The Devil's Holiday

Yesterday night I watched 'The Devil's Holiday'. It says a lot about the quality of the film that this morning I am struggling to remember enough of it to jot down a few brief impressions. Nancy Carroll definitely looks nice and plays (mostly) well, at least she is putting in a lot of effort. Hobart Bosworth (who plays the father of the man she marries) and James Kirkwood (the older brother) are likewise doing well. I found Phillip Holmes (as Carroll's husband) annoying: He is overacting and all in all unconvincing. The storyline is alright, but director Edmund Goulding wastes several chances for making more of the plot and giving it some wit and sparkle. The dialogues are somwhere between uninspired and awful - awful especially toward the end of the film, which has an irritating sickly-sentimental quality that I found offputting. All in all nothing memorable, I am afraid.

Turgid by today's standards and pretty stagy, yet THE DEVIL'S HOLIDAY offers solid performances by Nancy Carroll as a party girl who lands a hick (Phillips Holmes), in from the wheat belt, in a scam. As Hallie, a woman who no scruples and who hates men, Carroll won an Oscar nomination in a flashy role. Holmes is also excellent as the sensitive and naive youth.

Hobart Bosworth and James Kirkwood (as the father and brother) are oddly effective in their stereotypical roles. Ned Sparks and Jed Prouty play a couple of sharpies, and Zasu Pitts has a small role as the hotel operator. Paul Lukas shows up (badly cast) as a rural doctor.

While the plot veers toward the ludicrous, the actors remain solid and convincing, no easy job.

Stellar performances by Nancy Carroll and Phillips Holmes as well as supporting actors and you are in for a real treat if you like human drama. The directing by Edmund Goulding is able to achieve the right conclusion and you can see that a lot of effort was put into this movie which was produced in 1930, a time when talkies have been out for only a few years. Edmund Goulding also wrote the screenplay for the movie. This movie has substance. There is character development by several characters and spiritual overtones. What is greater than being selfish and "bad" and admitting it? With inimitable virtuosity, Nancy Carroll is able to traverse this course of human change. She incidentally was nominated for an Oscar in 1930 for this movie. Phillips Holmes is able to play his difficult part to the hilt as a naive and sweet character hopelessly in love. Actually, these two are magic together as can be seen in the movies Stolen Heaven and Broken Lullaby.

Hallie Hobart (Nancy Carroll), veteran party girl, works the conventions in the Big City and makes money from the agents who sic her on to prospective buyers - in this case, for farm equipment. Into her clutches falls David Stone (Philips Holmes), fresh from a fall off a turnip truck, and Wowzers! David falls head-over-heels for her and wants to marry her. His family is loaded with money and advice, but David is hearing none of it. He marries her and brings her home to his horrified family.

What follows is hard to swallow. Suffice it to say there is much pathos, contrivance, animosity, strife and bitterness. There is also reconciliation but, as I say, this second half of the picture must be taken cum grano salis. The main reason to watch this soaper is to watch Nancy Carroll's best acting job. Prior to "The Devil's Holiday" she made several lightweight musical comedies, so her performance here is a jolt. In fact, she was nominated for an Oscar for this film but lost to Norma Shearer in "The Divorcée". 1930's audiences were probably prostrate with grief as the weepy plot unfolds, but 1930 is a long time ago.

Right from the start, you know what you're going to get. A well made (amazingly well made for 1930) fast-paced, crazy romance with a subtle sense of humour. Possibly it's Nancy Carroll's best film?

The first few minutes set the scene: in a stylishly lit hotel telephone exchange, chiseller Ned Sparks is searching, like many others for Hallie, a girl whose talent is to persuade businessmen by her 'favours' to sign any deal. This scene is a symphony seediness with wonderful 1930s accents: Zasu Pitt's a droning midwest descant against Ned Sparks' crazy deadpan Gangsterville. In just those first minutes, you know two things: 1) this is going to be good and 2) this is NOT one of those typically terrible, stagey, static pictures so common in very early talkies. It has a much more modern feel than you might expect from 1930. If you didn't know you might guess that this was made years later.

Then the screen lights up a Hallie, Nancy Carroll appears. It's probably the lighting but it seems like all the light, the life and the energy is coming from Nancy Carroll. For the next hour she glows and completely owns every frame. You can see exactly why these businessmen would be persuaded by her presence to agree to whatever deal she is being paid to promote. It's not just her pretty face, it's her joy, love of life and bubbly personality which makes her so irresistible to men. It's an astonishing performance - she should have won the Oscar instead of Norma Shearer in THE DIVORCEE; she's ten times more believable.

In fact the whole film is ten times more believable than Norma Shearer's film. Well, it is when you're watching it - but don't think about the plot too much. Besides Nancy Carroll, the other reason this is so good is down to its director Edmund Goulding. He actually wrote this (and wrote the music too!) so this was his pet project - he loved this film and put all his skills and efforts into it.

The result is a completely enthralling, naturally acted pot boiler. You don't notice how stupid the plot gets, you don't notice that Hallie's love interest, Phillips Holmes is the most pathetic, feeble-minded drip in the world. That someone so full of life as Hallie could love someone like this is absurd but you'll be so drawn into this that you'll not question it. That's the skill of a good movie: to make the unbelievable believable.