Strangers May Kiss

Very of its time and very tailored to its star: A love triangle that mainly allows La Shearer to wear great clothes, hog all the close-ups, emote theatrically, and win all the audience sympathy. Or most of it, because one of the two swains bidding for her is Robert Montgomery, and in the charm department he easily outclasses the competition, Neil Hamilton. The latter mistreats our Norma horribly, doesn't reveal that he's a married man until he's had his way with her (it's a pretty racy movie for its day), neglects and insults her and doesn't give her a chance to explain why she's become a loose woman (it's because he rejected her, the varmint). But she just goes on loving the rat. For an assembly-line early talkie, it features unusually snappy dialogue (John Meehan is one of the unsung heroes of MGM), and of course the Art Deco ambience is luscious. But the plot doesn't go where you want it to (i.e., this Hamilton guy just doesn't deserve the leading lady), and the 70-odd years have revealed Shearer's much-vaunted star quality to be mostly a bag of actressy tricks.

This movie was pure soap opera for 1931 audiences. Today it's rather "talkie" and the moral standards of the film by today's liberal standards are laughable. But the great Norma Shearer is always fun to watch, and Norma never looked better on the screen. Her Adrian designed gowns are breathtaking and she is nothing short of ravishing.

Norma Shearer intrigued and interested me (in an uncanny way) ever since I was kid and my fondness for Classic Hollywood Films began. I first read about her in the late 1970s, but there was not much material available of her. Norma's acting ability and beauty were not much praised, she was permanently "accused" of overacting, but the authors weren't able to deny her immense popularity and star appeal during her heyday. Her charisma was huge.

It is true that in certain moments of specific films, especially talking pictures, she tends to overact and dramatize in excess her reactions, using certain mannerisms or posturing unnaturally. A sad example of this is the interesting "Strange Interlude", flawed, in my opinion among other facts, because of Norma's artificial performance in certain pivotal moments. There are other films in which she is uniformly good, like "Private Lives" (the best comedy of her I have seen to date) and "The Barretts of Wimpole Street" and "Smilin' Through" (ditto two of her best dramatic pictures).

"Strangers May Kiss" on the other hand, is the most Pre-Code film of Norma I have ever seen (and I have seen "The Divorcée", "A Free Soul" and "Riptide"). I also feel that Norma's performance has been unfairly criticized by some reviewers at IMDb.com, who accuse her of posturing and overacting. Well, I just watched this film yesterday and I was positively impressed by Norma's natural acting, for once, almost devoid of overacting, even in the dramatic moments.

Norma plays a modern Bostonian girl who (apparently) neglects marriage as something that kills passion and love. She's absolutely infatuated by the character played by Neil Hamilton. Bob Montgomery knows her since childhood and has always been in love with her. After certain events I won't tell about, Norma gets disillusioned of Hamilton and takes a crack at the wild life in Europe, turning into an outrageously promiscuous woman.

This film is one of the most Pre-Code films I have ever seen, specifically in relation to Norma's character. She's simply unashamedly immoral during her European spree (that lasts two years or more); I could not believe that Norma was allowed to play such an openly, in-your-face sexually voracious (for a while at least) lady (she had her reasons though, justified or not). From this film is that oft-quoted line: "I'm in an orgy wallowing and I love it!" Such (unpunished) behavior would have never-ever been allowed during the Code; Unthinkable.

Norma, Neil Hamilton and Bob Montgomery are good and believable in their respective roles. There is a first rate supporting cast lead by Marjorie Rambeau, Irene Rich and Hale Hamilton. Conchita Montenegro (who starred opposite Leslie Howard in "Never the Twain Shall Meet") plays a sexy Spanish dancer. Karen Morley, Ray Milland and Edward J. Nugent (aka Eddie Nugent) play bit roles.

The print I saw was taped off of TCM USA, but is not very good. I'd like to watch a fine print of this film, but I bet a better one does not exist anymore.

In all a fine and interesting precoder that has been unjustly neglected and underrated.

I give this film a 6 only because it contains the ever elegant Norma Shearer swanning about in those great clothes of the 1930s. The plot borders on the ludicrous......well, maybe I should say the ending is ridiculous but the rest of the film is pretty well done.

Basically, it tells the story of a "modern" woman who believes that marriage is for chumps and proceeds to make a fool of herself over Neil Hamilton(!??!), while her faithful and always tipsy pal Robert Mongomery waits patiently in the wings in hopes of winning her hand. Hamilton is extremely unlikeable and after a long affair with Shearer, he deigns to tell her that he already has a wife in Paris but the marriage doesn't mean a thing. Does she care?....nooooo. But she takes up a life of "loose morality" and globe trots through most of cafe society while never forgetting her love for Hamilton. Robert Montgomery, always close by, pulls her irons out of the fire and brings her back to the United States to start over. Then, in the last few minutes of the film, the story descends to sheer melodrama and unbelievablitly. Who shows up but Hamilton, now divorced, and he and Shearer are seen walking out of the theater on their way to a happy life together. Give me a break!!! The attitude of the main protagonists toward man/woman relationships is rather hard to take in this day and age.......but with that said, it is still worth seeing this pre-Code slice of history. Nobody ever looked better on the screen than Mrs. Thalberg.

This film is profoundly confused about what kind of morality it's embracing.

Norma Shearer plays a modern young woman, having an affair with a dashing foreign correspondent (Neil Hamilton, in his first role with MGM). Her long-time friend Steve (the eternally effervescent Robert Montgomery), who has an inclination towards drink, has been in love with Shearer all their lives, but she won't give him a tumble (she actually uses that hoary old line, "I love you, but I'm not in love with you"). Shearer and Hamilton have no interest in marrying, but prefer their open relationship. Shearer's aunt extols the joy of marriage one evening, but when she sees her husband of 12 years kicking up his heels with a bimbo, she goes home and kills herself.

Shearer and Hamilton head off for Mexico, where Hamilton reveals that he actually has a wife back in Paris (so apparently he DID once believe in marriage...). He leaves for Rio and refuses to take Shearer. She proceeds to sleep her way across Europe in order to drown her grief, which, of course, is one way of dealing with it. Montgomery finds her two years later in Spain where, despite her string of dalliances, he still tries to marry her. But Shearer gets a cable from Hamilton who has now divorced his French wife and is waiting in Paris, willing to marry. By the time Shearer responds, however, Hamilton has heard about her past two years of affairs, and is so repulsed that he never wants to see her again. He claims she should have WAITED for him, DESPITE her not knowing if she would EVER see him again. And...she AGREES. The level of double standard is staggering.

Montgomery, however, STILL wants to marry her. Hamilton claims that a marriage to Shearer would leave him haunted by those "shadows on the wall," but Montgomery says, "What wall?" But Shearer says no. She says, in fact, that his wanting to marry her knowing of her promiscuous past proves that he doesn't actually love her.

A year or so later, Montgomery and Shearer are at the theater, when they run into Hamilton. Time has mellowed him a bit, and he tells Shearer that they belong together. Montgomery watches her go, observing wryly that at least he'll always have a champagne bottle waiting for him.

So, first, let's establish that I'm a huge fan and avid watcher of pre-Code film, and I'm not trying to judge this movie with a 21st-century sensibility. But let's figure out what the film is telling us:

1) marriage isn't necessary if there is true love (Shearer and Hamilton, at the beginning)...2) marriage can only lead to heartbreak, because the man will inevitably cheat (Shearer's aunt and uncle)...3) men can abandon wives and go off with lovers and embrace free love and that's OK (Shearer and Hamilton in Mexico)...4) women can't (Shearer and Hamilton in Paris)...5) men who love women who've had promiscuous pasts don't really love them (Shearer and Montgomery)...6) women should wait forever for the man they love, through all the misunderstandings and rejections, and never ever get involved with anyone else, on the off chance that the man they love will decide they belong together (throughout)...7) a man who wants to marry a woman despite her promiscuous past can't actually love her, although a man who has punished and heaped contempt on said woman and then finally decides he wants to marry her despite it DOES actually love her

Well. This film sends so many mixed signals, you need an air traffic controller.

Interestingly, in the novel on which this film is based, the Shearer character eventually commits suicide after years of waiting in vain for the Hamilton character to return to her. So, the mixed signals may come from the Frankenstein-like effort of fusing a happy-ending head onto the original tragic body.

Montgomery is, as always, charming and natural, which shows up in stark contrast with Shearer's silent-movie-born overacting. You may want to stab yourself in the eye after watching Shearer throw back her head and laugh gaily for the umpteenth time. Hamilton does a serviceable job in a thankless role, but it's always difficult to keep from visualizing Police Commissioner Gordon when he's on screen.

I found this movie almost unbearably frustrating--but that's just me. Others, clearly, were more open to it. But I prefer a film that obeys its own internal logic, no matter how screwy it may be in relation to "reality." "Strangers May Kiss" doesn't carry that off.