Not So Dumb

Not So Dumb (1930)

* 1/2 (out of 4)

The third film between director King Vidor and star Marion Davies isn't in the same league as SHOW PEOPLE or THE PATSY and really comes off as a major disappointment. Based on the play Dulcy, Davis plays that character, a blond moron who tries to help her boyfriend get his foot in the door of a big business by inviting his boss and his wife over for the weekend. Once there, Dulcy plays host to try and make herself appear smarter than she actually is. I've said this about a lot of films from this era but here it goes again. This is an early talkie that is so impressed by the fact that words can be heard that it never knows when to shut up. You can tell Davies and Vidor aren't too comfortable with the new format because it's hard to look at this film and see any of the director's trademarks. The film looks rather ugly and some of the editing will leave you scratching your head and wondering if only one take was done on certain scenes and they had to cut away from it quickly. Davies, God bless her, gives it her all but it seems Vidor just let her go off in any direction and the end result is a bit of a mess. Her character is a complete idiot and Davies gets this across just fine but after a while she starts to get very annoying because she's reduced to silly facial gestures and various facial "shock" moves. Franklin Pangborn steals the show as Leach and George Davis is also good as the rather strange butler. Fans of Davies will probably watch this no matter what but the only others that might be mildly interested are those interested in early talkies. I'm sure they've had to sit through some pretty rough films so this here is yet another. I've yet to see the original 1923 version or the remake in 1940.

This was an egregious misfire, considering the talent involved. I kept waiting for a belly laugh or even a chuckle, but I could barely force one throughout the picture. Marion Davies was a talented comedienne, but here her timing seemed off and she appeared ill at ease with the material. All I could think of was that this must have worked better onstage, as it was adapted from a play by George S. Kaufman and Marc Connelly, two of the biggest names on Broadway at the time. To top that, the Director was King Vidor, one of Hollywood's best. I thought the website rating was overly generous by half, which is what I rated it; half of it.

This early talkie is a bit creaky—sound recording technology certainly wasn't perfected yet, for one thing. It's also very evident that it's a movie version of a stage play—there's no doubt it's "stagey," which bothers some people. So it takes some doing, but Marion Davies' wacky performance eventually overcomes these distractions.

Davies is both nutty and charming as Dulcy, a wealthy young socialite who is determined to help her fiancé put over a big business deal.

Elliott Nugent is fine as the fiancé who would much prefer that Dulcy mind her own business; his performance, like his character, is pretty much overshadowed by the much bigger and bolder Davies personality. Old character actor William Holden is very good as the blustery and flustered business magnate with whom Davies is trying to match up Nugent.

Davies' extremely expressive face places her much more in a class with fellow comedians than with other female movie stars of the day; while her screen presence is nothing at all like, for example, Joan Crawford's—it's not entirely unlike Stan Laurel's or Harold Lloyd's.

Her appeal lies in a kind of well-meaning goofiness that other characters may find irritating but is both hilarious and endearing to us viewers. A great example: the drawing room scene in which a house guest sings a song while Davies aggressively shushes everyone and then noisily unwraps a box of candy.

The comic plot is okay and there is some funny dialog. But the main attraction of the picture is certainly the star—this is lots of fun for fans of Marion Davies and her other comedies.

Marion Davies stars in her second talkie feature as the scatterbrained Dulcy, who's engaged to dull Gordon (Elliott Nugent) and hosting a weekend party with hopes of furthering his business venture with old fogy Forbes (William Holden, not not that one) who arrives with his wife and daughter. Dulcy's brother Willie (Raymond Hackett) is also on hand.

As a surprise she's hired a new butler (George Davis) newly on parole as well as two surprise guests: the eccentric Van Dyke (Donald Ogden Stewart) who has shares in movie studios and the equally eccentric writer Leach (Franklin Pangborn).

Forbes turns out to be a sour old thing and Dulcy can't stop chattering in an effort to liven up the weekend party of mismatched people. After failed attempts at parlor games and billiards, Dulcy ends up helping Pangborn elope with Forbes' flaky daughter (Sally Starr) with the help of his wife (Julia Faye).

Eventually the daughter's pearls go missing, the butler/parolee runs off, and a stranger comes to the door with information on one of the guests.

Based on a 1921 play by George S. Kaufman and Marc Connelly that starred Lynn Fontanne, this was a starring film in 1923 for Constance Talmadge and again in 1940 for Ann Sothern.

Davies is fun and Pangborn is good as well. Everyone else is OK. Directed by King Vidor the film is awkwardly assembled with silent close-ups inserted into dialog scenes. This was a modest hit in 1930.

Sound quality is TERRIBLE for most of the film, but i guess that can be forgiven since talkies hadn't been around very long. Marion Davies stars as Dulcy Parker, who is hosting a get-together for the big shot "Forbes" coming into town for the big business deal. Keep an eye out for the always-fun Franklin Pangborn as "Leach", who gives the weirdest hand-shake we have ever seen, and Dulcy tells us he has some secret... Raymond Hackett is Dulcy's sarcastic, wise-cracking brother. Hackett had about ten speaking roles, and seven of those were in 1930 alone! One of the funniest roles here is the facial expressions on Perkins the butler - George Davis doesn't have a lot of lines, but his appearance as the guests come and go add a lot to the performance. Elliott Nugent is "Gordy", Dulcy's boyfriend, trying to close the deal. Lots of yackety yack, since this is based on a play. This was a remake of the silent 1923 version, and it would be remade again in 1940 with Ann Sothern and Billie Burke. There are some bad editing cuts here and there, but the conversations are mostly clever and fun, with some sight gags and one-liners by various characters. I think some of the comedy bits, including Pangborn's big scene in the living room, were probably very funny back in the day, but just seem to go on and on by today's standard. Directed by the amazing King Vidor, who had done it all in the early days of Hollywood. Original play written by Kaufman, who had also written "Man Who Came to Dinner" and "You Can't Take it with You", also made into films.