Lady with a Past

Okay, the plot is sort of silly -- you have to accept that gorgeous society girl Constance Bennett, in a succession of clinging gowns, has difficulty attracting men. So much so that on a whirlwind trip to Paris, she hires penniless American Ben Lyon as a gigolo, if only to prove that she isn't a complete dud.

Bennett exudes her trademark seductive charm. But it's Lyon, as her romantic mentor, who bring the "Lady with a Past" to life. He gives a brash, breezy, effortless performance reminiscent of Melvyn Douglas at his best in the days of "Ninotchka" and "Theodora Goes Wild." Not many of Lyon's films, with the exception of "Hells Angels," have been seen in recent years. And I always had the idea that he was a stick-figure straight man.

It was entertaining to be proved wrong.

Audiences of 1932 must have been surprised to see la Bennett play an unassertive society girl who wants to be married, but who, despite her stunning looks and pots of money, is shunned by the bachelors. Although sister Joan would have been more believable in the role of Miss Unpopularity, the story gets interesting when our tongue-tied caterpillar goes to Paris and is transformed by fun loving Ben Lyon into a social butterfly with a half dozen suitors fluttering around her, including the shallow boy from back home. And now that she can pick and choose, who do you think she ends up with at the finale? No matter. This is a pleasant little film and it's fun to watch Bennett sip champagne cocktails and flirt with fortune hunters in one stunning costume after another. No wonder her fans loved her.

"Lady with a Past" is Constance Bennett as an unlikely bookish wallflower who sails from New York City to Paris where she engineers a fake sex scandal hoping it will make her the talk of the town by the time she returns and thereby attract the attention of young men who find her literary chatter a big bore. She also talks to herself and pretends to be singing out loud when caught in the act.

Her co-conspirator in Paris is the golden voiced Ben Lyons whom she picks up at a sidewalk café after he tricks her into paying his food and drink tab. But her heart really belongs to David Manners, a handsome member of her social set who is looking for someone more exciting.

If this all seems terribly unexciting, it is. Then why watch? Miss Bennett, of course. They don't make 'em like that any more. In the pre-production publicity it was said that Miss Bennett was being fitted for 17 gowns to wear in the film. I didn't count, but she probably did.

A woman as beautiful, rich and well-read as Constance Bennett's character can't get any men to pay attention to her???

If true, she should have dumped her social circle and found a new one.

From the audience's perspective, who was sitting around in The Depression, eating soup made of unwashed socks, thinking, ''What I really want to see this Saturday for my 5c is a rich, beautiful, smart woman mope around because the dopey men around her don't appreciate her charms."

And then to escape to Paris to work up a reputation as a sk2nk?

Puh-lease.

It's insidious garbage like this that taught a generation or more of smart women to hide their brains and flaunt their inner floozy to attract a worthless man.

Now THAT'S depressing.

... that premise being that Constance Bennett as Venice Muir cannot attract a man at all. Constance isn't some plainly dressed and drably made-up wallflower that physically transforms, which is the plot you'd expect. From scene one she is the glamorous looking woman she usually plays, yet we are to believe that because she wants to discuss the books she's read that men would chew through wood to get out of being in the same room with her? With her looks and bearing she should reasonably expect to recite the dictionary and yet be followed by suitors - men simply aren't that deep.

David Manners proposes marriage to Venice when drunk, slinks away when sober, and leaves Venice wondering what she'll have to do to change her luck with men. Her solution - hire someone (Ben Lyon) to be her "boyfriend" and tell tales about her lack of virtue and her exciting nature that in turn should attract some actual suitors. These things never work out as planned - I'll let you watch and see what happens.