-But the Flesh Is Weak

A couple of penniless gentlemen - father & son - would probably prefer not to have to live off the money of wealthy women -BUT THE FLESH IS WEAK...

Full of rather sophisticated, pre-Code dialogue, this sadly obscure film of romantic misadventures among the British upper crust should come as an enjoyable surprise to viewers looking for witty words & fine performances.

Robert Montgomery fits in perfectly with the tenor of this production. Dapper & handsome, with just the faintest tinge of scurrility about his demeanor, he fills the part quite nicely, while making it easy for the viewer to comprehend the type of mindset this sort of charming charlatan needs to survive socially.

Two excellent actresses play the women in Montgomery's life; both, unfortunately, are seldom remembered or recalled in Hollywood's histories. English Heather Thatcher is very touching as the lonely, monocled daughter of a duke; her unrequited adoration of Montgomery is quite palpable. Austro-Hungarian Nora Gregor is beautiful & slightly mysterious as the Viennese widow who captures Montgomery's gigolo heart; her confused hesitation in surrendering to his blandishments is both very human & utterly delightful.

Wizened Edward Everett Horton scores as a perplexed, suspicious lord who desperately wants Miss Gregor's love. Wonderful old Sir C. Aubrey Smith is nothing less than terrific as Montgomery's elderly roué of a father, constantly on the lookout for another rich widow to buy him supper. Smith was one of Hollywood's most distinguished actors - and his talent was never more on display than in the sequence here where his character discovers the awful consequences to personal honour of incurring an unpayable gambling debt.

Silent screen matinee idol Nils Asther enlivens the last few minutes of the film, playing a rakish prince. Eva Moore & Frederick Kerr are very humorous as elderly aristocrats. Movie mavens will recognize an unbilled Ray Milland as a young man at Miss Thatcher's party.

This film has an impressive pedigree, based, as it is, on The Truth Game, a popular London stage play by Welshman Ivor Novello (1893-1951). One of the United Kingdom's biggest celebrities, Novello was a phenomenally successful stage & screen actor, composer & playwright. Brought to California by MGM in the very early 1930's, he spent a good deal of time waiting for the Studio to find a suitable American film project for him. Novello eventually wrote the continuity & dialog for -BUT THE FLESH IS WEAK, which would be one of the few substantial outcomes of his brief Hollywood sojourn.

A 1930s movie with Robert Montgomery and C. Aubrey Smith - how cool is that? Not very, as it turns out. Smith and Montgomery are father and son scoundrels who live off wealthy women. At first they are somewhat charming and their close relationship is nice to see. Although the Smith character (nicknamed "Senior" by his son) does maintain a modicum of this charm to the movie's end, the Montgomery character, Max, does not. That he soon into the movie shows his arrogance and obvious disdain for women is not particularly surprising but his downright meanness and callousness is. He sexually harasses and stalks Rosine Brown (and the script makes it clear that she loves it!). At the end of the film she says something like "I didn't know you loved me until you hit me." Maybe I misheard this line as by then I had lost interest in this movie but I don't think I did. The only interesting and positive character in the film was that played by Heather Thatcher, Lady Joan Culver. She, of course, is used and completely humiliated by Max. What makes this a truly horrid movie is that those watching it in the 1930s evidently thought it was an amusing romantic comedy.

I'm a big fan of Robert Montgomery, whom I think paired best with Norma Shearer. In his early dashing leading man roles, he's like a princely powder puff, smelling of lavender. In this movie, "But the Flesh Is Weak," he's a sticking rose. Like a bee after honey, he pesters Nora Gregor in frame after frame. The movie became too sickly sweet for me midway, and I was wishing for more scenes with Montgomery and Sir C. Aubrey Smith, who plays his gambling father, surprisingly far more dashing than Montgomery in this film. My guess is that another viewing might be more pleasant. Nora Gregor and Heather Thatcher deliver solid performances and are dressed beautifully. Nils Asther plays an even bigger powder puff in this movie, but he's a delight.

This film is a fine example, I believe, of the many, many, many mediocre films in which the so-called "bright stars" of the past participated in.

Not unlike today, the VAST majority of Classic Hollywood's film productions were very dull and uninspired affairs; the comedies were often unfunny and the dramas were undramatic. Today, film festivals, universities and cable TV (TCM & AMC) generally display the best of the best from the Golden Years, so today's viewers becomes bias towards imagining that most of Classic Hollywood's films were indeed "classic." That, of course, is far from the truth. "But the Flesh is Weak" is a fine case in point.

It is a slightly enjoyable bit of fluff. Montgomery is well cast, but has little to do and a weak script with which to do it. C. Aubrey Smith is, well, C. Aubrey Smith--good as ever, but no surprises. Nora Gregor tries hard but falls flat. I tried to like her character, but in the end I couldn't see why most men would pant after this girl. Strangely, Heather Thatcher has a much stronger and interesting character, and she nails her "Lady Joan" nicely. When Thatcher was on the screen, I enjoyed the film much more. At times, Thatcher and Ann Harding could be confused as sisters.

So, sit back for a scant 77 minutes (they could've knocked 10 minutes off the running time), and see what a mediocre film from the pre-Code era with a big star was like. Today we pay hundreds of millions of dollars for so much mediocre nonsense on our movie screens, so why not check out this minor film from 1932.

Again, it isn't bad, but it will not receive many accolades.

C. Aubrey Smith and Robert Montgomery star in But The Flesh Is Weak which is a screen adaption of one of Ivor Novello's plays The Truth Game which was one of his minor works. Major enough however to get a respectable run of 107 performances in 1931 during the middle of the Depression. Probably because the author himself starred on Broadway during the run.

Ivor Novello was as Noel Coward, a one man creative force. Wrote, composed, acted in many of his own works. It might have really been worthwhile to see him in this, but Hollywood being what it is demanded a movie box office name. So Robert Montgomery as he did with Noel Coward's Private Lives filled the bill for MGM again.

No music in this one, Smith and Montgomery are not a pair of the most heroic of people, they're a father and son pair of con artists who prey on wealthy women of different generations. As it inevitably does, true love enters the picture, but some overwhelming financial considerations may have to take precedence.

C. Aubrey Smith cast against type, usually he's one of the most righteous of individuals on screen gets the acting honors here. At all costs he has to keep up appearances. The highlight is him making one too many passes at the gaming tables. If you remember in the Frank Capra film A Hole In The Head, Frank Sinatra gets caught in the same trap trying to impress Keenan Wynn at the dog track. It worked out in different fashion for both men.

It takes a considerable amount of charm to make these characters likable and Montgomery had that even in his worst films. I doubt we'll see a remake in these times of But The Flesh Is Weak. It's an interesting between the World Wars period piece though.