The Laughing Lady

Ruth Chatterton stars in this awkward drama about a "laughing lady," her punishment, and her revenge. Based on a Broadway play that starred Ethel Barrymore, the film was slated for Jeanne Eagels who died before filming started.

Chatterton is married to a dull dope (Raymond Walburn) and vacationing at a fashionable hotel with her young daughter. While swimming, she nearly drowns but is saved by the lifeguard (Nat Pendleton). Oddly, he later sneaks into her bedroom for a "reward," but is caught by a snooping maid. He is fired, but Chatterton is thrown out of the hotel and causes a big scandal picked up by the newspapers. On the advice of his lawyer (Clive Brook), the husband divorces Chatterton. During the trial she keeps laughing (why is anyone's guess).

After the divorce and the husband's winning custody of the daughter, Chatterton seeks revenge on Brook (not the husband) by framing him in a series of social weekends etc. She then plants the stories in the newspapers, endangering his career.

But after they find out that the husband had a babe on the side, Brook unethically changes side and joins Chatterton to threaten the husband and the custody decision. But the newspapers are about to publish one more story that would smash Brook's career and his love for Chatterton.

Chatterton is, as always, solid and watchable. Brook is stiff. Walburn is terrible. Supporting players other than Pendleton are not well known. Notable are Nedda Harrigan as Cynthia and in an especially terrible performance Dorothy Hall as Flo.

Ruth Chatterton is the wife of Raymond Walburn. When she is rescued by a lifeguard at a hotel, she responds with laughter in stead of the expected hysterics. Walburn sues for divorce on the grounds of infidelity, and during the trial, she laughs again; Walburn's lawyer, Clive Brook, makes a point of this and the jury finds for Walburn, awarding him custody of their daughter. Miss Chatterton is spurned by society ladies, but the men don't mind, so she meets Brook again.

Brook spends most of the movie playing a stiff, which makes this a chance for Miss Chatterton to show a wide range of emotions in her performance. Clearly, this was intended as a vehicle for her. The result is a movie that doesn't interest me terribly, since it's a tearjerker about women for women, and so clearly slanted in her favor that the conclusions it draws seem uninteresting. Nonetheless, Miss Chatterton gives a fine performance, as one would expect.

Other well-known performers herein include Nat Pendleton and Nedda Harrington in her screen debut.

You'd never know it was an early talkie going by the acting style and camera shots. Ruth Chatterton is "laughing lady" socialite Marjorie Lee. She is named so because in times of stress she laughs uncontrollably and often inappropriately. Those jealous of her social position and good looks wag their tongues about it being a sign of her lack of depth and control. One of these times is when she is at a beach side resort and almost drowns in the sea. She is rescued by a lifeguard and when she is deposited on the sand she begins to laugh. Later that night the other lifeguards are ribbing the lifeguard that rescued her, indicating that her laughter meant she likes him and that he should pay her a romantic bedtime call. He falls for it and climbs up the fire escape into her room. While Marjorie is fighting the brute off - in her bed - the chambermaid unfortunately appears, draws the wrong conclusion and alerts the house detective. Mrs. Lee is ejected from the hotel and her story makes front page news.

Now for the part of the story that truly is laughable - Majorie's husband. Supposedly this guy is a captain of industry, but Hector Lee (Raymond Walburn) seems to be channeling a combination of Elmer Fudd and comedian Hugh Herbert. I don't see how anyone could take him seriously. In fact I don't see how he managed to get past the age of 30 without having his pockets thoroughly picked and I certainly don't see how someone with the class and looks of Marjorie would marry him with love as the motive, but allegedly that is what has happened here. Now Hector happens to actually have a mistress on the side - a dense and shallow creature that quite frankly seems better suited to him than Marjorie but a breach of his marriage vows nonetheless. Hector is actually sitting in their love nest looking at the headlines about his wife and asking his mistress what he should do. What would anybody looking for a legal means to her sugar daddy's beehive suggest? She says that his place in the community demands a divorce. Hector takes her self-interested advice and unconventionally employs his attorney for his business affairs (Clive Brook as Daniel Farr) to handle the divorce. Farr has never handled a divorce case before, but with the combination of his skill and everyone willing to believe the worst about Marjorie, he even manages to get Hector custody of their small daughter.

After the divorce Marjorie plans her revenge - against Farr not her husband. Human emotion-wise this doesn't make much sense, but plot-wise it does. There would be very little victory in winning a battle of wits over the witless - AKA Hector Lee. So Marjorie maneuvers things so that she can get close to and even alone with Daniel Farr, and then drops little hints about them as a couple to the newspapers, basically turning the tables on him. Her desire is twofold though - she also wants her daughter back in her custody. How will this plan help her? Why would a good lawyer like Dan Farr allow himself to get close to someone he just took apart in a case? Will Marjorie's clueless husband get what's coming to him, whatever that might be? Watch and find out.

I thoroughly enjoyed this film, and I thought all of the players did fine jobs here, only Clive Brook comes across a bit stiff, and that's really owing to his style of speech more than anything. I'd recommend it to anybody who likes the precodes.