Man of the World

Man Of The World is an 80-year old curio found in an economically priced Universal album with five other Carol Lombard pictures likewise valued primarily as antiques. The gorgeous Miss Lombard bore not a little resemblance to Greta Garbo in the looks department, though even more beautiful. Unfortunately there was little resemblance in the acting department. She was best at comedy, but Man Of The World is a melodrama. Never mind, William Powell was on hand to take care of that department with solid support from the delightfully eccentric Guy Kibbee and perennial strumpet Wynne Gibson.

This picture is very much the creaking early talkie. You know it is from the moment you start the DVD by the 1.20:1 screen aspect ratio. The sound strip on the edge of the film cut the 35 mm film frame's original 1.33:1 (same as an old standard TV screen) down to a claustrophobic, square-looking screen. By 1933 all the studios would adopt the "Accademy Standard" 1.37:1 screen by the simple expedient of a camera aperture mask. Early street scenes in Man Of The World are obviously stock footage from silent movies. But there was little other stock footage available then! When the movies started talking, there were three kinds of actors available -- those who had acted only in silents, stage actors, and actors who had experience in both media. But they and their directors soon learned that the talking picture was a whole new game. The melodramatic gestures needed to convey emotion in silent movies looked ridiculous with actual spoken dialog. Yet the stage style of acting would seem wooden in talking pictures. With microphones actors did not need to shout to be heard, and the motion picture camera could record subtle facial expressions and body movements which would have been lost on the third row of a live theater audience.

Both Powell and Lombard had stage as well as silent movie experience, though much more of the latter in her case. Powell, who would eventually develop a talking picture style of top caliber, was still working on it in Man Of The World. He seems a little stiff at times, and so does Wynne Gibson, but both are nevertheless very effective. Contrary to what some other reviewers have felt, I found Gibson's performance and asset, even though there were times when she was projecting to the back row seats. Carole Lombard's sound acting style with her sexy voice and fluid movement seems more natural, but then her part in the picture is not a particularly demanding one. Guy Kibbee, surprisingly, is the player who had the most secure handle on the new sound movie style. Perhaps it was his early experience as an entertainer in the intimate confines of a Mississippi riverboat.

The oft-used plot has slick con man Powell trying to work a blackmail scheme on naive American lass Lombard and her rich but dimwitted uncle Kibbee. With jealous ex-moll and confederate Gibson egging on the reluctant Powell. Predictably Powell falls in love with the sweet and beautiful Carole. However, all is very well done, things do not necessarily go according to formula, and the ending is something of a surprise.

Though I was about to give up on the Carole Lombard movies after watching two from the set, The Princess Comes Through, and We're Not Dressing (see my review), I was pleasantly surprised by Man Of The World. But then it was really a William Powell movie. Carole didn't have to do much except look good, and she did that very well indeed.

Man Of The World is rough around the edges but rewarding if you stick with it. At an hour and fourteen minutes, a good filler movie.

--------- Post Script (Jan 2014): Since writing this creaky old review, viewings of several other Carol Lombard Lombard pictures, including Love Before Breakfast (1936) (see my review) and the wonderful Twentieth Century (1934) have considerably raised my regard for the beautiful lady's acting ability.

I just do not care for this movie. It is not because William Powell ( Michael) was bad, it is just he did nothing for me good or bad, and he played a character he could play in his sleep. Powell is at his best in two kinds of movies comedy and crime and there was no comedy and the crime was secondary. The only one I did like was Wynne Gibson ( Irene) his former partner in crime. She gives a very sophisticated and measured performance ( so much better then Kay Francis who I detest)., Carole Lombard is in the film as well and she just did nothing for me. I admit to not being a fan of hers ( especially when compared to Myrna Loy). Finally, If you want to see a great film from Powell's Paramount period I would highly recommend Shadow Of The Law, now there is a very different Powell performance. I will give it 5/10 stars all for Gibson.

This 1931 film with a screenplay by Herman Mankiewicz, co-writer of Citizen Kane, is credited in the books if not in the film to two directors, one of whom, Edward Goodman, must have been replaced somewhere during the production by Hollywood veteran Richard Wallace who receives sole screen credit. The sluggishness of the film is probably due to Goodman, one of the many successful Broadway theater directors lured to the west coast in the early days of sound pictures. He staged dialogue scenes in a conventional manner as he might have done a play. (Oddly enough, no film editor is listed in the credits, possibly because no one at Paramount wanted their name associated with what must have been perceived then as a talky failure.) Nevertheless, the fiIm is worth watching because it brings together two future stars, William Powell and Carole Lombard, soon to marry. She, a very popular ingenue of the early1930s, does her best as she always did with the thankless role of the rich American girl abroad. He has a few scenes in which he displays his suave charm. It would take a few more years before Hollywood learned how to use sound and how to pace sophisticated stories such as this, but even this failure has its moments. Guy Kibbee is particularly effective. Five years later, Powell and Lombard, three years divorced, would be reunited at Universal to make the comedy classic My Man Godfrey, directed by someone who really knew how to make movies move-the great Gregory LaCava. LaCava insisted on Powell who insisted on Lombard. Wise choice.

The pre-code where William Powell meets Carole Lombard. story by Herman Mankiewicz. Harry Taylor (Guy Kibbee) is in Paris, and doing things he doesn't want known back in the states. Powell is Trevor.. he pretends to help these americans get out of a jam, but is really blackmailing them. but he falls for Mary (Lombard). and his co-conspirator Irene sees it (Wynne Gibson), and the irony when she says "you've fallen in love with that kid." since Powell really did fall for Lombard. and they got hitched. Some speed bumps in Trevor and Mary's plan for a wedding. Irene throws wrenches into the works, so things aren't what they were just a short time ago. lessons learned. or are they?? It's good. and kind of exotic, since it takes place in a "foreign country." Directed by Dick Wallace. died quite young of a heart attack. was a founding member fo the Directors Guild. probably his best known works are the Girl, the Guy, and the Gob and Bombardier. and Carole Lombard was tragically killed quite young as well.

Paramount had a specialty of sex comedies set in Paris, France from the mid-twenties until the Production Code closed them down in 1935. At that point, the Screwball Comedy arose.

As long as they were doing comedies in Paris, they did a couple of straight programmers set there too. In this one, William Powell plays an American in Paris who, while trying to write, makes a living by an interesting blackmail scam -- I've never heard of it before.

This movie, with a script by Herman J. Mankiewicz and a good cast has a chance of being very good. But except for William Powell, as always, charming, and Guy Kibbee's emphatic muddleheadedness, director Richard Wallace seems to be unable to raise a decent performance. Carole Lombard keeps threatening to disappear into the background, Lawrence Grey seems impossibly callow, and Wynne Gibson seems to be reading her speeches phonetically off a blackboard.

One wants to like this movie and there are a few moments when it appears on the brink of turning into something very interesting, like the scene over onion soup at 1 AM, but then it turns into another pointless costume change.

William Powell's career was stuck at this point: he was trying to make the change from screen villain to leading man, but couldn't quite get the right vehicles. He would leave Paramount for Warner's until he struck gold at Metro in 1934. But he always remained a character actor, capable of small or broad performances that would delight the audiences. It's a pity he's not strong enough to carry this movie by himself.