside world.

John Barrymore never did anything quite like Topaze or at least I've not seen it. You can best compare this performance to a couple of Frank Morgan roles. It's very much like his Professor Roth in The Mortal Storm although the results are far happier for the title character.

Myrna Loy is on hand as the mistress of Baron Reginald Mason and gives a good account of herself as does Mason as the unscrupulous industrialist. You can see why Mason's doing a little kanoodling with Loy on the side when you get a look at Jobyna Howland, the Baroness. Let's just say she's formidable.

Loy would soon follow Barrymore to MGM from where he was being loaned out for Topaze by Louis B. Mayer to his son-in-law, David O. Selznick the producer. Selznick would also opt for MGM soon. But director Harry d'Abbadie d'Arrast would depart for Europe shortly unable to work within the constraints of the Hollywood studio system. He did a great job here, possibly in another era he would have had a more substantial American career.

For a John Barrymore you've not seen before I recommend 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.

"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.

Hapless schoolmaster Auguste TOPAZE becomes the dupe of a duplicitous baron attempting to sell worthless tonic water.

John Barrymore is wonderfully cast against type as the gently pedantic professor in this sadly obscure comedy from RKO. For much of the picture he dithers delightfully, well aware that often less is more in the game of cinematic scene stealing. Living his life by the simple maxims of honesty & decency, Barrymore's character is stunned when his good name is threatened by his powerful new employer. But he has a scheme...

Lovely Myrna Loy, as cool & untroubled as an icy glacier, does well by her role as the baron's levelheaded mistress. Refreshingly, the story allows only an innocent platonic friendship between herself & Barrymore. It is enough.

Aristocratic Reginald Mason gives an enjoyable performance as the crooked baron, while the massive Jobyna Howland revels in her small role as his unspeakable wife. Young Jackie Searl scores as their repellent little son.

Good assist is given by Albert Conti as a corrupt politician, Luis Alberni as an outraged chemist, and, in the same year he'd captain the steamer to Kong's Skull Island, Frank Reicher takes the role of the stern headmaster of the boy's school which employed Topaze.

Ben Hecht's script for the film was based on the original play by Marcel Pagnol.