Are You Listening?

Is it possible to combine a soap opera, a send-up and a melodrama in one neat little package? That was no problem at MGM back in 1932. The sudsy part is devoted to three sisters, the "good girl" who's madly in love with a married man, the playgirl who stays out all night boozing and the wide-eyed kid who can't tell a marriage proposal from a con job. The satire is set at a radio station where the lovers, scriptwriter William Haines and actress Madge Evans, work with an inept sound effects man, a lovelorn crooner and mindless sponsors of ludicrous products. As for the melodrama, that's provided by Karen Morley as Haines' hellion of a wife who pays dearly for her continual nagging. Watch "Are You Listening?" and you'll realize how radically movies changed within the next few years.

William Haines, usually a leading man in light romantic comedies in silents and early talkies, has become a bit of a cult figure because his career may have ended because he refused to give up what for those days was a fairly open gay lifestyle, even if not known to the general public. Then again, he just may have outgrown that type of role and his career would have ended anyway. Don't feel bad, he became a renowned interior decorator to the stars.

In this, his last big film, it looks like the studio wanted to put him in a more serious role but couldn't quite decide if the film was a comedy, a romance, a soap opera, or something darker.

It's pre-code in the way the sympathy is tilted toward his relationship with his girl friend and away from his shrewish wife, who seems to have no function in life but to be frigid, criticize everything he does, and demand money.

The plot revolves more around the girl friend and her two sisters and their love lives. Most of the plot strands end up unresolved or resolved in unconvincingly lame fashion.

Not terrible but mostly for those like myself who find most pre-code films interesting for their style and historic interest, even the lesser ones.

In one of his final films for MGM, William Haines seems rather subdued here in a film that starts out as a romantic comedy/drama but then turns into a murder melodrama. If nothing else, this film proves that Haines could play it "straight" and not always fall back on his "silly billy" character.

Haines plays a radio writer married to (but separated from) a sullen and greedy woman (Karen Morley) while he romances a co-worker (Madge Evans). Morley will not give up her meal ticket and bleeds Haines of everything he's got. But after he loses his job, Morley goes berserk and is accidentally killed.

In a subplot, Evans' roommate (Anita Page) who works at the radio station, takes in her kid sister (Joan Marsh) who goes wild in the big city and gets involved with older men (Jean Hersholt, Neil Hamilton).

In a neat twist, the radio, which is at first seen as a mindless form of entertainment, spoofed via the hokey shows Haines writes, turns deadly as a ruthless newspaper man (John Miljan) uses the radio to persecute and hunt down Haines after the death of his wife.

It seems like two films combined into one in a minor MGM film, but there are some interesting themes here. The ending is quite surprising.

As always, Haines is terrific. Evans and Page are solid here as is Morley as the nasty wife. Co-stars include Wallace Ford, Hattie McDaniel, Ethel Griffies, Herman Bing, Louise Carter, and Charley Grapewin.

The title comes from the catchphrase of early radio star Tony Wons.

For those of you who are expecting to see smirky and smart alecky William Haines in Are You Listening you will be in for a shock. Haines is subdued and serious and a result looks a bit lost in the part of an unhappily married radio writer. He would like to get married to Madge Evans a cute and perky young thing. He's asked for a divorce from Karen Morley.

Morley is the one who really carries this film. She puts some real bite into the part. Her answer to Haines is, I'll stay married to you until you get a good enough job with a big enough salary so I can get some decent alimony to live on. A woman like that, I'll bet you could have heard the hisses outside the theater from the audience when Morley offered those sentiments.

It all ends rather badly in this pre-Code melodrama for some in the cast. Think of the Dr. Crippen case from the United Kingdom and you will know.

This was a particularly enjoyable film for both the parts taking place in the radio studio and those taking place in the bachelorette apartment occupied by the three sisters. Additionally, Haines gave a totally convincing performance, both slightly comical and then quite serious, throughout the film.

However, contributors should pay more attention to what they are watching or learn a bit more about old time Hollywood. The following are needed corrections to the comments of mark.waltz posted only within the last month: 1) Joan Marsh did not play the 'horrendous wife' he refers to; Karen Morley did. 2) Karen Morley did not play the 'girlfriend'; Madge Evans did. 3)"Morley's" (actually "Evans's") younger sister does NOT "end up pregnant by a wealthy playboy" (she has simply had sex with him a night or two before in the belief that marriage was in the cards,and is ashamed of herself); 4) Felix Bressart is NOT in the film; the contributor may have meant Herman Bing, but Bressart did not even arrive in the U.S. until seven years after this film had been issued! 5) Hattie "McDaniels" should be Hattie "McDaniel".