Lilly Turner

That's a line from Paddy Chayefsky.

Poor Lilly, all I can say.

Ruth Chatterton was 40 passing as 22 when she starred in 1933's Lilly Turner. It's possible she met husband George Brent during the filming. The film also stars Frank McHugh. William Wellman directed.

This is precode. Lilly starts off married to an actor. Once on the train, he tells her vaudeville has no work for him. She winds up as his assistant for his magic tricks.

It's not much of a marriage. She finds friendship from a drunk on the circuit, Dave Dixon (McHugh). Her husband - who turns out to be a bigamist - disappears when Lilly becomes pregnant, so she marries Dixon, only to lose the baby.

She becomes the perfect female physical specimen for one of the acts; the male specimen Fritz (Robert Barrat) is in love with her. He turns out to be crazy and is institutionalized. His replacement is Bob Chandler (a mustacheless Brent), and he and Lilly fall in love.

I'm a fan of Chatterton's. I love the way she played these leading ladies past 40. She's wonderful as Lilly with all these men, including the carnival owner, crazy about her. She pulls it off. Wellman's direction is very good, with a few very noir scenes with crazy Fritz.

With the Great Depression in mind, Brent as an engineer who cannot find work is believable. More believable is attitude of the times, about responsibility. People's values were less self-centered. Just an opinion.

Lilly Turner plays like a distant and more wholesome relative of Tod Browning's Freaks. Ruth Chatterton, excellent as always, stars as a sideshow employee married to a lush (Frank McHugh) but in love with straight arrow George Brent. To complicate matters, an addled strongman (Robert Barrat) is in love with her, and escapes from the State Hospital in order to pursue her. The film is atmospherically shot by James Van Trees, and there's solid support by Guy Kibbee as the charlatan in chief of the shabby road show. Strongly recommended for fans of pre-Code cinema.

This is why I watch old movies. Every once in a while you find a completely neglected, undiscovered gem. That is the case with Lilly Turner, in which Ruth Chatterton gives one of the finest performances of any of the '30s era leading ladies. Her performance is so full of nuance. She was a great actress. The story leaves nothing to be desired. At a brief 65 minutes, it hits all the bases and leaves no aspect of the (moving) story unfinished. Lilly is a woman who is married to a polygamist. She doesn't learn of this until she is already pregnant; she loses the child but receives help from a fellow carnival performer. Together they bravely make their way in a sort of underworld of crazies and carnies. It isn't until she meets a taxi driver (Brent) that she finally finds love, but the question is will he be able to accept her.

This film highlights everything I love so much about classic films: exploration of human emotions and complicated situations. There is also the aspect of being redeemed by love which I find so beautiful in the older films. Although melodramatic, it is not a completely unbelievable story. There is as much truth as fantasy in the story. The fantasy takes us out of our own lives, while momentary grains of wisdom in the dialog keep us tuned in and, in my case, amazed.

The plot involving Brent is most interesting. He has a college degree but can't find a job, so he takes up a job in a carnival. Some might laugh, but only if taken out of the context of the great depression. Interestingly enough, I graduated college a year ago and have not found work in my field. The parallels in this movie peaked my interest and held meaning to me.

I am constantly surprised by the low ratings of pre-1940s films on IMDb. It leads me to believe most people do not appreciate the real classics, or at least the undiscovered ones.

This Pre-Code moves along at a crackling pace. Lilly Turner is a gal from Buffalo who marries a fast-talking actor Rex Durkee (Gordon Westcott) after a whirlwind courtship and finds out on her honeymoon that he is not exactly the answer to her maiden's prayer. Rather than a successful vaudevillian he is a third-rate carnival performer whose poverty forces her into the carnival scene too. He cheats on Lilly and sponges off of her until she announces her pregnancy, then he skips town. And, believe it or not, things just go downhill for Lilly from there. And this is only twelve minutes into this 65-minute film.

Like "Heroes For Sale", there are no sustained bright spots in this one - they both end on a depressing note. But it doesn't exactly enumerate the widespread problems of the Great Depression like "Heroes does, other than that the only attractive nice guy in the film - Bob Chandler (George Brent) - is a bright young man with a recent degree in civil engineering who has to drive a taxi because of the lack of jobs in his chosen field.

Many compare this movie to "Freaks", and although I don't really agree with that assessment, it does have a kind of Tod Browning vibe going for it. I'd recommend this one, just realize it is not going to lift your spirits.

This film deals mainly with a woman named Lilly Turner, (Ruth Chatterton) who is involved with a carnival magician who deserts her because she is pregnant and then marries the carnival barker who is a drunk. Lilly becomes very interested in a young attractive engineer named Bob Chandler, (George Brent) who falls head over his heels in love with Lilly and has no idea just what her secret past has been and in some ways keeps him in the dark. Bob Chandler is hired as a strong man and lifts some 300 pounds as a performer because he has not found his break in his professional career as an engineer. Ruth Chatterton and George Brent gave an outstanding performance in this great William Wellman film, don't miss this film.