The Reckless Hour

Dorothy Mackaill, real life Ziegfeld Girl turned actress, might've become another Crawford or Davis had she come along seven or eight year later. Her early talkies are nearly-lost artifacts which shouldn't really hold up well today, yet her performances are always worth-watching. Here she plays a working girl who has to retreat to a "rest home" after getting pregnant by a wealthy playboy, driving her family into bankruptcy. Surprisingly fresh and fast-paced. Mackaill, as well as Joan Blondell as Dorothy's sassy sis, is "a real peach" and a natural comedienne. This is probably her finest showcase, based on the play "Ambush" by Arthur Richman. **1/2 from ****

This film is 86 years old and presents such a different world from the one we live in today.

"The Reckless Hour" concerns a young model, Margaret (Dorothy Mackaill) who falls for a playboy Allen Crane (Walter Byron). Her family isn't wealthy - Margaret lives with her parents Walter and Harriett (H.B. Warner and Helen Ware). Her mother, of course, is thrilled that she's dating someone from a wealthy family.

Walter isn't. He notices she's wearing a very expensive bracelet and informs her that if she's seen wearing it, people will realize it's too expensive for him to have given her. Then what will people say? Back then, a man giving jewelry was just not done unless the two are engaged or married. Margaret says it's a fake, and besides, it's an engagement gift, to Walter's relief.

Well, the bracelet is real, as a friend informs Walter, and it really isn't an engagement gift. Margaret and Allen are fooling around in an apartment he keeps in the city. One night while on the town, they meet a friend of Allen's, Eddie (Conrad Nagel). He is immediately attracted to Margaret, and then realizes that she's sleeping with Allen.

Upset that Allen may be taking his daughter for a ride, he confronts Allen's father, who never heard of her. A confrontation between Allen, his own father, and Walter - overheard by Margaret - solidifies the fact that Allen has no intention of marrying her. Allen's father insists that if he said he would, he's going to. Margaret says no. Later she tells Walter that she's pregnant - by saying "I didn't tell him...everything."

Walter raises the money to send her to a rest home. When she returns, she learns that Eddie, who is an artist, having learned she's no longer with Allen, has been asking for her. She decides to work for him.

Really lovely film, based on a play, dealing with a common pre- Depression theme then - class differences - which ended with the Depression when writers like Clifford Odets began to write plays about the working man. And, before the code, women who slept with men before marriage weren't killed in the last reel as punishment.

Dorothy Mackaill was beautiful and gives a touching performance; Joan Blondell as her wisecracking sister is a riot. For me the best performance was by H.B. Warner. Warner is most famous for being Jesus in the DeMille King of Kings, and more famous for being Mr. Gower, the pharmacist in It's a Wonderful Life. His performance is heart- wrenching and his love for Margaret is palpable. In this film he's in his fifties but today could pass for 80. Amazing.

Excellent film - check it out.

Dorothy Mackaill stars as Maggie, a sensible girl from Jersey City who works as a model in New York City but lives with her family. She's tired of dating ordinary men and one day meets a rich man (Walter Byron) who's eager to date. She enjoys the gifts and evenings at nightclubs but her parents are worried.

Meanwhile her younger sister(Joan Blondell) is dating the guy Maggie jilted. Her father (H.B. Warner) is having a tough time with his book shop, and her mother (Helen Ware) defends Maggie's dating the rich guy. Things start to go wrong, however, when Maggie discovers she is pregnant. She assumes the rich guy will marry her. After he dumps her, she's left to explain things to her father.

After some time in a "rest home," she meets another rich guy (Conrad Nagel). Has she learned her lesson? Will he be interested in "damaged goods"? Should she tell him everything?

Mackaill is terrific as Maggie and earns audience sympathy by being so nice. She's matched here by the snappy Joan Blondell who drops wise cracks every time she opens her mouth. Warner and Ware are fine as the parents. Byron is an appropriate louse. Nagel is fine as the nice guy. Also in the cast are Billy House as Jennison, Dorothy Peterson as his wife, and Joe Donahue as the sourpuss Hal.

As a pre-Code film, there are some surprises in the way the women act. A few years later, the Code would force certain behaviors and conclusions. There's one outrageous exchange when Maggie declines to go out with her drippy boyfriend. When Blondell's character jumps on her for standing him up, the mother says something like, "Leave Maggie alone. She's been on feet all day." Blondell (whose character works at Macy's) snaps back, "And where have I been all day? On my back?"

Attractive department store model Dorothy Mackaill (as Margaret "Margie" Nichols) begins a relationship with suave and wealthy Walter Byron (as Allen Crane). Of course, she hopes he's marriage material. Her working class father H.B. Warner (as Walter Nichols) thinks Ms. Mackaill is making a mistake. Mackaill's lover teasingly promises "dishonorable intentions." This turns out to be no joke. Mackaill finds herself unmarried and in trouble. She turns her attention to suave portrait painter Conrad Nagel (as Edward "Ed" Adams). The attraction for Mr. Nagel seems more genuine, but he's stuck in an unhappy marriage...

During the later 1920s, Dorothy Mackaill was a successful second-tier star, impressive as Richard Barthelmess' love interest in "Shore Leave" (1925) and lending good support to "The Barker" (1928)...

"The Reckless Hour" finds her doing well in "all-talking" films, but her career faltered and Mackaill gave up the game. Here, she's a bit too worldly as the poor shop-girl, but gets stronger as her character matures. She and director John Francis Dillon have some fine moments - the highlight has Mackaill sneaking into her Jersey City apartment after spending the night with her lover in New York City. However, the director seems lax in spots - notably during the sequence where Mackaill's portrait is completed without fanfare. The supporting cast and crew are fun, with Nagel getting a chance to impress during the second half.

***** The Reckless Hour (8/15/31) John Francis Dillon ~ Dorothy Mackaill, Conrad Nagel, H.B. Warner, Walter Byron

Joan Blondell, here playing the little sister, is about a thousand times more charismatic on-screen than star Dorothy Mackaill, and her presence is one of the only excuses to give THE RECKLESS HOUR (1931) a shot.

The Depression-era melodrama starts off boringly enough (until we meet Blondell's character) and covers the familiar ground of the rich boy dating the middle class girl and making promises he never intends to keep, leaving the girl to suffer the consequences on her own.

Dorothy Mackaill's line readings really bring the movie down. It's something about her enunciation and how she spaces her lines apart. Blondell, for example, is much more naturalistic, but H.B. Warner and Conrad Nagel are also noticeably better than Mackaill in their scenes with her. Top-billed Mackaill is probably the worst actor in the whole film, and some of the scenes late in the movie, with the melodrama slapped on pretty thick, are almost impossible to take seriously.

Joan Blondell, just starting out in Hollywood, is relegated to a supporting role with limited screen time, but is nevertheless delightful. Fans of hers might want to give this one a look if it shows up on TCM. Otherwise...