Lovers Courageous

Other internet sources state this is a rare direct-to-screen original by Frederick Lonsdale, the playwright responsible for such drawing-room comedies as THE LAST OF MRS. CHEYNEY and like the two versions of that film (1929 & 1937), this one bubbles and sparkles with great lines. From Robert Montgomery's first scene, he delivers clever observations with the clipped wit of an intelligent philosopher filled with the wonder of discovering something better in life. Lots of short funny scenes as he wanders the globe drifting from job to job, gathering experiences to enrich his writing. Lovely Madge Evans (better known for DINNER AT EIGHT & David COPPERFIELD) plays the pretty and pampered daughter of a high society stalwart member, an admiral with plans for her to marry "well." Fate introduces these two idealistic lovers in a lowly tobacconist shop and their perceptive exchange quickly shoots arrows through their hearts. They are fated to love forever before the scene ends. Starting with humor, gracefully slipping into romance, spiking with the passions of obsessive love, dipping down into harsh realities only to be tried and tested… the ending comes as only a playwrights guilty pleasure could imagine.

Bottom line, I loved it and fans of smart precode love stories will relish in this forgotten little gem! 8 out of 10!

The story begins when Willie Smith is a child. He has no interest in school or a career and is a dreamer. This is made worse by very inconsistent parenting--with the father trying to be strict and the mother coddling the boy. Years pass....and Willie has been bouncing about the world doing various jobs and getting fired from them. One reviewer described him as a wastrel...and this isn't far from the truth.

Later, Willie meets a woman whose station is well above him. She is the daughter of an admiral and he's about to lose yet another job. On impulse, she insists he marry her....which common sense would say is not a great idea. Can they manage to make a go of it....especially since his job prospects are minimal? And, if they do marry, what next?

This is only a fair film. I think part of it is the plot but to me the bigger problem is the dialog. It all seems to dreadfully earnest and artificial...like a play and not real life. Not terrible but clearly among Robert Montgomery and Madge Evans' lesser work.

For some reason anyone who says a wrong word about this film gets the thumbs down.Well i don't care this film is so creaky that you can positively see the joints ache.The characters seem to be set in a sort of nevernever land which only existed in plays or films.Montgomery is hardly believable as an Englishman,whatever the slight excuses for his accent.Roland Young is totally wasted.Madge Evans seems totally vapid.One reviewer has referred to it as being a "precode"film,but other than the last line i cannot see very much in this that would not have been passed by the censor in 1934.Quite frankly this film is simply not worth watching unless there is absolutely nothing else to do such as watching the grass grow!

English boy Willie Smith (Robert Montgomery) refuses to be only a clerk in the post office. He becomes a globetrotting nomad. He gets various odd jobs like a bell boy in Toronto and a Canadian cowboy. He ends up in South Africa where he meets Mary Blayne (Madge Evans), the daughter of a British admiral. She is left to choose between an unpleasant engagement and Willie on his unlikely playwright dream.

This pre-Code romance is rather straight. The pairing doesn't have the most heated chemistry. As far as I can tell, she falls for him for being a former Canadian cowboy. Maybe it's more than that, but they do need to work on that meet-cute. As for the melodrama, it gets rather boring especially since the couple is apart. I never got that taken with this relationship.

This screen adaptation of a play by Frederick Lonsdale about a young man who has spent his life wandering about the globe, collecting experience so he can become a playwright -- Robert Montgomery -- and the young aristocrat who marries him and is disinherited for her taking up with a wastrel - Madge Evans -- creaks pretty badly as it goes through its predictable plot twists. Director Robert Z. Leonard and the unnamed screenwriters make some effort at opening up the script, but still wind up having the leads conduct most of their earnest dialogue in two-shots. Also, frankly, Robert Montgomery is miscast. He never quite managed to do accents convincingly and he seems overwhelmed, although he carries out his self-effacing courtship of Miss Evans most charmingly.

Nor do most of the other actors manage to be more than straw men. The two exceptions are -- unsurprisingly -- Beryl Mercer, who made a specialty in kindly, clueless mothers -- her best known role was Lew Ayres' mother in ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT -- and the always delightful Roland Young, who gets to play someone with brains and heart, who comes up with most of the plot twists here.

All in all, not a movie to search out unless you are a fanatic for any of the personnel involved.