Man of the Moment

Two American expatriate players Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. and Laura LaPlante are dropped in the middle of this British screwball comedy that turns just a bit silly. I'm not sure suicide is a good premise for a comedy.

Laura decides to end it all and Doug saves her from drowning. But when he brings her home and his bride to be catches sight of her in a Marlene Dietrich like man's outfit it's the end of that engagement After that Doug starts to see her point of view.

It's off to Monte Carlo with their last few shekels. After that you see the movie to see how it works out.

Margaret Lockwood has an early role in her career as Fairbanks's eternally weeping fiance. She would have better opportunities to show her talent in the next decade.

Average sort of screwball comedy.

"Man of the Moment" stars one of my favorite actors, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., and Laura LaPlante. I can just hear my mother now if I told her I saw a film with Laura LaPlante. "LAURA LAPLANTE?" indicating that it's an ancient name. I guess it is, since she was a silent film star and pretty much quit films in 1935.

LaPlante plays Mary, a secretary who is in love with her boss. After another employee basically tells her she has nothing to look forward to in life except an expanding waistline and an old face, she finds out that her boss is having an affair with another coworker.

Mary leaves the office and throws herself in the river. To her dismay, she's rescued by Tony (Fairbanks) who insists upon bringing her back to his place to dry off. She has nothing to fear from him, he says. He's getting married tomorrow. His bride-to-be is Vera, played by Margaret Lockwood.

Mary doesn't want to stay but her attempt to sneak out fails, and then there's a big engagement party. She disguises herself as a waiter by slicking down her hair but she falls asleep on the couch. The next morning, Vera sees her in the house and breaks off her engagement.

Tony is now as miserable as Mary. He's completely broke. He decides to go to Monte Carlo to win some money, and he wants her to come along. He makes a deal with her. If he doesn't win, he'll jump into the river with her. She agrees.

Cute comedy with good acting by all involved, but it's nothing special. LaPlante's role was definitely a natural for Claudette Colbert or Marion Davies. LaPlante, however, acquitted herself well. Fairbanks, as the dashing and sophisticated Tony, is wonderful. He was an underrated actor, in my opinion, and today, when many performances no longer hold up, his do.

LaPlante made the transition to talkies but by 1935, she was sick of movie-making. She had a 51-year marriage to producer Irving Asher. It turned out to be a nice life. She died at 92 from Alzheimer's disease.

This is a good showcase for her talent. Recommended for the performances.

A lot of the recent TCM rediscoveries (and U.S. premieres!) of Warners' British productions from the 1930's are turning out to be quite good movies and not the cheap, reviled "quota quickies" of legend. This is one of them, a charming British foray into the screwball genre with some of the same sexual cheekiness American productions of the so-called "pre-Code" era (1930-34): the heroine spends a good chunk of the film in male drag and the bridal suite actually has a double bed. It's quite a bit slower than a U.S. version of the same story would have been, Margaret Lockwood's crying jags get tiresome (she'd go on to be a major British star and is best known as the female lead in Hitchcock's "The Lady Vanishes") and some musical underscoring would have helped, but on the whole this is a clever and amusing film. Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., who in his American films in the period was sometimes cast in roles that were beyond his acting skills, is perfectly cast here and delivers a memorable comic performance, and after seeing (and being unimpressed by) some of Laura LaPlante's late silent and early talkie performances at Universal, I was pleasantly surprised by her work here and disappointed only by her utter lack of a British accent. (I kept expecting to hear a bit of dialogue explaining that she was an American stranded in Britain and forced to take a secretarial job there to survive.) Let's hope the other 27 surviving Teddington productions get shown here soon!

Both stars of Man of the Moment had started in silent films; The dashing Douglas Fairbanks Jr (Gunga Din, Stella Dallas) stars as Tony, who is about to get married. The film begins as Tony stops Mary from drowning herself. The girl, who he calls "Nuisance", is played by Laura LaPlante ( MANY silent films, Cat & the Canary, Showboat) The fun but typical hijinks and misunderstandings follow, and now his marriage to the silly, young rich girl Vera (Margaret Lockwood, Man in Grey, Alibi) is in jeopardy when her father gets involved. Fun romp, but the plot does involve suicide, gambling, drinking, and other violations of the Hays code, so that may explain why it's not shown very often, although other movies with those elements are shown all the time. The director Monty Banks, also plays the flirtatious doctor in the film. Ironically, the actor playing the father of the rich girl, Peter Gawthorne seems to have gotten his start in Hollywood much later than the younger cast, but always played positions of authority, the police captain, the Lord, the Judge. The writer of the play, Yves Mirande, had also written and directed the 1940 version of Moulin Rouge. There is also another film titled "Man of the Moment" from 1955, but it does not appear at all related to this film.

I enjoyed this film, its easily equal to the screwball comedies being made in the US at that time. In some ways even more daring since it deals with subjects that would quickly be censored in the US. Suicide, extramarital sex & office romances, a single woman staying and traveling with a single man (It Happened One Night), cross dressing, rowdy stag parties that walk a thin line just to mention a few. Plus the scenes around pre-war London are fun. But the real reason for watching this film is Laura LaPlante, what a terrific actress. Great comedic timing, a natural accent, pretty in a non-30's way (I kept thinking of Laura Dern), and obviously willing to do slapstick. LaPlante energized every scene she was in, and put sappy Margaret Lockwood to shame. Its a mystery why she couldn't compete with the likes of Carole Lombard or Myrna Loy - she was definitely their equal. I particularly liked the scene by the river when Mary is trying to get her nerve up to jump in, but her nerves and the river aren't quite up to the task. The stag party scene made me cringe, was that planned by the director - or was that truly a more innocent time. While Mary may be a dreamer - she's not stupid, she enjoys a challenge, and she has found it in the Fairbanks character. There was an off hand chemistry between La Plante and Fairbanks and its a shame that it wasn't nurtured. I would like to see more of the British La Plante movies screened.