One Night at Susie's

It's difficult to pinpoint exactly what's wrong with this and why it doesn't work. Not all, but a lot of pictures made in 1929 seemed like they were made by people who had never made a sound film before - that's because they were. This feels like one of the worst examples yet inexplicably this was made towards the end of 1930 when most directors had figured it all out. They haven't even got the excuse of having to make it on the awful Vitaphone discs because this was made using state of the art sound recording yet somehow its stilted, slow and theatrical delivery is as bad as anything that came out in 1929.

J F Dillon had been directing silent movies for ages and perhaps he had just got so used to that style of acting that he thought it should be used in the talkies as well? Two years after making this he made the excellent CALL HER SAVAGE, so he did know how to direct a talking picture - unfortunately he doesn't demonstrate any of that skill with this. This is one of those films you get in documentaries showing how difficult it was for some directors to adapt to sound. It's glacially slow - each line is excruciatingly dragged out of the actors as though they are addressing an unfriendly political meeting. There's no natural pace, nobody acts like real people do - they're just actors walking to the middle of the stage where they then deliver their lines.

There's absolutely zero engagement with any of the characters, you couldn't care less about what happens to them because they're not real. Billie Dove, Howard Hughes' latest squeeze, is pleasant enough but she's not particularly memorable. Also making hardly any waves of interest is Douglas Fairbanks Jr - in a few months' time, Mervyn LeRoy would show the world that Fairbanks could act in his LITTLE CAESAR but in this he's less than one dimensional with as much depth and personality as a shadow on a grey slab of concrete. With the bizarre make-up needed for the bright lights, he spends most of this movie looking like a grinning simpleton that someone has given two black eyes to. The only person who does make an impression is the eponymous Susie played by Helen Ware....but it's not a good impression - she is truly terrible! If you want an example of being stagey, over-theatrical and plain awful, look no further. She makes a rather bad film a very bad film.

There is however a couple minutes of brilliance in this and that's the famous court room scene. Presumably they thought that after half an hour all their audience would have fallen asleep so soon to be superstar cameraman, Ernest Haller and J F Dillon had a bash at that expressionist malarkey whilst nobody was looking. Those few dreamlike minutes of shadows disturb you from your comfort creating a jolting sense of isolation, uncertainty and fear of the unknown. You will certainly sit up and start to think you're watching something very interesting but this flash of brilliance is sadly just a flash - it then reverts back to its dull lugubrious pace.

Billie Dove was a former Broadway showgirl, a famous beauty who broke into films in 1921 at age 18. She made about 50 films, about a dozen after the talkies hit Hollywood.

In ONE NIGHT AT SUSIE'S she plays a showgirl who gets involved with a young man (Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.) despite his mother's disapproval. The real trouble is that the mother (Helen Ware) is head of a mob although she has kept her son out of the rackets.

He writes a sketch that Dove gets into a show but she falls into the clutches of a lecherous producer. In an attempted rape, she kills him, but Fairbanks takes the rap to protect her. She goes free and becomes a minor star in the show. Fairbanks writes a full play and she hawks it all over town. When she realizes that his writing is the only thing keeping him alive in prison, she makes a tawdry deal with another producer to get the play into production. She becomes a star.

The mother, of course, is fully aware of all this but realizes that Dove's motives are good. When Fairbanks is finally released from prison, the mobster mother decides to clear the way for her son and daughter in law to have a happy life.

The three stars are good. Dove has a pleasant voice and never overacts. Co-stars include Tully Marshall, John Loder, and James Crane. Dove retired from films in 1932 after finishing BLONDIE OF THE FOLLIES with Marion Davies and Robert Montgomery.

The criminal underworld respects matronly landlady Helen Ware (as Susie). Several ex-gangsters live in her New York City boarding house. After negotiating a truce among a group of visiting crooks, Ms. Ware receives some happy news. Her handsome adopted son Douglas Fairbanks Jr. (as Richard "Dick" Rollins) has become engaged. Ware has raised Mr. Fairbanks to be a "good boy" and avoid criminal elements, so she is shocked and horrified to learn his fiancée is common chorus girl Billie Dove (as Mary Martin). Considering the company Ware keeps, we wonder how she reared Fairbanks in relative purity...

In its present condition, "One Night at Susie's" runs just over an hour, normal for lower range productions of the period. However, the running time given most often is that of just under 90 minutes - more of a top "Warner Bros-First National" production. The personnel suggests the longer running time, which would indicate substantial missing footage. Since Helen Ware appears to be the star, rather than Billie Dove, it could be that Ms. Dove's part diminished. Dove has a fly crawl on her white hat and coat during her character's first visit to "Sing Sing" prison; since nobody ordered re-takes, perhaps Dove and/or the film got demoted...

A "box office" star during the late 1920s, Dove was improving after a tenuous transition from "silent" pictures. The very busy namesake son of superstar Douglas Fairbanks gets make-up and lighting help. Veteran character actor Tully Marshall (as Buckeye Bill) has fun playing with Ware. Most renowned on stage, this is Ware's story. Director John Francis Dillon moves the play around Ware's mysterious character. Kicking the film up a notch is photographer Ernest Haller. Beginning with Fairbanks' solo work scenes, Mr. Haller engages the viewer with interesting angles and focus. The courtroom scene is a most unusual highlight.

****** One Night at Susie's (10/19/30) John Francis Dillon ~ Helen Ware, Billie Dove, Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Tully Marshall

Douglas Fairbanks Jr. has gotten engaged to Billie Dove, but mama Helen Ware doesn't like it. Billie is a showgirl and thus unfit to be a daughter-in-law to a decent mob boss like her.

This movie moves between comedy and melodrama a little uncertainly, but the way Miss Ware plays her role, along with henchman Tully Marshall, is a delight. Miss Dove is quite lovely and more than adequate to her role and Doug Jr. is still learning his craft. There's still a bit of a problem with the emphatic way everyone speaks their lines, but the hiss on the soundtrack points out that it's still 1929 and they're learning how to manage a sound system.

The most notable thing about this movie is the way Director of Photography Ernest Haller moves the camera a bit to maintain composition when the actors move. This is the essence of studio-era camera movement, but it was difficult for a few years because of the immobility of the sound equipment. I'm not sure how sound man Dolph Thomas helped arrange it, but its casual use here is interesting.

Dick (Douglas Fairbanks Jr.) is the foster son of a woman who runs a sort of rooming house for crooks. However, Dick is dumb. When his girlfriend, Mary (Billie Dove), kills a guy after he nearly rapes her, Dick inexplicably plants evidence to make it look like HE was the killer and he's sent to Sing Sing. During this time, he works on his play 'Triumph' and when it's finished, Mary shops the play all over town. But no one is interested except for a rich pervert and she agrees to put out for him in order to get the play produced. Soon she's a star on Broadway and Dick is, eventually, ready to leave prison. What's next--especially when someone is waiting to send Dick right back to the big house?!

This is a bizarre film. Much of it is because the plot really doesn't make a lot of sense...even for an early talking picture. Additionally, the ending is VERY abrupt and not executed terribly well. As a result of these things and a bit of overacting, it's certainly not an especially good movie. Watchable but that's all.