Should Ladies Behave

After attending a New York play, six romantically challenged characters gather at the Riverdale, Connecticut home of flighty Alice Brady (as Laura) and her grumpy husband Lionel Barrymore (as Augustus "Gussie" Merrick). Twenty-five years married, Ms. Brady and Mr. Barrymore snap at each other frequently and seem ready to separate. Lonely and bored, Brady enjoys visiting playboy painter Conway Tearle (as Max Lawrence), believing he's an old lover returning to sweep her off her feet...

Unbeknownst to the gushing Brady, Mr. Tearle is having an affair with her sister, Katharine Alexander (as Winifred "Winnie" Lamont). But Tearle prefers Brady's flirty 19-year-old daughter Mary Carlisle (as Leone Merrick), who is looking for the experience young boyfriend William Janney (as Geoffrey "Geoff" Cole) wants. An obvious solution exists. The unpleasant premise (don't repeat the older couple's mistake?), clever ending (by writer Paul Osborn) and likable ensemble are a mixed bag.

***** Should Ladies Behave (12/1/33) Harry Beaumont ~ Alice Brady, Lionel Barrymore, Conway Tearle, Katharine Alexander

I caught this on a Sunday on TCM. They were showcasing films of the great Lionel Barrymore. It didn't do very well at the box office, perhaps because it wasn't dirty enough to compete with the simultaneously released Mae West film, "She Done Him Wrong." Nevertheless, the action of the former took place at the hands of a rather dysfunctional but high class Connecticut family. It seems that when the matriarch married the patriarch, she was young, beautiful, and vivacious and he was older, dashing, and had more money than brains. He was in love with her, she was in love with another man, and the whole marriage started off on the wrong foot. Their daughter falls in love with a similarly endowed older man, whom the mother remembers as her former lover, who is now dating her thrice-married sister. It's sort of confusing to tell about, but a funny movie in most respects. I personally believe that "The Women" is better, but that's only because I really like "The Women." Another very good film to see, if you like this sort of awkward love triangle thing is "When Ladies Meet," starring Greer Garson, Joan Crawford and Robert Taylor, I believe.

While not quite as intensely funny as "Bringing Up Baby", this early screwball comedy" should remind most viewers of that film. Rather that the humor coming from Cary Grant's exasperation in dealing with Katherine Hepburn, it comes from Augustus' (Lionel Barrymore) exasperation in dealing with his airhead wife Laura (Alice Brady).

If you have never seen Brady you are in for a totally unexpected comic treat. By the 1930's she was basically a character actress and her role here is much like her later portrayal of the mother in "My Man Godfrey". It is a strange cross between Margaret Dumont and Una Merkel, sort of a pretentious and overly dramatic airhead.

Like "Bringing Up Baby" most of the action in "Should Ladies Behave" takes place on an estate in rural Connecticut. There is some physical comedy, mainly from Barrymore's more extreme reactions. Most of the humor is subtle, coming from the clever stage play "The Vinegar Tree" by Paul Osborn. For example Brady supports her contention that two examples are vastly different by saying they are as far apart as alpha and beta. Watch for their hilarious attempt to play the game of 20 Questions.

The story revolves around miscommunication among three couples; Augustus and Laura, her sister Winnie (Katharine Alexander) and Winnie's middle aged lover Max (Conway Tearle), and their daughter Leone (Mary Carlisle) and Leone's young boyfriend Geoffrey (William Janney).

Carlisle was only 20 but she holds her own very well with the more experienced members of the cast. Her character is supposed to be 19 and her cynical father is trying to keep her from being spoiled by the evils of the world, symbolized by his keeping her childhood playhouse unchanged even though she is away at college.

"Should Ladies Behave" deserves to be included with the best of the old screwball comedies. If you enjoy that kind of stuff you will be well rewarded by this undiscovered gem.

Then again, what do I know? I'm only a child.

Some call this a screwball comedy. Well, the only screwball is Laura Merrick (played by Alice Brady). At the beginning of the film, we think that her husband, Augustus (Lionel Barrymore), is a cantankerous meanie, but it does not take long to realize that he is remarkably tolerant when it comes to his loud, obnoxious wife.

Most of the action of the film is about their daughter, Leone (Mary Carlisle), who at age 19 laments her lack of experience and decides to remedy the situation by getting involved with a man more than twice her age. A young, more suitable suitor is Geoffrey Cole (William Janney), but his feelings towards Leone seem rather lukewarm.

"Should Ladies Behave" has a charm that most pre-code films possess, and the acting is fine. But it has the distinct feel of a play adaptation. That does not ruin the film, though, especially if you are interested in films of this era as representative of their time. They all play a game of Twenty Questions that is a glimpse into the past and perhaps the funniest part. Rate this film "pleasant".

Lionel Barrymore largely made a career out of playing gruff, grumpy anhedoniacs; Alice Brady made hers out of playing flighty upper-class twits. Both were capable of other things, but in this pleasantly pre-Code romantic comedy from a Paul Osborn play, both drag out their usual bags of tricks. He harrumphs and lets his facial muscles sag and crosses his arms, and she giggles and defies logic. They're an unhappily married late-middle-age couple whose daughter is about to be swept up by the cad Brady remembers loving 20 years ago, who is now having an affair with her sister. It's pretty frank about all the adultery, and there's a bracing twist ending. One wants a more dashing rake than Conway Tearle, but Katharine Alexander is amusingly tart and Eve Arden-ish as the sister, and Mary Carlisle is fine as the naive young miss. Casual racism and an insipid Freed-Brown song dot this fun nonsense, and there are serious moments of actual truth scattered about it--loved the scene where Brady finally must Be a Mom, and she steps up to the plate admirably.