La fille qui avait tout

This film is a good example of standard MGM output in the early 1950s - still glossy, with good production values, but dramatically no great shakes. It is perhaps most notable as being William Powell's final film at MGM. Although it must have been appealing to Powell to play the same part that won Lionel Barrymore an Oscar in 1931 (for A Free Soul), the writer of this film let Powell down with a routine script. Also notable is André Previn's score, which seems unnecessarily lush at times given the routine nature of the production.

This is tripe dressed up in fancy clothes. A loose remake of "A Free Soul" this silly melodrama is a painless time waster and not much else. What was once a racy provocative drama has become an empty potboiler.

True it does have Elizabeth Taylor at the peak of her beauty and that's always worth seeing. Additionally she is a much more relaxed and natural actress than Norma Shearer ever was. But she is handed a part that has been diluted from the original which is true of the entire picture.

William Powell, a welcome presence as always, isn't given the flashy part that Lionel Barrymore won an Oscar for in the original just a disapproving father without any real bite. No wonder he left MGM after this if this is the best they had to offer.

The real problem is the casting of Fernando Lamas in the old Clark Gable role, with Gable and his animal magnetism you could understand Norma's desire and willingness to stray with him. With Lamas, attractive though he may be, there is none of that and he comes across as a cheap hood made good and an oily one at that and Liz's headstrong determination to be with him makes her seem a foolish, spoiled nitwit.

For fans of the stars, and of course this being an MGM film they are beautiful dressed and the surrounding sumptuous, it's worth one watch but that will be more than enough.

And it isn't.

William Powell is a tough criminal lawyer. He may not have a lot of scruples but he has money. And he wants the best for his daughter, played by the ravishing young Elizabeth Taylor. Truly, she has hardly ever looked more beautiful than she does here.

She is, as the title suggests, spoiled. And she decides she wants Daddy's recent client, gangster Fernando Lamas. She already has Gig Young but Lamas is more dashing, if a real cad.

Everyone is good. It has a solid plot. The direction moves things along briskly. The score by Andre' Previn is exceptional.

If you don't have access to "A Place In the Sun," probably Taylor's most famous movie from this period,, catch this one. You will be knocked out by her beauty. And her acting is good, too.

... and this film is a good example of that.

Attorney Steve Latimer (William Powell) defends an old client of his, Victor Ramondi (Fernando Lamas) when he is hauled before a senate committee concerning his illegal gambling operations. Steve's daughter, Jean (Elizabeth Taylor) goes with her father when he travels to Washington, and there she meets and begins dating Ramondi. Ramondi follows the Latimers back to Kentucky, rents a place, and begins courting Jean. It doesn't take long until she is in love with him and the two plan to marry. But against his lifelong principles of being "a free soul" Latimer for once decides - Not with my daughter you don't! Complications ensue.

This is a very sanitized and watered down version of the precode "A Free Soul" from 1931, which was a big hit for MGM at the time. In the original the attorney/father Stephen Ashe is a hopeless alcoholic, the gangster is somebody Ashe defended for a murder of which he was very much guilty, and when the gangster threatens the daughter if she tries to leave him, her discarded fiance kills him but lies about his motive to protect her honor. I won't tell you what does ultimately happen in this film, but I will tell you that these three aspects are missing to the point that I wondered why MGM even bothered.

The 1931 film was made during the precode era during which there was much freedom to portray human nature with all its warts. The production code ended that in 1934. Thus it was not unusual for studios to remake their precode films in such a way that they could be exhibited in the production code era. What was unusual was for them to wait until the 1950s, as MGM did with this film, to produce a remake. As a result this film just seems like there is something missing mainly because there really is. All you have left is some cautionary tale about a girl who always had her way growing up in the shadow of a father who shunned convention who, as a result, goes after the wrong kind of man. Although Vic Ramondi does tell Jean he intends to change, is going to retire from the rackets, and is initially only showing his softer side, so even the accusation that she is attracted to a bad boy does not hold water.

The acting is good in this film, and as usual, William Powell makes it look effortless. He was the reason I decided to watch it, although the other performers do the best that they can with such thin material.

Botched on all levels, this remake of A FREE SOUL from 1931 takes the basic plot of that searing classic and turns it into a bland love story.

Elizabeth Taylor has the Norma Shearer part. Here she's a snotty young woman who tosses daddy and beau aside to run after a gangster. There's no chemistry between Taylor and Fernando Lamas (the Clark Gable role) so it's impossible to buy her reckless actions.

William Powell has the Lionel Barrymore role that won him an Oscar. Here, Powell is sidelined into an empty role that gives him nothing to do. In the original film, Shearer fights to save Barrymore (who in turn comes to the rescue in the finale). Here, Powell just disappears into the woodwork. Gig Young plays the Leslie Howard role. As with Powell, Young disappears as well.

So 20 years after A FREE SOUL was a critical and popular hit, the story has been gutted and remade for no reason at all but to present the young Taylor in an adult role. At 69 minutes, they also turned it into a B movie.