Long Lost Father

LONG LONG FATHER (RKO Radio, 1934), directed by Ernest B. Schoendsack, best known for adventure/ jungle settings as THE MOST DANGEROUS GAME (1932), KING KONG (1933) and THE SON OF KONG (1933), attempts something entirely different from his usual directorial style. Taken from a novel by G.P. Stern, the story deals mostly about a bitterness between father and daughter who meet again after many years. Hardly sentimental in the silent melodrama perspective, this slight comedy-drama that relies more on the surprise presence of John Barrymore assuming the leading role.

Plot Summary: Set in England, Lindsey Lane (Helen Chandler), is an English entertainer engaged to Bill Strong (Donald Cook), an American physician who wants to take his future bride back with him to America. Lindsey, abandoned by her father when she was a child and raised by her now deceased mother, happens to be the daughter of Carl Bellair (John Barrymore), soldier of fortune, adventurer and correspondent with a passion for liquor. He has joined partnership with Sir Anthony Gelding (Alan Mowbray), manager of a cafe called The Happy Hour, where Carl mostly mingles with the guests. Though Lindsey Lane (her stage name) and Carl both know of each other's existence, they want nothing to do with one another. Eventually their paths meet again in a lawyer's (Ferdinand Gottschalk) office after receiving a letter to attend the reading of the will to the sole survivors of Aunt Arabella, leaving them with very little. Against his wishes, Carl finds himself, upon request by Gelding, to hire Lindsey to entertain at the Happy Hour floor show. She takes the job knowing her father doesn't want her there. Following her performance, Bill leaves to attend a maternity case. In his absence, Lindsey joins the company of Gelding and company. As Bill returns for Lindsey, Carl tells him she left with Gelding and his high society friends to attend a function elsewhere. Because of her association with Gelding and ignoring her performing duties at the Happy Hour, Carl steps in to get Lindsey away from bad company and back to Bill. During a "Treasure Hunt" game with Bill, Lindsey is later accused of theft of gambling winnings by Gelding, which complicates matters with her career. Others in the cast are E.E. Clive ("Spot" Hawkins); Reginald Sharland (Lord Vinya); Natalie Moorehead (Phyllis Mersey-Royas); Charles Irwin (Mr. Chisholm); with Claude King, Doris Lloyd, Phyllis Barry and Tempe Piggot.

For a John Barrymore movie, LONG LOST FATHER is a surprisingly short 63 minutes, with a routine plot that plays more like a second feature/ "B" movie than any of his previous major productions. Helen Chandler, best known today for her role as Mina in DRACULA (Universal, 1931) opposite Bela Lugosi, is the focal point here, having more scenes than Barrymore. Chandler even gets to sing and dance to a little ditty, "It Isn't so Much" during the floor show sequence. Donald Cook, whose image rests mostly playing James Cagney's older brother in THE PUBLIC ENEMY (Warner Brothers, 1931), is reunited with Barrymore, having co-starred with him in THE MAD GENIUS (Warners, 1931). He's acceptable in his role, but no great challenge advancement to his movie career.

Virtually unknown and forgotten among the John Barrymore film library, LONG LOST FATHER was rarely shown on commercial television during the 1960s or 70s late show haven. It did, however, get some TV exposure in 1973-74 on WNJU, Channel 47 (Newark, New Jersey) , a Spanish station where all of its American movie broadcasts, usually from RKO film library, were dubbed in Spanish. In later years, LONG LOST FATHER played on cable channels as American Movie Classics (prior to 1992) and Turner Classic Movies. Fortunately, Barrymore's next film, a comedy titled TWENTIETH CENTURY (Columbia, 1934), opposite Carole Lombard, became a comedy classic ranking one of Barrymore's top film eccentric performances before his slow decline in motion pictures industry due to alcoholism. (**1/2)

This is a quite short and minor film for movie great John Barrymore, but one of his most engaging. He plays a ne'er-do-well man about town who is currently managing a London nightclub. At a will reading he comes to meet the daughter he has not seen in twenty years. She is now an entertainer and at the behest of the nightclub owner, is induced, against the father's wishes, to perform there. The father-daughter relationship, at first very frosty, develops amusingly and charmingly.

Barrymore, capable, of course, of the great dramatic or romantic performance, is here wonderfully delightful, at times touchingly paternal, but never overly sentimental. As always, it is pure pleasure to hear his every line of dialog and to see the thoughts and emotions play upon his face. This is Barrymore lite, but a performance one can easily see again and again with enjoyment. His daughter, not expectedly a bit wild and eccentric, is perfectly played by Helen Chandler. She is best known for being in Dracula with Lugosi and Christopher Strong with Hepburn, but this is probably her best role. (Actually this is a part one can imagine John's grand-daughter Drew playing!) Miss Chandler, so believable as John Barrymore's daughter was, ironically, married to Bramwell Fletcher, who would later marry Barrymore's daughter.

The supporting cast, particularly Donald Cook as the boyfriend and Alan Mowbray as the nightclub owner, is very good. The direction (by King Kong veteran Ernest Schoedsack) is brisk and well-paced, even if the story meanders a bit. --- The major fault of the film is that there perhaps could be a bit more of it.

Long Lost Father meanders a bit but boasts two very nice performances by stars John Barrymore and Helen Chandler. He plays a cad who abandoned the family 20 years before but is reunited with his wayward daughter through a series of bizarre coincidences. Indeed when they meet outside a lawyer's office, they don't even know each other. The film wavers between comedy and drama and never seems quite comfortable in either genre.

But the film moves along briskly and offers a few very good scenes. Supporting players are interesting. The underused Donald Cook is good as the boyfriend. I always liked Cook but he never made much headway in Hollywood, usually playing the send lead. E.E. Clive is fun as the reformed crook now acting as a waiter. Tempe Pigott plays a bag lady who gets a big surprise in the pocket of a lord's pants. Alan Mowbray plays the rough lord. Natalie Moorhead plays the bleached blonde bimbo. Claude King plays the curious inspector. Doris Lloyd is a customer with an eye for Barrymore. Ferdinand Gottschalk is the feisty lawyer.

Barrymore, Chandler, and Cook are all very loose and good in this freewheeling film. Chandler is especially good. She usually plays limp leading ladies with little character other than being pretty. Here she is a spunky girl who sings and dances in a nightclub and hands back sass to Barrymore with glee. Cook is fun in his drunk scene with Chandler as they search for "an old woman-alive" as part of their treasure hunt.

Worth a look to see Barrymore and Chandler (best known for Dracula) before booze took its toll on their careers. Chandler made only 4 more films after this.

Long Lost Father (1934)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

A deadbeat father (John Barrymore) leaves his daughter at a young age only to bump into her as an adult. He soon learns that she's partying and gets into some trouble so will he rise up and finally be a father? This is a rather strange film that plays for laughs the first 45-minutes and then goes for drama the final 20 and the two really don't mix well. Barrymore's comic timing is right on the mark and he keeps this thing going but his daughter is such a bitch you really can't care what happens to her. Another strange thing is that there are a couple weird moments in the film where Barrymore talks about how nice his daughter's legs are. Produced by Merian C. Cooper and directed by Ernest B. Schoedsack.

A kind of forgettable film, but Barrymore is, as usual, wonderful! Helen Chandler is also quite good and very lovely! Does anyone know why her career didn't go further? I definitely think she had what it takes!!!