Primrose Path

The novel upon which this is based centers on the mother figure, but the Broadway play and film version instead emphasize the growing pains of the oldest daughter. RKO has cast Marjorie Rambeau as the mother and Ginger Rogers as the daughter.

The story is told in simple, straightforward fashion. We glimpse the young woman's desire to break away from a cycle of poverty, as well as attempts to distance herself from her mother. Life changes dramatically when she embarks on a romance with a local restaurateur (Joel McCrea), but due to a set of circumstances beyond her control, she finds herself following her mother's path as a prostitute.

While this is largely a vehicle for Rogers' talents, it is Rambeau that gives a most extraordinary performance as the one whose choices catch up to her in dramatic fashion. Rambeau previously played a destitute mother forced into sin in MGM's Min and Bill, and in this picture, she is revisiting familiar emotional territory.

Rogers and McCrea previously costarred in Chance at Heaven, also for RKO.

"Primrose Path," directed by a famous drunkard, is the tale of a family made dysfunctional by a drunkard. Director Gregory LaCava knew his subject down to his fingertips; in her memoirs Ginger Rogers, star of the film, describes LaCava on the set, holding an ever-present tea cup filled with gin. Here he embarks on a profound meditation of relationships, and of evil, and of good. This 1940 production has been largely dismissed by critics. They are nearly unanimous in their gross failure to grasp La Cava's stroke of genius.

The characters circle each other and swirl together and apart to paint a vignette of a thoroughly wrecked family, finely brushed by actors compelled by LaCava to perform at a very high level.

Miles Mander, as Homer Adams, gives a masterful performance as an intellectual lost to the bottle. His jerky movements reveal a bandy-legged drunkard who spends his life in his bedroom scribbling about Ancient Greece or prostrate upon his bed in a stupor, muscles atrophied and willpower shattered. He has abdicated his role as head of the family to his mother-in-law and bitterly resents his own weakness.

In what is surely one of the most vile creatures ever committed to film, Queenie Vassar portrays this de facto matriarch, a scathing, baleful old prostitute who works relentlessly towards her goal; to corrupt her daughter and her grand-daughters into depravity - to follow her down the Primrose Path.

Her daughter Mamie, played by Marjorie Rambeau, trapped in a hopeless marriage to a drunkard, has succumbed to Grandma's demands and provides for the family the only way she can. She looks at the world with weary, defeated eyes, and with a wisdom that can be obtained in no other way. The wide difference in ages between Mamie's two daughters suggests a scandal. Homer's outrage at his wife's behavior only fuels his alcoholism. Mamie is a classic enabler. She provides the money for the drink he uses to put out the fires of his scalding shame, by cavorting with other men. All the while Grandma looms, a harpy stooping to gnaw and rip at the prostrate institution of the family.

Grandma's deceit and lies pervade the atmosphere of the hovel and the granddaughters both learn at her knee how to lie and to deceive. The younger girl, knowing only the toxic culture of her family, is raised in Grandma's image and there seems little hope in her future. The older granddaughter, Ellie May Adams played by Ginger Rogers, has had a sadly neglected upbringing. Yet she clearly has a strong character and a knowledge of another kind of household - perhaps reflecting the Adams' life before they descended into depravity.

But Ellie May is not immune to the effects of her dysfunctional family. When she escapes Primrose Hill for the coast on an expedition to gather clams, she meets Ed Wallace, played by Joel McCrea. Ed is something new in Ellie's little circle. He isn't rich, but he's clearly honorable and hard working. There is an air of confidence and life about him, of hope. Ellie May promptly shows that she has learned a great deal from Grandma in the ways of lying and deceit. She has considerable abilities for manipulation and co-dependence, but at the same time we see a haunting hunger in her, for human warmth and honesty. The way she manipulates Ed while at the same time showing a sensitive and simple and honest love for him and his Uncle draws the viewer into her personality and her world.

The dialect heard in this film is all but extinct today, but it is a perfect example of the pot pourri of languages of the Dust Bowl Midwest, South, and West all driven together in the vanished California of the Great Depression. To hear this dialect, listen to interviews of Woody Guthrie, or to very early Merle Haggard. Rogers knew all those regions, had lived in them, and breathed in these dialects during her years in vaudeville. Ginger's portrayal of Ellie May Adams reveals one of the most complex characters in film.

There is a deep understanding of character in the performances of Ginger Rogers. Watch the unsure, hesitant, naive Ellie May bravely entering the Blue Bell to clumsily strut for Joel McCrea, and compare her to the sheer rock star charisma of Ginger Rogers working the burlesque catwalk as Lilly Linda in "Upperworld," or again with the elegant and stylish women of "Top Hat" or "Gay Divorcee".

Yet there is more here to tell than simply to describe the masterpiece of a gin-soaked genius, or one of the greatest performances of one of the greatest actresses.

With this film, Ginger Rogers - and her studio, putting it all on the line for her - took the biggest career risk of any major actor in the entire Golden Era of Hollywood. No other actor at the peak of their stardom ever took on such a role, and no other top actor moved so far out of their established screen persona. Certainly no studio in the era of block-booking ever put their greatest star in a role like Ellie May Adams. This was truly risk-taking for stakes and believing in your star.

Arguably Rogers reached the summit of her career with this astonishing tone poem of deceit, despair, and the redemption of love.

It was fun seeing Virginia McMath a.k.a.Ginger Rogers at age 29. As I watched this film on Turner Classic Movies I saw a resemblance and body language very much like Doris Day's. Bubbly!! I found the film interesting because here Hollywood was, back in 1940, handling the theme of prostitution which is handled quite differently today. I'd say in 1940 it was done tastefully compared to the trash we see today.

Joel McCrea was the same mild mannered, easy going type that made him famous while the film was stolen by meddlesome witchy Queenie Vassar playing Ginger's maternal grandmother and Miles Mander playing Ginger's highly intelligent has-been drunk father once well acquainted with Greek philosophy.

This is one of Gregory La Cava's last pictures and doesn't seem to be very well known. Film critic Andrew Sarris didn't seem to think much of it in his book The American Cinema, and rates it as one of his lower pictures. I never would of watched this movie before until i discovered how great Ginger Rogers was and now i want to watch all her films. Rogers plays a poor girl who lives in the slums with a drunk father, a prostitute for a mother and some other relatives. Rogers has no interest in guys until she meets Joel McCrea at a restaurant and they wind up married. She lies about her family to him and it causes some problems between them. Ginger Rogers is good as usual and Joel McCrea is very good as the husband.

This entire production, from beginnng to end, was to me letter perfect. The story, the actors, all of the dialogue and the realistic performance was magnificient. One actor in particular, that being Joan Carrol, stood out above all else. She was truly a scene stealer! What a gem!