Faithless

FAITHLESS is neither a great classic nor an artistic masterpiece nor even a very original story. In simple, straightforward fashion it tracks the downfall of a spoiled heiress (Tallulah Bankhead) ruined by the Depression who struggles between love for an ad executive (Robert Montgomery) and addiction to the high life which she can no longer afford. For a while she manages to sponge off old friends from her social circle but is rejected when it becomes clear to them that she is hopelessly broke. And down and down she goes. Her personal fate parallels that of the economy – from the hedonistic roaring 20's to the sober, desperate 30's. The movie even opens with a series of newspaper headlines tracking the progress of the economic downturn from late '29 until '32 when this plot goes into action.

The chief attraction is Bankhead, who made few films, most of them abysmal. This was one of the good ones. She is coiffed and made up to look like Garbo in GRAND HOTEL. The result is certainly striking from the neck up, though she looks a bit dumpy and ill-at-ease in some of Adrian's more extravagant gowns. No matter. With her distinctive voice, vivid personality, physical agility and polished theatrical diction, she never fails to delight or at least intrigue the viewer and this scenario gives her opportunities to explore a wide range of emotional states. There is nothing original about the fallen woman story, but Tallulah is a true original. She is in particularly fine form delivering witty banter, as in a scene in which she converses with Montgomery's brother (Maurice Murphy), who introduces himself as a metallurgist ("What kind of metal do you urge?") Lines like that roll off Bankhead's tongue with effortless aplomb. Montgomery is his usual spiffy self, delivering a competent, honest performance.

The strains of "St. Louis Blues" rise from the soundtrack as Bankhead contemplates prostitution as a way to get money. That melody was so often used as cinematic code for "prostitute" that someone should take a count.

Faithless is a 1932 weepie that casts Tallulah Bankhead as a carefree rich girl in love with hard-working advertising man, Robert Montgomery. It's her last Hollywood starring role for more than a decade.

Bankhead is great as she goes from playgirl to kept girl to street walker. Montgomery also goes bust and gets sick. There is a happy ending.

Hugh Herbert plays a nasty, noncomic part, Louise Closser Hale plays the landlady, Anna Appel is another landlady, Virginia Howell plays Herbert's jealous wife, Maurice Murphy (just dreadful) plays the younger brother,Henry Kolker is a banker, and Sterling Holloway is a photographer.

This is probably Bankhead's best 30s performance on film.... She is glamorous, slinky, funny, and pathetic all at once. Her drunk scene with Hugh Herbert is excellent as she laughs her throaty laugh even though she is lost and knows it. Montgomery us looser than usual. Herbert is surprisingly effective as the cad. And Hale is hilarious as the cheap landlady. This was the seventh of Bankhead's early talkies and her last til Lifeboat; she had also made 5 silent films.

Faithless is a film about a rich society girl (Tallulah Bankhead) and an average, middle class citizen (Bob Montgomery) who fall in love. The two are at each other's throats though, because each wants to live off the money he or she has. The two do not marry because of this quarrel, and although she loses her money, she lives by borrowing from her wealthy friends and he loses his job and scrounges for jobs during the Depression. Finally, the two meet again, poor and hungry, and decide to marry since they have nothing else to lose. But the Depression gets them down, and an accident forces her to make some tough decisions.

Bankhead is beautiful at first and becomes appropriately harsh as her character loses her money. She is not exotic the way Marlene Dietrich was, but her accent is detectable.

Montgomery is excellent in this movie. His character is consistent and good and perhaps because of this and his five o-clock shadow, he is absolutely gorgeous.

Overall, this is an entertaining pre-code film with a great cast and a few surprises up it's sleeve.

Tallulah Bankhead made her name on the stage and came to Hollywood under contract to MGM. "Faithless" would be her last film until 1944's "Lifeboat."

Bankhead's particular style of acting was not effective on film, and it was probably because of the way she was cast. In "Lifeboat," she's perfect - Hitchcock wanted "the most oblique, incongruous person imaginable in such a situation."

Actually, part of her role in "Faithless" fits that description also, but this time, it works against her. Bankhead plays an heiress intending to marry Robert Montgomery. When he insists that they live on his salary, she walks out.

She soon learns that she's flat broke and, after borrowing from everyone she knows, gets a sugar daddy, leaving him when Montgomery comes back in her life. Both broke, the two marry and struggle to keep going.

As one would suspect, Bankhead is great as the heiress but not quite believable when she's poverty stricken trying to get work in a coffee shop. She lacked the vulnerability of a Constance Bennett or the sadness of a Kay Francis.

The film, however, is a very good depiction of life in the depression. This was no MGM romantic comedy or fantasy film. When her husband is injured, the Bankhead character turns to prostitution. The best scene in the film is between her and the landlady, who realizes what she's about to do.

Robert Montgomery plays one of depression's many unlucky - what jobs he gets, he loses because the companies close, and he's finally attacked on the job by employees who feel threatened. Through it all, he keeps his dignity and hope.

Both actors were young stars who were put into this film probably for contractual reasons. They're good, but they're both too elegant and classy to make parts of this film work the way they were supposed to.

Bankhead, however, has some wonderful dialogue that she delivers with aplomb, and it's great to see her before the smoking, drugs, and booze got to her face.

Some of this plays melodramatically, and there's a particularly odious performance by Maurice Murphy as Montgomery's brother. But "Faithless" is an intriguing look at the desperation caused by the depression, and Bankhead is fascinating to watch.

For most of the 1930s MGM scarcely noticed there was a Depression going on, suffocating its films in production values and stars. But this fairly ludicrous soap opera starts Tallulah Bankhead out in Art Deco trappings and flouncy evening gowns and sends her down, down, down the social ladder, from high-priced mistress to woman of the streets. It's all for the love of Robert Montgomery, on a less precipitous but still steep downward path (he starts out as a $20,000-a-year ad man, a fortune in 1932, and becomes an unfortunate scab truck driver). Tallulah gets to laugh her throaty laugh and break mirrors and throw tantrums, but you see why she didn't become a movie star: It's not an expressive movie face, and the voice, fascinating as it is, hasn't much variety. Plus, this sort of part was so familiar -- think Ruth Chatterton, Kay Francis, Constance Bennett -- that one suspects audiences tired of it. Despite the ridiculous plot conveniences and unconvincing happy ending, it's a frank film coming from this studio, and the dialog has moments of sharpness. Hugh Herbert is good in an Edward Arnold kind of role, and Tallulah's something to see and hear, even if another throaty laugh or "dahling" is always just around the corner.