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Regardless of the quality of the story, I felt I had to see "The Easiest Way" because it's one of Clark Gable's earliest films. He plays a supporting character, Nick, a guy far less sophisticated and lacking the trademark mustache.

Laura (Constance Bennett) lives in a crowded apartment with her trashy family. They're poor and the father is a genial drunk. Because of this background, it's not at all surprising that when she is given a chance to become her boss' mistress, she jumps at the chance. After all, he's loaded and pampers her like she's never been pampered before! But folks who know her realize what sort of a woman she is, particularly her brother-in-law, Nick. He's wise to the trampy sort of life she leads.

A bit later, when Laura is on vacation out west, she meets a nice- guy reporter, Johnny (Robert Montgomery). He's handsome, sweet and you assume they'll soon marry---and he knows what sort of woman she was. However, this is only about half-way through the film, so you know IF there's going to be a happily ever after, it will have to come after a few plot twists!

This film is a great example of the so-called 'Pre-Code' and its sensibilities. Although most folks today think all the movies made back in the good 'ol days were very prudish, this was NOT the case before mid-1934. In the early 30s, studios made all sorts of very adult films with plots involving prostitutes, abortion, fornication and even, occasionally, nudity and cursing. While the films sometimes didn't always SAY that is what was going on, it was always heavily implied and the adults in the audience know the score. Here in "The Easiest Way", words like 'mistress', 'prostitute' or even that she's sleeping with the suave boss (Adolph Menjou)...but it's clearly happening! On top of that, he no-good dad doesn't mind...he LIKES the money she can send home! Welcome to the pre-code era, folks!

So the important question about all this is whether or not the film is any good. If you're watching it for Gable like I was, don't expect too much from him. His role is very limited and he clearly is just a contract actor in this film. As for the film itself, its quite good. The only negative, and I actually liked this, was that the ending is very vague--so if you're looking for a perfect, formulaic sort of picture, this ain't it!

Constance Bennett is a woman who gets a sugar daddy in "The Easiest Way," also starring Adolphe Menjou, Robert Montgomery, Anita Page, and Clark Gable. Made in 1931, it's directed by Jack Conway, and it's very well done.

Bennett plays Laura, who lives in a crowded tenement with her large family, which includes her father who manages not to work. She gets an opportunity to model for an advertising agency. While there, she catches the eye of the boss (Menjou) who offers her a life of luxury. She takes it. Her mother shuns her, and her brother-in-law, Clark Gable, has no use for her. While she and Menjou are in Colorado, she meets a reporter, Robert Montgomery, and they fall in love. She promises to be faithful to him while he's in South America for three months. But it's pretty hard to make it on her own.

This is an interesting film. Because the actors were getting used to sound, the rhythm is occasionally off, i.e., there are sometimes awkward pauses between lines. Everyone's acting is good, with the exception of Marjorie Rambeau, who has a very melodramatic role and does the tremulous voice thing in her big monologue. Rambeau, however, had been a Broadway star, where her theatrics were more appropriate, and it took actors time to learn the art of film acting. She was a fantastic actress, and I particularly remember her as Joan Crawford's mother in "Torch Song." Constance Bennett, as usual, was very beautiful. She is excellent in the part of a torn, vulnerable woman. Gable is a tough guy sans mustache. He hadn't yet developed his screen persona, but the gorgeous smile was there. Robert Montgomery is wonderful as a young reporter.

There was a neat shot where the camera travels up a building, zeroes in on a window, and then zooms in. It was dizzying and exciting, and it's the kind of detail that makes "The Easiest Way" a good watch. There are real outdoor scenes, too, no painted backdrops, and opulent sets. If they weren't opulent, they were realistic, for instance, the crummy apartment where Laura's family lives.

There was another ending to this film that the Hays office vetoed. Apparently it was shown in some theaters but is no longer available. I'm a sap, so I liked the ending that's in the movie.

The Easiest Way is directed by Jack Conway and adapted to screenplay by Edith Ellis from the 1909 play of the same name written by Eugene Walter. It stars Contance Bennett, Adolphe Menjou, Robert Montgomery, Clark Gable and Anita Page.

Obviously tame by today's standards, it's still not hard to see why The Easiest Way ruffled feathers back in the day. Essentially the plot finds Bennett as Laura Murdock, a poor shop girl who grows so tired of sharing a cramped tenement home with her large family, where three to a bed is the norm, she lands herself a rich older man (Menjou) and becomes a kept mistress. This ostracises her greatly and stuck in a loveless relationship, she's in a bad place emotionally. Hope comes in the form of Jack Madison (Montgomery), and the two hit it off right away and fall in love, but can Laura leave behind the wealth for the sake of love? Just what is the easiest way?

And so it is, running at under 75 minutes, pic gets away with what it can by ensuring the taboo nature of the story centre is cunningly evident. Conway and Mescall show some deft ambition with mobile camera work and nice framing shots out in the exteriors. Performances are all credible, with Gable serving early notice of what was to come in his career, and the ending, one of many filmed as the makers searched for tonal closure, works just fine to linger as a bittersweet aftertaste.

Montgomery isn't in it nearly enough given that he is playing one of the key characters, and the big issue of women striding out for their right to challenge society's stone-age ideals is inadequately unfurled. Other than that this is a thoroughly enjoyable piece of of pre-code classic cinema. 7/10

"This life isn't a romance for girls like us. It's a game with the men holding all the trumps. They like to look upon us as some animal they're proud to own."

This is a pre-Code film, but it's a mixed bag relative to moralistic messaging, and that was a little frustrating. Its premise is born out of the Depression, and it being tough for working families to make ends meet. In a common theme from the era, a sudden event promises a change in fortune: the meeting of a rich man. It comes at a cost, however, and "the easiest way" out of one's problems is soon shown to be the hard way.

We initially meet a large family in an early morning scene that was sharp and full of life. Kids of all ages sharing beds are being awakened by their mother and sent on errands or called to get their breakfast. The father announces he is tired of the physical strain of working as a longshoreman and wants to rely on his kids, so he would like his adolescent son to drop out of school so that he can get a job at a construction site catching red-hot rivets thrown by workers in a pail. Yikes. We're not in 2023 here, we're in 1931 - although in light of Iowa and other state legislatures moving forward with loosening child labor laws with little ability to hold businesses accountable in the event of injury or death, hey, perhaps we're also looking at the future here! But I digress. One of his adult daughters (Anita Page) is soon to marry a hard-working blue-collar guy (Clark Gable). The other (Constance Bennett) is a sensible saleswoman, but after being discovered as a modelling prospect, becomes the lover of the top boss (Adolphe Menjou). Her sugar daddy allows her to live a life of luxury and support her family, but the immorality of the relationship (as seen in the eyes of the era) causes her to be ostracized by her mother and brother-in-law, and she's conflicted when she meets someone she truly loves (Robert Montgomery).

It's a fantastic cast with all five of those actors, and these were early roles for Montgomery and Gable, which is a bonus. Director Jack Conway keeps things moving along with great pace as well, and occasionally there are some fine shots, such as the one of Bennett and Montgomery talking at a mountain lake, their backs turned to the camera and the reflection of the trees in the water in the background. We never really see any passion between Bennett and Menjou so it's decidedly tame for a pre-Code film, and that's almost certainly due to censors taking exception to Bennett's life being shown as too alluring before eventually getting to its message and hacking it up at a local level, as Mark Viera describes in Forbidden Hollywood. The film also vacillates melodramatically as it plays out. I liked that part of this showed the position Bennett's character was in, between a rock and a hard place, with her friend saying that the men "held all the trumps," but wish it had taken more of a stand on this hypocrisy.

And that's where most of my discontent came from, the judgment of Bennett's character, while there was absolutely none of this for Menjou's. The most visible form of this comes from Clark Gable's character, who clearly represents the film's moral compass, given the somewhat nauseating forgiveness scene, complete with Christmas trappings, at the end. Even Bennett herself feels she is wrong to be living with a man who is "not the marrying kind," and comes off as more miserable than some of the other strong pre-Code characters and the leading ladies who played them. At least she's not condemned to death so this doesn't feel completely like a post-Code film, but it's close.

Wonderful story ruined by Hays Office has fabulous Constance Bennett escaping her New York slum upbringing by becoming a model and mistress to Adolphe Menjou. All is well until she runs into reporter Robert Montgomery in Colorado Springs (the Wild West in 1931). He's off to South America and asks Bennett to be good and wait for him. Well that lasts about a month. She runs out of money and goes back to Menjou. Better than it sounds until the hack ending. Solid performances by the stars, especially Bennett, and ably supported by Anita Page, Marjorie Rambeau, Clark Gable (his first MGM film), J. Farrell MacDonald, Clara Blandick, Jack Hanlon (as the sullen brother), and Hedda Hopper. The opening tenement scene is just wonderful. Gable is dynamic is his first big part. Rambeau is always terrific. Page is quite good in a supporting role. Menjou is slimy, but Constance Bennett is front and center and mesmerizing. She was a major star of her time--too bad she's mostly forgotten now.