Bachelor Apartment

Lowell Sherman plays wealthy businessman and playboy Wayne Carter who is juggling lots of women. He's not just NOT the marrying kind, he actively uses them and loses them. The easier they are to get the quicker he loses them as it seems the chase is 90% of the thrill for him. Then he meets a woman he cannot get - stenographer Helene Andrews (Irene Dunne). He can't tempt her with nice things, and he can't sweet talk her with his obvious come-ons. So he hires her as an executive secretary at his firm, and even that takes some talking for her to believe that this is anything but what it looks like - a long con attempt to get into her pants.

But then Carter starts to truly fall for Helene. The problem is that he, as part of his long con, has been extremely open about his love life and so any abrupt change in him would be eyed very suspiciously by Helene. The most complicating factor is an old flame of Carter's (Mae Murray) who married a rich man in his circle but who has decided that she wants to stay married to the rich guy but pick up her sex life with Carter where they left off before the marriage. And she's not averse to showing up unannounced at his penthouse, undressing, and jumping into his bed to wait for him. Complications ensue.

Subplots involve Dunne's showbiz sister (Claudia Dell) who, unlike Dunne's character, doesn't have a problem with sleeping her way to the top. Sherman had a breezy delivery of lines and a rapid-fire, almost overlapping way of doing dialog that seems very modern. You also get the feeling he ad libs constantly. The real curiosity here is Murray who was 45+ but is dressed like a woman in her 20s with an odd baby-talk way of speaking. It really is outrageous. Purnell Pratt plays Murray's husband who has murderous intent if he ever finds out who it is that his wife is seeing behind his back.

This was Irene Dunne's third feature film role, and it's not often you would see her pop up in a pre-code film, even with her usual virtuous persona.

We open on an bachelor apartment. We know this, because the place is trashed and littered with glasses, champagne bottles, cigarette butts, and something that looks like cigarettes all over the place, from the night before. We also know this, because this is aptly named "Bachelor Apartment." The bachelor in question is Lowell Sherman, whose other screen credits include What Price Hollywood?, the original "A Star is Born" movie, and his silent movies where he usually played the villain with the pencil-thin mustache. Here, he tries to stop playing the game, after finding it very tiresome having to keep track of who comes and goes through his revolving door. But it seems he decided just this morning. It makes the viewer wonder if this decision is one he makes all the time. But, in the meantime, the, er, um, ladies, yes well, they don't know of his conversion to sainthood and still show up unannounced, notably Mae Murray, in an unforgettable and saucy role, who can be seen in one scene in a see-through nightgown. Really! You can see.... Her husband suspects she's cheating and it's driving him crazy, He's going to find the @#$*& or die trying. Meanwhile, through a series of events, Irene Dunne enters the picture as a stenographer who doesn't like fast workers for bosses. He dares her to take this well-paying job, which she does. Will she fall for his charming ways? Will Irene's clean reputation rub off on him and make him see the light? Only I know, and you've got to see this very well-written and racy Pre-Code movie to find out.

I really don't know why Mae Murray didn't continue on with her film career. She's quite sexy in this RKO picture. I first saw this in a crystal clear copy on the old AMC cable channel. A number of Lowell Sherman films, of which he either directed, starred in or both have shown up on AMC in newly struck prints in the past. This being a far cry from the old C&C television released prints of the 50s & 60s which were murky at best. This movie is basically another situation/drawing room type of comedy of which Sherman was showing so much adeptness at. Hopefully, this like Royal Bed, will show up on DVD in that nice print more or less. Mae Murray plays a sassy character similar to those then being played by the younger Jean Harlow over at the MGM. Having been a silent star Murray's voice modulated acceptably and her cross over to sound wasn't as harsh as let's say John Gilbert or Clara Bow. Then again Murray had been a stage performer(like Sherman) & Ziegfeld girl prior to entering silents in 1916 so she was no stranger to dialogue. Her silent movie sexiness & vivacity is toned down here but is in evidence notably in the bedroom scene. The bedroom scene is particularly striking as Murray wears a gown that can only be described as being 'nearly diaphanous'. She walks towards the door after calling for Sherman's character and her still fine figure at 42 is very much in shape. Irene Dunne is so much less sexy than Murray even though she's ten years younger. Dunne is already looking schoolmarmish years before her major successes with Cary Grant later in the decade. I must confess that I watched & liked this for Sherman's directing & acting and most of all for Murray's appearance. Having seen her beautiful face in so many silent film stills I wanted to see her in an actual movie(she also appeared in Sherman's next movie and her last titled HIGH STAKES). I really don't know why Mae Murray didn't continue on with talkies. She was delectable and still quite beautiful and even more beautiful than some of the up-n-coming new stars. Watching Mae Murray in a talkie one sees that she's a beautiful concoction of Jean Harlow & Mae West at best. She certainly could've adapt to talkies' situation-dramas or comedies. This being in contrast to her over the top silent film fantasy queen image such as in THE MERRY WIDOW or CIRCE THE ENCHANTRESS. Though beautiful as she was in those silents. But more than likely Mae sensing that she was aging and that talkie picture making environment certainly changed from the freedom of the silents chose to bow out like many a silent star. Also her fabled temperament with directors like Stroheim & Von Sternberg hampered her employment chances with the studios as she aged and that reputation she couldn't shake. Her later life after these early talkies was quite sad as she lived in poverty and perhaps seclusion ending up in obscurity before her passing in 1965. Something similar to Clara Bow whose crossover to sound was more harrowing. Curiously, Mae Murray was offered the now famous role of Norma Desmond first before it went to Gloria Swanson. Perhaps the role hit too close to home for the then 60 year old Murray with lines like "...we had faces then" a quote from when Norma is referring to bygone silent stars. But of Mae's few films(silent or sound)that are even shown on cable or television BACHELOR APARTMENT appears very occasionally on Turncer Classics and usually in the dead of night. Hopefully there's a revival of Lowell Sherman & Mae Murray performances and their talkies together BA & HIGH STAKES along with Sherman's THE PAYOFF and Mae's talkie debut PEACOCK ALLEY(she also did a silent of this) can be released on DVD.

Lowell Sherman was a star and director of silent films and talkies until his death in 1934. His best-remembered films are probably Way Down East (1920) and What Price Hollywood? (1932). In Bachelor Apartment he stars as a rich New York playboy who seems to have an endless parade of women going through his apartment. At one point he tells is butler (Charles Coleman) that he is "going hunting" and returns with a silly woman (Noel Francis) with whom he dallies until prim Irene Dunne comes hunting for her sister. Funny and risqué, this film deals rather openly about sexuality, teasing, infidelity, and "getting what you want." Sherman and Dunne are terrific as the sparring boss and steno, but Mae Murray bizarrely steals the several scenes she is in. Murray, a silent-film queen of the teens and 20s, made only 3 talkies. At age 40, she's still trying to be the sex goddess and comes off as being unlikely and unlikable. Murray affects a baby lisp and vamps and saunters about. She looks pretty good but she seems very otherworldly.

Claudia Dell is annoying as the dumb sister, Ivan Lebedeff plays a dancer, Norman Kerry (also a silent star) plays a producer, Bess Flowers is the woman who lost her necklace, Lee Phelps is the cop, and Arline Judge is one of the secretaries.

Dunne was always good, and Sherman has a terrific comic roue act that always borders on being quite gay. But watch him closely in this film (which he also directed) and study his comic timing and the pacing of his comebacks. The dialog is snappy and suggestive. Coleman and Francis are also very good indeed.

Lowell Sherman, who also directed Katharine Hepburn in Morning Glory) is long forgotten but certainly deserves to be remembered as a wonderful actor and fine director.

Back before the newer, tougher Production Code was enacted in July, 1934, films were often quite bawdy--far bawdier than most folks today would expect. While nudity was rare (but NOT unheard of), topics like homosexuality, promiscuity, infidelity and even abortion were talked about in Hollywood films. While not among the more risqué films of the day, "Bachelor Apartment" is very Pre-Code in its sensibilities!

Wayne Carter (Lowell Sherman--who also directed this film) is an unabashed womanizer and playboy. He uses a wide variety of pickup lines and routines to get women to sleep with him and in this Pre- Code world, the women are more than eager to oblige. However, when he meets a nice lady, Helene (Irene Dunne), he has second thoughts about his life. While he loves the hot sex, he starts to realize that he's missing out on something. So, to be near Helene, he hires her to be his secretary and through most of the film admires her without telling her he loves her. Does this dirty old man have a prayer with Helene? And, is he capable of changing to get her?

I liked this film. Sherman was a terrific actor and if he hadn't died so young, he'd probably be remembered today--both for his stage and screen work. It talks about the old double-standard and exposes both the positive side (it can be fun) and negative (ultimately, it's rather lonely) without being preachy or heavy-handed. Well worth seeing.