Absolute Quiet

There are some first-rate performances packed into this surprisingly entertaining "B" movie. Taking it from the top, there's Lionel Atwill as a high-powered tycoon whose doctor orders him to rest his nerves at his ranch out west. That's not easy when Wallace Ford and Bernadene Hayes turn up as a vaudeville act wanted for murder. And when a fog-bound plane crashes, they're joined by Louis Hayward as a fading movie idol whose face is scarred in the accident, Stu Erwin as a wise-guy newspaperman and Raymond Walburn as a blustering politico. Throw in Irene Hervey as the secretary Atwill is trying to bed and J. Carroll Naish as a sly Mexican ranch hand and it's fun watching "Absolute Quiet" just to see who'll try to steal the spotlight from who. My bet goes to Hayes and Ford as the serial killer love birds who insist that they really slayed 'em in vaudeville.

It's a little like "Grand Hotel." Today "Grand Hotel" seems stagy and really creaks. "Absolute Quiet" is wife awake and crackles.

It's a little like "The Petrified Forest." That holds up pretty well but is very stagy. And it's a little like "Key Largo," which no one is going to fault.

Lionel Atwill is a manipulator who tries to have the husband of a woman he's attracted to crash his plane. At the same time, he will be taking care of an ex-girlfriend, an actress he has ostensibly sent to Hollywood in that same plane. Her boyfriend, Louis Hayward, a fading movie star, is also on the plane, as is the governor of the state. Atwill has it in for him.

The plane crashes at his house in the country, where he is ostensibly taking in the eponymous rest.

Add t to this mix a reporter who wants the story. (A rather pudgy looking Stuart Erwin is good in this role.) And a Bonnie and Clyde duo on the lam. Their names are Jack and Judy. Or, their name (as they were originally a vaudeville team) IS Jack and Judy.

All this, as well as a couple minor players, in one house! This doesn't come across as a formulaic programmer. It has plenty of tension. The only aspect that bothered me was Jack's slang: Over and over, instead of saying "OK," he says "Oke." Slang can really date a movie. But this one holds up very well indeed, in spite of that one small annoyance.

This minor movie is worth watching but a bit corny by modern standards. It has a funny scipt and it is well acted by its little known cast. It is kind of hard boiled and cynical. It is a send up of American politics and society of the time when the film was made, and it gives some perspective for the present day.

Absolute Quiet (1936)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Semi-rip of The Petrified Forest has a plane full of people crash landing on the field of a man (Lionel Atwill) being held captive by a couple robbers. There are a few good laughs here but the direction is so strange that it's hard to really get caught up in the film. There's very little suspense in the movie but there are a couple nice laughs, which help the movie move along. Wallace Ford playing the tough guy was a bit hard to believe and led to several unintentional laughs. J. Carroll Naish and Irene Harvey turn in good performances as does Atwill.

Absolute Quiet seems a strange side assignment for the director of the Andy Hardy series, George B. Seitz and his sometime cinematographer Lester White. The actors were probably B-movie favorites to moviegoers in the 30s, but aside from Atwill and Stu Erwin most are long forgotten now. Familiar faces everywhere, nonetheless, in this odd little MGM picture with Atwill in the lead, supported by Lewis Hayward in a minor and atypical role. One can almost imagine an A-picture cast instead: if MGM had gotten Bette Davis for the Irene Hervey role and Cagney for Wallace Ford.

Atwill is great as always, one of the most underrated actors of the Golden Era, and Bernadene Hayes steals the film half way through as the Vaudeville hoofer turned gun moll.

I'll bet it was fun to make this one.