Faithless

Tallulah Bankhead made her name on the stage and came to Hollywood under contract to MGM. "Faithless" would be her last film until 1944's "Lifeboat."

Bankhead's particular style of acting was not effective on film, and it was probably because of the way she was cast. In "Lifeboat," she's perfect - Hitchcock wanted "the most oblique, incongruous person imaginable in such a situation."

Actually, part of her role in "Faithless" fits that description also, but this time, it works against her. Bankhead plays an heiress intending to marry Robert Montgomery. When he insists that they live on his salary, she walks out.

She soon learns that she's flat broke and, after borrowing from everyone she knows, gets a sugar daddy, leaving him when Montgomery comes back in her life. Both broke, the two marry and struggle to keep going.

As one would suspect, Bankhead is great as the heiress but not quite believable when she's poverty stricken trying to get work in a coffee shop. She lacked the vulnerability of a Constance Bennett or the sadness of a Kay Francis.

The film, however, is a very good depiction of life in the depression. This was no MGM romantic comedy or fantasy film. When her husband is injured, the Bankhead character turns to prostitution. The best scene in the film is between her and the landlady, who realizes what she's about to do.

Robert Montgomery plays one of depression's many unlucky - what jobs he gets, he loses because the companies close, and he's finally attacked on the job by employees who feel threatened. Through it all, he keeps his dignity and hope.

Both actors were young stars who were put into this film probably for contractual reasons. They're good, but they're both too elegant and classy to make parts of this film work the way they were supposed to.

Bankhead, however, has some wonderful dialogue that she delivers with aplomb, and it's great to see her before the smoking, drugs, and booze got to her face.

Some of this plays melodramatically, and there's a particularly odious performance by Maurice Murphy as Montgomery's brother. But "Faithless" is an intriguing look at the desperation caused by the depression, and Bankhead is fascinating to watch.

Faithless is a film about a rich society girl (Tallulah Bankhead) and an average, middle class citizen (Bob Montgomery) who fall in love. The two are at each other's throats though, because each wants to live off the money he or she has. The two do not marry because of this quarrel, and although she loses her money, she lives by borrowing from her wealthy friends and he loses his job and scrounges for jobs during the Depression. Finally, the two meet again, poor and hungry, and decide to marry since they have nothing else to lose. But the Depression gets them down, and an accident forces her to make some tough decisions.

Bankhead is beautiful at first and becomes appropriately harsh as her character loses her money. She is not exotic the way Marlene Dietrich was, but her accent is detectable.

Montgomery is excellent in this movie. His character is consistent and good and perhaps because of this and his five o-clock shadow, he is absolutely gorgeous.

Overall, this is an entertaining pre-code film with a great cast and a few surprises up it's sleeve.

Whatever words one may choose to describe the acting attributes of Tallulah Bankhead, versatile is not likely to be one of them. This is clearly illustrated in "Faithless," where her specialized abilities unsuccessfully attempt to make convincing a complete character transformation: spoiled rich girl without an appreciation of either the value of money or strength of character, to a steadfast, realistic woman who knows what matters in life, even if she has been soiled in the process of learning. Tallulah does well enough with the "before" - as one might expect - but less well with the "after." Despite having fallen a long way into poverty and prostitution, the character retains her drawing-room manner of expressing emotion, her hair and makeup remain meticulous at all times, and her suffering is barely noticeable. This was not an ideal part for Tallulah, and she does not generate much sympathy (try Constance Bennett or Barbara Stanwyck).

Robert Montgomery is similarly miscast: playing a character chronically unemployed during the Depression, the actor maintains his gentlemanly bearing and patrician manner even as a truck driver. There are settings in which his acting style doesn't work (see also his role as a convict in "The Big House"), and this is one of them.

Hugh Herbert's complete departure from his usual screen character of the dithering boob succeeds where the stars fail - here as a no-nonsense businessman investing, without illusions, in Tallulah as his mistress.

The characters are manipulated by the sudsy plot, meeting when convenient, estranged if the story calls for it, unemployed when dramatically necessary, but reunited, forgiven and suddenly provided with gainful employment when it is time for "The End." And not a moment too soon.

Faithless is a 1932 weepie that casts Tallulah Bankhead as a carefree rich girl in love with hard-working advertising man, Robert Montgomery. It's her last Hollywood starring role for more than a decade.

Bankhead is great as she goes from playgirl to kept girl to street walker. Montgomery also goes bust and gets sick. There is a happy ending.

Hugh Herbert plays a nasty, noncomic part, Louise Closser Hale plays the landlady, Anna Appel is another landlady, Virginia Howell plays Herbert's jealous wife, Maurice Murphy (just dreadful) plays the younger brother,Henry Kolker is a banker, and Sterling Holloway is a photographer.

This is probably Bankhead's best 30s performance on film.... She is glamorous, slinky, funny, and pathetic all at once. Her drunk scene with Hugh Herbert is excellent as she laughs her throaty laugh even though she is lost and knows it. Montgomery us looser than usual. Herbert is surprisingly effective as the cad. And Hale is hilarious as the cheap landlady. This was the seventh of Bankhead's early talkies and her last til Lifeboat; she had also made 5 silent films.

Not quite 'The Crowd' to be frank, but a very worthy, suitably downbeat and constantly entertaining depiction of conditions in Depression America. Bankhead is the spoiled heiress who goes broke, and not very graciously at that, reunites with her old beau, Montgomery the sausage manufacturer, and learns valuable lessons walking the streets to buy medicine for him when he is recovering from a vicious attack by truck-drivers when he was trying out as a scab. So, pretty down-to-earth stuff this, right? But of course, MGM being MGM, even in these daring Pre-Code days, and Tallulah being Tallulah, the first third of the film is packed with state of the art glamor and a little too self-absorbed and complacent to blend in well with the rest of the film.

Miss Bankhead slouches through the various modes of the film, very much in a one size fits all kind of characterization, but she says her lines well and growls her 'dahlings' to every heart's content. You don't quite believe her heart is in it when she quotes the percentage of streetwalkers claiming they all had "good reason". Robert Montgomery is the real treat as the eternal optimist who just cannot be held down for long. He is wonderful and has an authentic vulnerability. The best scene, though, is Tallulah's in collaboration with the director. Exasperated at the sight of her ailing husband lying there in bed Tallulah quickly dresses to go out. The sympathetic landlady asks her where she's going. "To the drugstore". Landlady: "You look a little ... pale". So she obviously guesses Tallulah's about to prostitute herself and helps her apply her alluring makeup in her own understated way. By the way, it's a remarkable film.