I Loved You Wednesday

During the 1920s and 30s, Hollywood studios were in love with the notion of bringing in exotic women from Europe to star in films. While there were many European women in silents, the craze for more kicked into overdrive with the success of Greta Garbo....and each of the studios was looking for their next Garbo. In a few cases, they even took American women and created fake European backgrounds! But for the most part, these new Garbos never really succeeded in Hollywood*. One of these 'new Garbo' actresses was Elissa Landi, an Italian-born and British-trained actress. She was fortunate in that her native accent was very well hidden (unlike, for example Vera Ralston, Lili Damita, and Annabella), though her English accent with a touch of Italian was odd...and she never made a huge impact in the States. One of her nearly three dozen films was "I Loved You Wednesday".

When the story begins, Randall (Victor Jory) and Vicki (Landi) are students living together in Paris. He's an architect studying his craft and she's a ballerina. They seem quite happy together, though he has a secret...he has a wife back in the States. And, when the wife decides to head to Paris, Randall breaks it to Vicki that he's married.

Not surprisingly, Landi is heartbroken and leaves Paris. She runs off to South America and while there, she meets a civil engineer, Philip (Warner Baxter). But she has to return to the stage and he needs to return to America to work on Boulder Dam (later renamed Hoover Dam). During their separation, their love lingers and soon they are reunited in New York...and life looks grand.

Into this seemingly ideal situation arrives Randall. He's back and is still obviously interested in Vicki...while Vicki is clearly undecided. But it becomes very awkward when you learn that Philip knows Randall's wife! Complicated? Of course....and where all this leads you will have to find out for yourself.

This film clearly has pre-code sensibilities, with the couple living together. While this isn't explicitly stated, you understand that this is being strongly implied. But the sparks are quite muted despite this. Much of this is because the film seems to try harder to be sophisticated than scandalous....which I think, in hindsight, is a bit of a mistake. It took a juicy plot and made it a bit less so. Also, I was not thrilled with Warner Baxter (who I usually love in films, though his character is pretty stiff and pathetic here) nor Landi (her accent was odd since she was supposed to be an American). Jory, on the other hand, played cads and heavies well and he is more memorable in this film. As for the film itself, it just seemed to lack energy and emotion....with sophistication replacing sparks. Watchable and a decent time-passer but not much more.

*A huge exception to the curse of the 'new Garbos' was Hedy Lamarr. While never quite as famous as Garbo, she did have a long and solid career in Hollywood.

Victor Jory is in Paris to study architecture. Elissa Landi is in Paris to study dance. Between classes they study each other in an apartment they share and are very happy. They are about to go to the shore for a couple of weeks, when Jory gets a telegram from his wife, Miriam Jordan. She's at Cherbourg, and since she has the money, he's going to meet her. Miss Landi heads to South America to forget. There she meets Warner Baxter. He's an engineer, finishing up a job, so they happily take a ship to New York, where they part: he to work on the Boulder Dam, she to her triumphs on stage.

Several years later, Baxter and Miss Landi meet again in New York, and are deliriously happy. They're about to go away, when in walks Jory, who thinks he and Miss Landi can take up again where they left off. She is cold. However, when the four principals meet again in a bar, sophistication ensues.

It's directed by Henry King and William Cameron Menzies, and for the first half it's a cinematic delight, in editing and camerawork by Hal Mohr, in a Paris that's half Rene Clair and half Ernst Lubitsch, and a South America out of a zippy Warner Brothers B picture. In the second half, it all turns unlikeable. Baxter, Miss Landi, and Miss Jordan are brittle and snappish. Jory is smarmy. Everyone behaves in a way that makes you think that none of them care how it all turns out; if they don't care, why should you? There are some good lines, full of bitter wit, but it's a severe letdown.

Still, it's a very good first half, and there are glimmers in the second half. It's too bad that it couldn't remain wonderful throughout, but sometimes half a loaf is all you're going to get.

This is a rarely-seen but stylish light melodrama from Fox Studios about a globetrotting romantic triangle. The title is derived, appropriately enough, from a poem by sophisticated jazz-age poet Edna St. Vincent Millay -- a poem that speaks of the transience (rather than transcendence) of love.

In Paris, a beautiful young American ballet dancer is involved with an American architectural student (they appear to be sharing living quarters). When she discovers that he has a stateside wife, she hightails it to South America and pairs up with a U.S. engineer. A few years later, they are back in New York when the ex-lover appears out of the blue.

The plot is run-of-the mill and unconvincing, but it's the sophisticated pre-code attitude towards male-female relationships (not unlike "The Common Law") and the fascinating look at early 30s social mores that make the movie worthwhile. There are neat throw-away incidents and comic turns, some clever visual transitions and wonderful set design from co-director William Cameron Menzies. This is particularly true in a bizarre futuristic dance number which features sinewy soldiers in ancient-Egyptian-like gear abducting skimpily-clad dancing girls. There's also a rather jarring sequence set at the construction site of Boulder Dam which is almost ruined by some abysmal back projection.

Elissa Landi, showing off her long limbs, is ethereal as always but lends little depth to the pivotal role. Warner Baxter is his usual masculine self; but the acting honours go to the underrated Victor Jory as the caddish ex-lover, and Miriam Jordan as his sardonic high-society wife. Mischa Auer makes a welcome cameo appearance.

I love the sophisticated precodes, but this one's charm largely eludes me. Vicki Meridith (Elissa Landi) is a student of the dance in Paris who has a winter affair with an architect student (Victor Jory as Randall Williams). However, spring is here and Randall breaks the news to Vicki that he is married, and that their affair must end as he has an arrangement with his wife that he can do what he likes in the winter, but in the spring he must return to her side and live the high society life of her choosing. Jarred and broken hearted Vicki takes a dancing job in South America because she can't stand to see other lovers in Paris in the spring after what has just happened to her.

Vicki does recover pretty quickly though, and the next time we see her she's involved with Philip Fletcher ( Warner Baxter), an engineer working on some major construction projects in South America. Vicki is getting ready to leave and go back to New York where better parts await. This is where we see one of the truly bizarre but typically inane early Fox musical numbers. Elissa is in some kind of ballet. The players appear to be in ancient Egyptian garb and Elissa is clutching what appears to be a stuffed animal that the other players are trying to take from her. The male dancers appear in rather absurd costumes with head garb that look something like that of the Statue of Liberty and loincloths that appear to be made of a pattern similar to the American flag. The audience applauds thunderously afterwards, but I found my reaction to be one of just gawking.

The plot comes to a head and to a halt five years later when Melissa, now a big star, is reunited with her old flame Philip Fletcher, apparently either a very patient man or a man who knows what he wants or both. The two are planning to take a cruise on Philip's yacht preceded by a night on the town when Randall William appears again, this time with promise of a divorce from his socialite wife and expecting to pick up where he left off. He seems to forget that where he left off was putting Melissa's heart in a blender. Oddly enough, the three go to dinner together, with Randall rightly assuming that Melissa is a flighty enough woman that he at least has a shot at getting her back in one night - she and Philip are to sail the next day. Philip assumes that Melissa may weaken but in the end she'll see what Randall really is and stay with him. Thrown into the mix unexpectedly is the appearance of Randall's society wife who has no desire to let Randall go. She says that as long as she allows Randall his little excursions from time to time he really is a pretty good husband and she wants to hold on to that.

The problem with this film is that Warner Baxter is largely wasted in this movie with all the attention going to Elissa Landi's character. She spends this pivotal evening annoyingly giddy and waffling back and forth between her two possible futures. Plus she talks incessantly without really saying anything. The interesting performances are given by Victor Jory as the smirking confident cad and Miriam Jordan as Cynthia, his rather stoic wife.