August Weekend

The Washburne family is very rich and they're having a party at their mansion for their friends. Through the course of the film, you see that although rich, the Washburnes are a bunch of jerks. The father has two loves...money and adultery. The grown children are spoiled idiots--with the son spouting communist ideology while sponging off his father and the daughter a very annoying brat. In contrast, the poorer folks seem happier and far better adjusted....and that's the obvious message of this movie.

So is it any good? Not especially....which isn't a surprise since it's a cheap B-movie from Chesterfield Pictures. The major problem is the script, as it really didn't know what to do with the message....and the film just seemed to end with nothing actually being resolved. Easy to skip.

Valerie Hobson takes the lead in this movie from Chesterfield. It's about a get-together at the country home of kindly, frankly climbing broker Paul Harvey who, it turns out, is facing jail for tax fraud and suggests to Miss Hobson that a life as an international fugitive with him might be fun. The guests (who are penniless members of the 400) and occupants of the house have their own plots running. This, however, is not made from an Elinor Glyn novel, but from one by Faith Baldwin. With the Production Code looking on, you can be sure that matters will end appropriately.

Miss Hobson was near the end of her two-year sojourn in Hollywood. She rarely got out of Gower Gulch and would soon return to Britain. There she would become a screen star, benefiting from her marriage to Anthony Havelock-Ellis. Her second marriage would be less successful; husband John Profumo became a byword for scandal throughout the United Kingdom.

The wealthy Washburne family are having a soiree during which we are presented with a family of fairly objectionable rich people who obsess about themselves, their money and care little for anyone else. Valerie Hobson is "Claire", a young beauty objectified by the elder Washburne (Paul Harvey) but fancied by a younger, less successful man from her town "Kim" (G. P. Huntley). What ensues is a fast moving, mildly amusing, but very simplistic social class drama with the stereotypes abounding all over the place. The writing is a wee bit dull, the direction is remarkably two-dimensional and there is precious little chemistry on screen - indeed, Hobson seems quite distinctly out of sorts with her co-stars. I reckon it could work better on a stage, keeping the focus of this conceivably quite pithy and entertaining character study more focussed than in this rather meandering cinematic flop. As it is, it's a bit of a waste of effort all round.

"August Weekend," adapted from a great ensemble-cast story by Faith Baldwin, stars, among others, Valerie Hobson, Paul Harvey, Claire McDowell, and Betty Compson. Those who enjoy such "weekend at the country estate" stories along the line of Aldous Huxley's "Crome Yellow" will recognize the genre and surely appreciate the deft plot, which pits the stock-market rich against the socially prominent who are financially impoverished, and drags the servants and gardeners along for the ride. Lots of fun 1930s touches here too -- "The Proletarian Handbook" among them. The plot is complex, so don't think that a quick viewing is in order. Each individual has a story to tell, and repressed sexual desire drives those who are not fueled by a desire for wealth. Excellent social observations can be found amidst the old-school styling of the script. Enjoy!