Sadie McKee

Clarence Brown was an above average director and his pictures with Joan Crawford in the early and mid '30s are better than those she did with others. Brown had an eye and a sense of detail and he favors long takes with two or more performers interacting, which creates a certain tension where there might otherwise be none. Certainly this improbable script is not noticeably better than others Joan did around that time, but everything about this picture works perfectly.

Having finally found her best 'look,' Crawford is undeniably gorgeous, the ravishing epitome of glamor. And Adrian does some of his best work for her in this, putting her in one stunning and flattering gown after another. She is also given a talented and varied supporting cast and all of the big set pieces work, though Edward Arnold's drunk scenes go on for too long.

And there are a couple of fantastic sets, one of Arnold's mansion and the other of a glass sanitarium in the snow. Though the whole cast is more than adequate, a few players stand out: Jean Dixon is delightfully world weary in a leopard coat, Esther Ralston makes a perfect amoral siren, and it's a bit of a revelation to see how much Leo G. Carroll accomplishes by doing very little in his role as a nasty butler. There's also a fantastic jazz version of "After You've Gone" performed by Gene Austin, Candy Candido and Otto Heimel. As for the main players, Crawford, Franchot Tone and Gene Raymond don't dig very deep in their performances, but with a plucky, luscious Crawford at full tilt and with everything else about this movie clicking so well, it doesn't matter. It works.

Joan Crawford acts up a storm in this well done, interesting soap opera like story of working girl Sadie, daughter of a cook, who is madly in love with a loser named Tommy (played by Gene Raymond). Sadie and Tommy run off together to NYC where they soon take up residence in this shabby, one-room apartment. The next day, big plans for job hunting and a noon appointment at the city hall to get married, but unfortunately for Sadie, Tommy the Rat is thrown in the path of a bad blonde/singer named Dolly who hires him on the spot to sing in her act, they kiss and run off together leaving poor Sadie waiting at the so-called altar. But Sadie pulls herself up by her boot straps, gets a job as a dancer, and meets a multi-millionaire (Edward Arnold) with a big drinking problem, while still holding the torch for her beloved Tommy.

This film is quite a good one, the story completely held my interest, and the acting is top-notch with Joan Crawford giving out her full emotional range, Edward Arnold is excellent playing drunk for the majority of his scenes, and Esther Ralston does a good job as Dolly, the loose hipped, barely able to sing man-snatcher. Franchot Tone plays a lawyer, the son of the well-to-do home where Sadie was raised - he isn't given as much to do here as I would have liked but still gives a satisfying performance, and he certainly looks handsome enough, as usual. The film includes a few fun to watch musical numbers, plus some interesting scenes filmed in diners and a neat old-time Automat.

In Richley, New York, Sadie McKee (Joan Crawford) works as a maid in the Alderson mansion where her mother is the cook. When the son of their employee, the successful lawyer Michael Alderson (Franchot Tone) that was raised with her, returns from New York after two years, his family offers a dinner party to family and friends. While serving soup, Sadie hears the comments made by Michael about her boyfriend Tommy Wallace (Gene Raymond), who was fired from the Alderson factory accused of being a dishonest person. Sadie reacts and tells that they are insensitive. Sadie decides to flee with Tommy to New York to get married and find job. They befriend Opal (Jean Dixon) and she takes them to the low- budget boardinghouse where she lives. On the next morning, Sadie leaves the boardinghouse to seek a job and marry her beloved Tommy. But his next room neighbor Dolly Merrick (Esther Ralston) overhears him singing and seduces Tommy to travel with her in an itinerant show business. Sadie prepares to return home, but Opal convinces her to stay and finds a job of dancer in a nightclub. Ten days later, Sadie is helped by an alcoholic costumer to get rid of an abusive one and he invites her to join him at his table. She learns that he is the millionaire Jack Brennan (Edward Arnold) and his friend is Michael Alderson. When Michael patronizes her telling to leave Jack, she is still angry with Michael and stays with Jack that proposes to marry her. She accepts and is seen by the society as a gold-digger. But Sadie is still in love with Tommy. What will happen to her?

"Sadie McKee" is a Pre-Code drama with the story of a working girl in love with a rascal that marries a wealthy girl. The role is perfect for Joan Crawford. The amoral story has a great open conclusion where the viewer needs to guess the birthday wish of Michael. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "Três Amores" ("Three Loves")

Joan Crawford is "Sadie McKee" in this 1934 film also starring Gene Raymond, Edward Arnold, Franchot Tone, and Jean Dixon.

Crawford is the daughter of the cook for the wealthy Alderson family. The young man of the family, Michael (Tone) has obviously fallen for Sadie, but her heart belongs to loser Tommy Wallace (Raymond), who has just been fired for a malfeasance.

Sadie runs off to New York with Tommy, and the two wind up in the rooming house of Mrs. Craney. The next day, they are to be married at City Hall at noon.

However, showgirl Dolly Merrick (Esther Ralston) who also lives at the rooming house, hears Tommy's dulcet tones and convinces him to forget marriage, leave town, and take a job in her traveling show.

Another women rooming at Mrs. Craney's is Opal, who gets Sadie a job at her club. There Sadie meets the filthy rich, drunken Jack Brennan, whom she marries.

It turns out that Jack's drinking has all but destroyed his health. Though Sadie can't stop thinking about Tommy, she is determined to help Jack quit drinking and regain his health.

Pretty good melodrama, with Crawford wearing some fabulous outfits. Esther Ralston was a gorgeous blonde and is a lively Dolly Merrick, and Jean Dixon gives a good performance as Opal.

The debonair Franchot Tone gives a smooth performance as Michael, and Gene Raymond sings and acts pleasantly enough as Tommy, who manages to be likable though he walked out on Sadie.

Crawford made a lot of this type of film -- the working girl who moves up in class -- and they were very popular. She gives an appealing performance, and she was one actress who could look and act like a hard-working girl who came from a slum and also pull off being glamorous and wealthy.

Worth seeing.

I'm a big fan of the Crawford oeuvre, in all its permutations and occasional excesses. That said, her Sadie is refreshingly underplayed and sincere. The mid-Atlantic accent that she tended to is at a minimum here, and there is a fluidity that is in much contrast to the Greek tragic masks, riveting though they are, of some of her later performances. The wonderful Jean Dixon is on hand in a role that is a precursor to Eve Arden's pal of "Mildred Pierce" and "Goodbye My Fancy"--worldly, rueful, self-denigrating. (Mary Phillips took on a similar part in "The Bride Wore Red" several years later.) Esther Ralston does a fine job as the blowsy, sensuous man-stealer--at one point she practically does a Mae West with her intonations and stance. Solid performances also from Franchot Tone and Gene Raymond and the always-reliable, under-appreciated Edward Arnold. The very engaging Earl Oxford appears as "the Stooge" and one wonders why this charmer did not have a film career.

The story is serviceable, and there is a motif of characters' taking responsibility for their lives, and, as best they can, making amends for wrongs. Note that at the start and end of the film there are scenes in which the camera follows a character from one room to the next in such a way that you realize that there is not any real partition between the two rooms--an enjoyable little breaking of the "fourth wall" premise of theater.