Always Goodbye

Barbara Stanwyck is waiting in front of the marriage bureau for the man who is going to marry her. His car shows up and smashes into another. He's dead. Miss Stanwyck goes to the river to drown herself, only to be saved by Herbert Marshall. Seven months later she gives up her baby. Soon she is working in a dress shop for Binnie Barnes. Five years later, she is on a buying trip to Paris when she meets her son.

It's based on an Ann Harding weeper, GALLANT LADY, but I expect that version is pure soap. With Raymond Griffith producing and Sidney Lanfield directing, while the dramatic elements of Miss Stanwyck torn between Mr. Marshall and her son -- with Cesar Romero, at his most manic, playing an Italian count who adores her when he isn't chasing other women -- while those elements remain, there are plenty of gags and silliness. It's an interesting attempt at combining two seemingly immiscible elements, mostly by having Miss Stanwyck go quiet and contemplative. It works for me, except for the penultimate scene. It's hard to say how it will strike other viewers. Some people are offended by comic relief, and to make a light-hearted picture about a a mother's tears might seem heartless. Me, I'm one of those people who recognizes the absurdity of a cruel situation, and the ridiculous methods needed to fix them. Sometimes if you don't laugh, you're paralyzed by tears.

Barbara Stanwyck stars in this what was termed back in the day, a woman's picture. Always Goodbye is a remake of Ann Harding's Gallant Lady and it has Stanwyck giving up her infant son for adoption rather than trying to raise him as a single parent. That was simply not done back in the day of The Code.

Herbert Marshall arranges the adoption of the infant to his friend Ian Hunter and wife who have been childless for years. Marshall saved Stanwyck from doing herself in. He even arranges for her to get a job in the fashion industry working for Binnie Barnes. As you can imagine the latest in Thirties fashion is worn here. If this were done over at MGM Joan Crawford would have had this part for sure.

While on a buying trip to Paris, Barbara makes the acquaintance of Cesar Romero who provides a lot of the comedy in this film. He also gets a chance to show off his dancing ability which is considerable. Before films Romero was a dance instructor. She also runs into little Johnny Russell who turns out to be her son.

I think you can see where this is going and I will say while it's not the greatest of Stanwyck films it is certainly nicely done. Barbara's best scenes in the film are with little Master Russell. She doesn't let the kid steal them from her either.

In the end STanwyck has to make some critical choices. And finds out that you cannot always have your own way all the time.

In Always Goodbye we see Stanwyck create a character that is softer than the more hard-bitten characters she will later become best known for, and she does a great job and is thoroughly enjoyable here. Unfortunately, the film and script (which may have even been dated back in 1938) doesn't hold up nearly as well. It seemed to go on for much longer than it's tidy 75 minutes run time would suggest. Cesar Romero plays a character that brings some pleasant levity to the proceedings but at the same time one can't help but feel that he lays it on just a little too thick. The rest of the supporting cast is fine but mostly forgettable.

This is the book Barbara Stanwyck reads to the little boy in the movie. I actually had a copy of it. I only remember Sambo was black and there were a lot of pancakes.

The book was banned some time during my childhood for being racist. I just checked Amazon it's still out there - tons of different publications apparently somehow cleaned up.

I bring this up as a point of interest.

That out of the way, Always Goodbye stars Stanwyck, Herbert Marshall, Ian Hunter, and Lynn Bari.

Stanwyck plays a woman whose fiancé dies in an accident just as they are about to be married. She is pregnant at the time, and gives her child up.

Well, I don't have to tell you what happens.

Stanwick is lovely. Cesar Romero is annoying as a man who chases every woman he meets, and Lynn Bari is very uppity as the fiancé of the boy's adoptive father whose wife is deceased.

Stanwyck has played much stronger roles. I felt like this was a waste of her talent.

The child, Johnnie Russell, is still alive. He went into a he foreign service and at one point served as Ambassador to Oman.

The thirties were a good time for melodrama,par excellence the female movie.In almost all the great melodramas of the era "Imitation of life" and " Only Yesterday" by Stahl or "Mannequin" by Borzage ,the woman realizes she's through with love and she becomes generally a brilliant business woman,be it in the pancakes ,the stock exchange or the chic fashion for selfish ladies who do not think twice when it comes to sending their soon-to-be adoptive child to a military school.

Routine situation in melodrama:Stanwyck's fiancé got run over and she is pregnant by him.In those ancient times,the only solution was to find a family where the child would be fine .But some fine day ,in old France,the mother meets again his little boy.Barbara Stanwyck gives a fine sensitive (and a bit mischievous:the way she gets rid of Jessica is delightful)portrayal .In the end, somehow or other, woman must be prepared to sacrifice something.That's the golden rule of melodrama.

Like this?try these

"The old maid " Edmund Goulding 1939

"To each his own" Mitchell Leisen 1946