Too Much, Too Soon

Dorothy Malone does very fine work portraying Diana Barrymore, the daughter of alcoholic actor John Barrymore, a young woman with dreams of carving out her own niche in show business before succumbing to the same demons which dogged her father. The picture, however, is little more than a potboiler, co-written by director Art Napoleon with Jo Napoleon, from the book by Diana Barrymore and Gerold Frank. Errol Flynn is solid as John Barrymore, and there's a sweet supporting performance from Martin Milner as a family friend (Milner's final scene, revealing a bald head, is especially good). Still, this movie about the movies seems lackluster and naive, not to mention under-produced. For buffs, a somewhat enjoyable wallow with a quiet, even pace, and Malone manages to be sympathetic on the road to ruin without becoming a nuisance. **1/2 from ****

Biopic of Diana Barrymore, failed actress and daughter of John Barrymore, who took after her father in the "demons" department, becoming an alcoholic. This film covers her bad relationships, including the one with her estranged father, and her descent into addiction. It's all mostly from Diana's autobiography of the same name. Obviously given the time in which it was made, this offers a somewhat sanitized version of Diana's story but they do what they can. As with most biographical pictures, liberties are taken with the truth. The film stars Dorothy Malone but what drew me (and I suspect many of you) to see it is Errol Flynn as John Barrymore. The best scenes in the film are those with Flynn. There's a wonderfully atmospheric scene where he recites Shakespeare to a yacht full of his disreputable friends, all of them filmed in eerie silhouette so you can't see their faces, like something out of the Twilight Zone. Dorothy Malone's performance is not exactly impressive, especially compared to some of the contemporary 'lady alcoholic' parts played by the likes of Susan Hayward. She's not bad, at least not always. It's just not a particularly memorable job. Errol Flynn is the reason to see this. It's his last good role and one he was (sadly) more qualified than anybody to play, given his own demons. He does a sensational job. It's one of his best performances. The real Diana Barrymore died two years after this was released. Flynn beat her to it, dying in 1959. Neither died of old age. By the way, the original movie poster (and subsequent DVD cover) is among the worst I've ever seen.

Flynn is very touching, and Malone is marvelous. Martin Milner and Efrem Zimbalist are sympathetic. But I have got to say something about Ray Danton, as a professional tennis player and sexual opportunist. As the guy who gets the married Malone into bed within minutes of meeting her, and persuades her to divorce her husband and marry him just about as fast, Danton is utterly convincing. It's one of the most flat-out sexy male performances I've ever seen. Actually, there are two that spring to mind, both in not particularly famous movies, and the other one is Ben Gazzara in "A Rage to Live." I just have to give a shout-out to Danton. He died a few years ago (only 61!), but his hot stuff lives on.

Too Much, Too Soon, the film adaption of Diana Barrymore's memoirs if things went right for her should have been a final chapter with a they lived happily ever after closing on her real existence. Sad to say though that the writing of the book as a cautionary tale to others to avoid her pitfalls, she still couldn't avoid them herself. Two years after To Much, Too Soon came out, Diana Barrymore died of all the years of accumulated indulgences of many vices.

Having never seen any of her work I'm really not in a position to comment, but assuming she was as bad as most seem to think she was, she never had an opportunity to really learn her craft. Because of her name and a couple of bit parts on stage she was rushed out to Hollywood and given the big buildup. When she flopped all she could do was trade in on the name.

Dorothy Malone after her Oscar winning role as the hedonistic heiress in Written On The Wind was perfect to play Diana who decided to explore all the vices in a desperate search for love. Being caught between two estranged parents she wasn't at home in either of their worlds. She was the offspring of John Barrymore and Blanche Oelrichs aka Michael Strange. It was the second marriage for both. Succeeding husbands and wives are not in this film, nor are her half brothers, sons of Oelrich from her first marriage. Blanche Oelrich had a succeeding marriage after Barrymore, and The Great Profile had two more wives after divorcing Diana's mother.

One thing that is very delicately hinted at with Kathleen Freeman's brief role is the lesbianism of Blanche Oelrich. After three marriages Blanche Oelrich had a relationship with a woman in the last years of her life. If Too Much, Too Soon were made today that would be more fully explained. Neva Patterson is a concerned Oelrich in this, a beautiful performance as a woman who can't reach her out of control daughter falling under the influence of her father.

Errol Flynn had quite a bit of life experience to draw on for playing John Barrymore. He knew Barrymore quite well in Hollywood and partied hearty with him as Barrymore died slowly of dissipation. Flynn was dying from it as well and he knew it. This has to be the only time in history where an actor was playing older than his years without makeup. Flynn was 49 playing a 60 year old Barrymore who was that when he died in 1942.

Diana had three husbands all different types played in succession by Efrem Zimbalist, Jr., Ray Danton, and Ed Kemmer. She should have hung on to Zimbalist who was playing in actuality Bramwell Fletcher under a pseudonym. He leaves to go on a movie location and she starts fooling around with tennis bum/gigolo Ray Danton. He's great in the part of a truly sadistic evil man. As for number three, he was a bit actor who was as much an alcoholic as she and Kemmer and Malone were a bad combination, but great in their performances.

Too Much, Too Soon is very similar to a film Warner Brothers did the year before about another alcoholic performer, Helen Morgan. Morgan was a star and on talent, not starting at the top because of a name. Still she went through a few husbands and many a binge and the ending their was a cop out with the promise of a recovery which never happened in real life. Diana Barrymore's self destruction was down the same road Morgan took only she died after Too Much, Too Soon came out.

It should have ended better for Diana Barrymore. But Dorothy Malone brings her vividly to life and she's got a book and a film to commemorate what might have been.

But then that is par for the course for biopics of the 50s. Diana Barrymore was a tragic figure, she was ignored by her parents, actor John Barrymore and author Michael Strange, and she did make lots of bad choices over the years. However, so much is incorrect in this film. I don't know exactly how Diana Barrymore started drinking, but in the film, after her father dies and she feels guilty for not having being there, she literally picks up a bottle of her dad's liquor and starts chugging after a lifetime on lemonade. She is shown as having what appears to be a perfectly fine first husband with a good job who is age appropriate when in fact husband number one was a fellow actor almost 20 years her senior during their marriage when she was in her early 20s. Husbands number two and three are pretty much on course, especially husband number two who was a tennis player simply out to exploit Diana for the Barrymore millions.

Errol Flynn gives a fine performance as John Barrymore and life sadly imitates art here as Flynn would die within the year at least partly from his own lifestyle. You really feel sometimes you are looking right at Barrymore, from Flynn's carriage to just his appearance. Flynn actually knew Barrymore, so he did have actual memories from which to draw on in his performance.

Another point - the film makes it look like Diana is John Barrymore's only child - she wasn't - and that Diana's mother was the love of his life the others just being "images on a screen". Given the short time they were married I doubt that too. In fact, Diana was with her dad when he died. Actually, while his legs were bloated stiff from kidney failure and he was lying in a hospital bed, John Barrymore was begging his daughter to go out and find prostitutes for him and bring them back to the hospital!

I'd watch this because the overall tragic stories of John and Diana Barrymore are true and the acting is great, but the devil is in the details. Strangely enough this showed up on TCM's Father's Day programming. I guess, for a change, they were trying to balance the "good dad" movies with the "bad dad" films.