The Smart Set

William Haines' character is such an insufferable jerk for most of this picture that the inevitable changing of his ways isn't enough to really put us on his side. He gives a decent performance, though, in an otherwise unremarkable entry.

Only William Haines, back in the day, could pull something like this off. Haines was MGM's resident ego maniac, always in trouble wise guy -- in search of a gal pal. And he usually got her, after a lot of friction.

This is fun stuff, and after all these years. Haines actually was the mold for so many slick, smart guys to come, though, in a way, you still liked this guy because he was the one to watch, getting in and out of trouble with the greatest of ease. And didn't we all know someone like that as kids, too?

Here, Haines plays Tommy Van Buren who has the good fortune(?) to join the US polo team. That in itself is absolutely amazing. Of course he is drawn to a beautiful girl and sets out, in his own outrageous way, to make a shambles out of everything for both him and her. That's about the best way you can put it, and the pattern for so many of Haines films to come. He cranked them out on a regular basis into the 1930s.

It's a long and adventurous way to the end, so buckle up and have fun watching this practical joking, smooth operator do his thing. Also this is a neat historical trip thru Hollywood, filmed on location in the late 1920s, with some landmarks that are still there after all these years.

A salute to the great William Haines, who is missed.

A film you will want to see again, restored dvd by MGM.

The Smart Set is the only film I know based on polo. It's not a sport that attracts popular attention, the care and feeding of the animals needed to play polo puts it far beyond the means of the average working person to participate. It's not like bowling.

Not too many people today could tell you who the name polo players are, me included. But in the Golden Age of Sports that the Roaring Twenties was categorized as the Babe Ruth or Jack Dempsey of polo was one Thomas Hitchcock, Jr. who was one colorful character himself. From the horsey set on Long Island, Tommy Hitchcock was among other things a member of the Lafayette Escadrille in World War I, joining as a teen. He was killed in a plane crash in 1941 piloting a test plane for the RAF before America got into that war. Between wars he played a mean game of polo and was quite the society party animal.

And it's his character that William Haines's character of Tommy Van Buren is based. Most of the clichés involving sports films are present here, it's just that they're new for polo. It's a triangle with Haines and fellow polo player Jack Holt in love with Alice Day, a débutante from Long Island. Of course it all ends in the big championship polo match between the United Kingdom and the United States of America. Guess who comes in and saves the day? One guess per reader.

Haines is cocky and brash, Holt is strong and silent, and Day is sweet and demure. That about sums up their characters. Oh, and Haines plays a mean game of footsie at parties. The stars pretty much fit into the stereotyped characters they normally played. Haines even has a horse he loves like a western cowboy normally does, a crack pinto polo pony called Pronto.

It's not a bad film and most typical of the parts on the silent and early sound films that William Haines did. But I can't believe that polo would have too wide an audience today.

WILLIAM HAINES was Hollywood's early "out of the closet" gay star who became a well-known decorator after he "retired" from his budding film career, thanks to the help of his friend Joan Crawford who had him design her home and led to his successful designer career.

He's at the center of this amusing comedy about a polo player who can't resist grandstanding all the time and showing his high opinion of himself, much to the annoyance of the girl of his dreams (ALICE DAY) and her boyfriend JACK HOLT.

The bulk of the story is energetically played and there's lot of physical comedy as he pursues the girl (mostly in an auto chase that is delightfully filmed) and at a swanky dinner affair where he pulls all sorts of stunts to attract her attention, always with the effect of alienating her affections.

But the last twenty minutes devoted to polo sequences gets a little stale and you begin to miss the comedy aspects that distinguished the first part of the film. The story turns serious with the game about to be lost unless our hero can get in there and play, and there's a stable fire that almost takes the life of his favorite horse during which he becomes the man who leads the horse from the stable.

All in all, a very diverting piece of entertainment, thanks to the presence and charm of WILLIAM HAINES. He does a lot of mugging and isn't afraid to show his gayness by way of gestures and movements that are quite obvious and even daring by today's standards for a leading man. But he radiates cheerfulness and charm in huge doses throughout.

Well worth watching, even if there's too much of the polo game on display toward the end.

... but this time the movie disappointed and it was due to Haines' performance. His mugging and manic energy were over the top; who would do more than tolerate this person, if even that? Yes, he's handsome and phenomenally talented with polo, we are told per the movie, and I was prepared to enjoy this movie despite its formulaic plot. What I came away with was, of all things, an appreciation of Jack Holt and polo playing! Holt showed his horse mastery well, and since the sport of polo is intriguing and one I enjoy watching without understanding much of it at all, that entertained me. Sorry, Mr. Haines, but your leading lady's attraction to you mystifies me and it never had before in your films. I am rating this 6 stars because of the high production values and, well, polo.