Mexicali Rose

Sam Hardy runs a gambling joint just over the Mexican border. He's married to Barbara Stanwyck, and crazy about her, but while he's out of town visiting his ward, William Janney, she steps out on him. He throws her out, but she comes back, only now she's married to Janney.

It's an early and earthy pre-code movie, directed by Erle Kenton for Columbia. There are some nice aspects to it, especially Stanwyck at her pre-code depth. However, the sound system is still unfamiliar enough to Kenton that he lets the actors have their heads, and they talk loud and emphatically, making sure their words are clear against the background hiss. Stanwyck has a few quiet moments that presage her coming mastery of screen acting, but the movie's strength is that it is so open and shocking about sex.

In a few years, Joe Breen would shut down overt sexuality in the movies. That would mean less frank handling of subjects when appropriate, but also clamp down when not. Eventually the writers and producers would adjust to the new dicta, and learn that a wink and a nod can be even more titillating than nudity, and that putting one past the censors was an art in itself

In her second sound feature Barbara Stanwyck is still struggling to find her acting chops. Showing more of her derrière than her talent in Mexicali Rose there are a few hints this woman would become one of film's all time great seductresses.

Down Mexico way old Happy Manning has carved out life for himself running a casino. Loved by the locals for his generosity he's smitten with wife Rose (Stanwyck) a full time flirt and adulterer. When he catches her fooling around with his head croupier he sends her packing and keeps the croupier. When she does return it's with his younger brother Bob as her latest victim.

Mexicali Rose demands a lot of amnesia on the part of its characters as Rose roars back into town expecting everybody to play dumb around her character transformation or getting Bob up to speed. Yet the man-eater turned wide eyed innocent is soon duping Bob and back at the casino playing the seduction game.

This would be Stanwyck's last defenseless little girl role before embarking on a half century of strong women roles that would arguably make her the finest film actress of the 20th Century. What is missing is the maturity and professional seasoning that would begin in her next film Ladies of Leisure and be fully evident by Baby Face (33). In Mexicali Rose she's no Phyllis Dietrich but there are clear signs she was the girl capable of filling that fatales shoes.

According to Axel Madsen's biography of Barbara Stanwyck this third film of her's and first for Columbia Pictures was one she hated. It's far from her worst film but it definitely is mediocre.

Nevertheless we see some flashes of Stanwyck as a temptress in training, a bit of a preview of her bad girl roles later on for which she won such acclaim.

Stanwyck is married to Sam Hardy owner of a casino in a Mexican border town. Hardy gives Babs the heave ho when he catches her stepping out. Back up north Stanwyck meets William Janney who specialized in callow youth roles and he's one naive football hero who gets the facts of life taught him.

Hardy seems determined to keep his kid naive for reasons I can't explain. But he gets he shock of his life when Janney brings Stanwyck in tow as his blushing new bride.

The plot really makes no sense and Stanwyck gets no direction. Still for Stanwyck completists, a must.

This early talkie is a benchmark for really understanding the amazing range Barbara Stanwyck had as an actress. Fans of her other films of this period know and expect her to be cast as the poor but honest underdog, "doing the right thing". What a departure from that formula her Rose Manning is.

"Happy" Manning, Rose's husband, opens the film by returning to his Mexican hotel/casino. Warmly welcomed, he greets friends and staff. Upon entering his room, [the 22-year-old Stanwyck gives a dazzling, introduction close-up] he presents wife Rose with a diamond anklet. "Oh, you put it on, Happy" smolders Rose. He does, and notices his wife's legs are bruised. Rose then pulls her dressing gown past her knees, blaming a dressing table that needs moved. When "Happy" obliges, he discovers a tie that belongs to the casino manager. Confronting the pair, he correctly surmises his wife's transgression and tells her to leave. At this point, Rose's syrupy denials peel off like the veneer on cheap furniture. "I've been kicked out of better places than this." "Happy" keeps his remorseful Joe at his job and Rose disappears, explained away by newspaper clippings.

The main body of the film begins when "Happy"'s young ward, Bob, arrives for a honeymoon with his new wife, Rose! Stanwyck then provides a jaw-dropping dual character that is just outrageous by any era's standards.

I initially voted 7 for this film as it IS short (my copy 59 mins) and suffers from decomposed stock footage of a football game. Several days after viewing it, I told a friend familiar with Stanwyck's Capra-guided "Ladies Of Leisure" and "Forbidden" about it. "Oh! I've GOT to see that", said she. I realized, then, that this film is really unforgettable. Today I came back to raise my vote to 8. Refreshingly frank, Barbara's 2nd talkie and her third film is something that all should enjoy.

... and for that reason alone it is worth seeing for any fan of Stanwyck. It is her second credited role after "The Locked Door" from the same year, and she just leaps off the screen with vitality compared to the other players, who actually, are not half bad. The thing is, they are one note players. Within minutes you know Happy (Sam Hardy), who plays her first husband, is a straight shooter in spite of some of his questionable businesses, his word is his bond, and he is nobody's fool. Likewise, his wide eyed ward, Bob (William Janney) spends the whole film being a prototype of Robin of the 1960's Batman show. It's "gosh" this, and "gee whiz" that, and he is completely naive and never wises up, yet he is the apple of Happy's Eye.

As for Babs as Rose, you never know who she really is, because she has you believing her at every turn, you believe she loves Hap, then you believe she just may love Dick, then you believe she loves nobody when she meets a stranger in a bar and goes as far as you could on film in 1929 for signaling someone that you are sexually available.

The ending is contrived - it has her character doing something she would never do...on purpose anyways. It's definitely worth an hour of your time. Watch it and realize that from the beginning, Barbara Stanwyck was "positively the same dame". Highly recommended.