The Man I Love

It's always fascinating to see anything by William Wellman but this film - his first all shot sound effort - is heavy sledding, a surprising fall off in quality after the lively CHINATOWN NIGHTS. Hard to see the director of OX BOW INCIDENT and WINGS here.

The effort is occasionally visible, as with the trackings with boxer Arlen into the ring, the under-cranked run with Brian into the horse car, where they are spending their honey moon. We do get the occasional striking visual: Arlen draped in his robe or the pattern the stair railing casts upwards, as he and "Million Dollar dame" Baclanova enter her apartment.

However these moments only briefly liven a dim plot histrionically played.

Boxer Richard Arlen is besotted with Mary Brian, who plays the piano in the music store across the street from the gym he practices in. He finally asks her out. This causes manager Harry Green to bawl out the pair of them. So they up, marry, manage to get to New York, despite Miss Brian's dislike of the fight game. It takes them a while, but eventually Arlen gets a manager, puts together a string of victories. This gives a shot at the middleweight title. Then, in the manner of so many boxing movies, he's vamped by Olga Baclanova.

William Wellman directed this movie, with both Herman and Joseph Mankiewicz doing some writing, but he has a hard time overcoming the strictures of the sound technicians. A couple of wild shots, and some stationary crane shots during he big fight are the limit. Miss Brian's part is written like a wet dishrag, and it's the same plot I've seen in a hundred movies about the kid who wants to be the champeen.