Âmes libres

For those of you who did not have the dubious pleasure of seeing one of Elizabeth Taylor's lesser films, The Girl Who Had Everything, here's the original film it was taken from. A Free Soul is the story of a girl who misuses the freedom her father gave her in her upbringing.

The film is based on a story Adela Rogers St. John wrote, that drew from her relationship with her father, famed criminal defense attorney Earl Rogers. Rogers set the mold for the famous criminal attorneys we've seen in action down to today. Unfortunately he was a man with a severe drinking problem which in the end got the better of him.

He did not come from the upper crust that Lionel Barrymore as Stephen Ashe comes from. In fact the real Earl Rogers's father was a minister. Yet Barrymore creates a compelling and brilliant, but dissolute figure who raises his daughter to be broadminded and tolerant and to despise some of the snobs from her class.

Norma Shearer takes the lessons to heart only too well. She leaves stalwart beau, polo playing Leslie Howard, for gambler/racketeer Clark Gable. Gable's a client of Barrymore's who Barrymore got off on a gambit that Johnnie Cochran used successfully defending O.J. Simpson and he's rather full of himself.

Barrymore turns out to be a bit of a snob himself in the end, telling Gable he's not good enough for his little girl. Of course Norma has her own ideas.

This film was the first really big break for Clark Gable. Movie audiences went for his animal magnetism in a big way. Even though Barrymore won the Best Actor Oscar for his performance by virtue of an unforgettable courtroom speech at the finish, it was Gable who got all the newspaper print.

Norma Shearer got a Best Actress nomination, but lost to fellow MGM contract player Marie Dressler for Min and Bill. A Free Soul which was a pre-Code film, explored the theme of sexual satisfaction ever so gingerly, but in a way after 1935 could not be seen for thirty years on the screen. Shearer is also giving one of her best screen performances.

Leslie Howard I'm afraid had real little to do, but look patient and noble as the society polo player. Howard exuded class and distinction even when he's penniless as in The Petrified Forest. So much the better for him when he's dressed in tails.

A Free Soul is light years better than The Girl Who Had Everything and holds up very well for today's audience.

They are alike, this father & daughter. Liberal, passionate, willful - they live life on their own terms, disdaining their narrow-minded relations. Few regrets & even fewer apologies cloud either conscious - yet each harbors a character trait that threatens to destroy them. Hers is emotional instability; his, acute alcoholism. Although both will make bad choices that will haunt them, each will continue to see their reflection in the other, unique & individual, A FREE SOUL.

Based on a book by Adela Rogers St. Johns, Norma Shearer gets top billing in this aged but enjoyable soap opera, and she is very good, turning on the histrionics most effectively. But it is Lionel Barrymore who gets full honors - and a Best Actor Oscar - for his portrayal of her brilliant, tragic, lawyer father. Masterfully, he dominates his every scene. His final appearance, a tempestuous summation to a murder trial jury, is considered a classic.

Playing the two very different men in Shearer's life are Clark Gable & Leslie Howard. Gable is excellent, oozing the virility that was about to make him a huge star. Howard deftly underplays his less flashy role and becomes the film's calm center. James Gleason as Barrymore's factotum, and Lucy Beaumont as Barrymore's patrician mother, both give memorable performances. Film mavens will spot Edward Brophy as one of Gable's henchmen & master stutterer Roscoe Ates as the man in the washroom window.

To get an idea of how great magnetic and radiant shearer is here, consider that she matches her scenes with Clark Gable, lionel Barrymore and Leslie Howard and wipes the floor with all of them. Don't get me wrong they are all very good here but this movie is a star vehicle for shearer and it is her movie. She does all of the shining. If you appreciate her, this movie is a must see even though the film drags on and the script is average at best. I wouldn't be surprised if this served as an inspiration to courtroom dramas like Perry Mason and Matlock later on.

"A Free Soul" made Hollywood take notice of a young actor by the name of Clark Gable.Slapping leading lady Norma Shearer around,he portrayed masculinity like no star,with the exception of perhaps Jim my Cagney, had done before him.Lionel Barrymore won the Oscar for his very good performance of the alcoholic defense lawyer. I've always found him overacting his parts but he's very believable in this movie.Norma Shearer is also very good,but still overdoes the dramatics with her silent screen acting.But she's really a stunner in the quiet parts. Leslie Howard has once again one of his thankless parts which doesn't tax his ability at all.A very enjoyable picture.

Having just seen the Free Soul (1931), I was struck with how much Gable's character foretold his similarly famous role as Rhett Buttler in the 1939 film, Gone with the Wind. The plot situations in the two movies were also very similar, a different time and setting. I noticed the role of the fathers were almost identical. Barrymore's patriarchal role was just as intense as Scarlet's father. Norma Shearer's free soul character was similar but more understandable and empathetic than Scarlet's continuous self-centeredness. The coincidence of the similarity of Leslie Howard's role in both films as the jilted lover was striking. His acting got a lot better in Gone with the Wind. It was easy to see how Gable was destined to be somebody based on his performance in the 1931 film. I found viewing A Free Soul while comparing it to the more famous Civil War movie was an enjoyable experience.