Absolute Quiet

If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery then this film full-fills it's designs. It is useless to write even a bare bones synopsis of it, for it copies from ever classic or trite pot-boiler of the 'Golden Age' of Hollywood. A true example of a throw-away programmer that any of the major studios churned out to fill their production obligations of fifty (50+) plus features a year.

The cast, all first rate character actors or middle-tier stars perform their obligations well. Each fulfilling a specified characterization. Lionel Atwill, driven and vindictive business tycoon no doubt a R.I.N.O, Raymond Walburn, corrupt Governor (in Illinois that's expected), Stuart Erwin, obnoxious reporter (is there any other type), Louis Hayward, washed up actor (which he would become post WWII). Added too this is Wallace Ford and Bernadene Hayes as 'Jack and Judy' (Bonnie & Clyde) plus Irene Hervey and Ann Loring for the 'Damsels In Distress' (D.I.D.).

They are all thrown together in a plot that includes a isolated ranch substituting for the 'old dark house'. Romantic liaisons gone wrong, a airplane crash with gangsters on the loose. Too bad they did not have a sandstorm to go with it, but you cannot have everything. I liked it and with a running time of only 70" you cannot go wrong to give it a try.

Absolute Quiet seems a strange side assignment for the director of the Andy Hardy series, George B. Seitz and his sometime cinematographer Lester White. The actors were probably B-movie favorites to moviegoers in the 30s, but aside from Atwill and Stu Erwin most are long forgotten now. Familiar faces everywhere, nonetheless, in this odd little MGM picture with Atwill in the lead, supported by Lewis Hayward in a minor and atypical role. One can almost imagine an A-picture cast instead: if MGM had gotten Bette Davis for the Irene Hervey role and Cagney for Wallace Ford.

Atwill is great as always, one of the most underrated actors of the Golden Era, and Bernadene Hayes steals the film half way through as the Vaudeville hoofer turned gun moll.

I'll bet it was fun to make this one.

There's a lot going on in this one so I doubt I'll do it justice with a brief summary but I'll try. Lionel Atwill plays a businessman with a heart problem who is told to spend time at his ranch for "absolute quiet." He takes along his secretary (Irene Hervey), who is one of two women he is unsuccessfully trying to get with in the movie. While at the ranch they are taken hostage by two criminals named Jack and Judy (Wallace Ford and Bernadene Hayes). Then a plane crashes onto the ranch! The plane is carrying several people who have ties to Atwill, including ineffectual Governor Pruden (a terrific Raymond Walburn) and Atwill's former mistress (Ann Loring) with her actor boyfriend (Louis Hayward). There's also the obligatory wise-cracking reporter (Stuart Erwin). From here it becomes a variation on The Petrified Forest, where all the plane crash survivors join Atwill and Hervey as hostages of the criminal duo and the rest of the film takes places mostly in one room.

What an interesting movie. Completely far-fetched and melodramatic but fascinating nonetheless. It's helped by a great cast and ample doses of humor, intentional and unintentional. In addition to those I mentioned above, J. Carrol Naish also appears briefly as a handyman, using his trademark "is it Italian or is it Spanish" accent. Definitely an unknown treat for classic movie fans so check it out.

It's a little like "Grand Hotel." Today "Grand Hotel" seems stagy and really creaks. "Absolute Quiet" is wife awake and crackles.

It's a little like "The Petrified Forest." That holds up pretty well but is very stagy. And it's a little like "Key Largo," which no one is going to fault.

Lionel Atwill is a manipulator who tries to have the husband of a woman he's attracted to crash his plane. At the same time, he will be taking care of an ex-girlfriend, an actress he has ostensibly sent to Hollywood in that same plane. Her boyfriend, Louis Hayward, a fading movie star, is also on the plane, as is the governor of the state. Atwill has it in for him.

The plane crashes at his house in the country, where he is ostensibly taking in the eponymous rest.

Add t to this mix a reporter who wants the story. (A rather pudgy looking Stuart Erwin is good in this role.) And a Bonnie and Clyde duo on the lam. Their names are Jack and Judy. Or, their name (as they were originally a vaudeville team) IS Jack and Judy.

All this, as well as a couple minor players, in one house! This doesn't come across as a formulaic programmer. It has plenty of tension. The only aspect that bothered me was Jack's slang: Over and over, instead of saying "OK," he says "Oke." Slang can really date a movie. But this one holds up very well indeed, in spite of that one small annoyance.

This minor movie is worth watching but a bit corny by modern standards. It has a funny scipt and it is well acted by its little known cast. It is kind of hard boiled and cynical. It is a send up of American politics and society of the time when the film was made, and it gives some perspective for the present day.