Virtue

Virtue (1932)

*** (out of 4)

Pat O'Brien plays a soft hearted taxi driver who thinks he knows all there is to know about women but that changes when he meets a prostitute (Carole Lombard). At first he doesn't know her history but that changes after they're married and soon after more problems start popping up. This is a pretty good little drama that manages to have several good performances and a nice story to go along with it. Lombard is very sexy in her role and delivers a fine, tough performance but it's actually O'Brien who steals the show in what could be the best performance I've seen from him. He plays a complete jerk throughout the entire movie but when it comes time for that good heart to show he mixes the two perfectly. The film goes through some standard stuff including a murder subplot but in the end this moves along very fast and makes for a good time killer.

No need to recap the plot. Pre-code movies are almost all interesting, but this one doesn't reach the level of hidden gem. (Check out Night Nurse {1931} or Employees Entrance {1933} for examples of pre-Code sleepers.) Virtue is a well-acted, involving feature with some clever innuendo. However, developments get pretty contrived toward the end with an outcome that's all too predictable. In short, despite some adult-level boldness, the final result is too similar to movies made after the Code to really distinguish itself from the pack.

Lombard is winning as the reformed hooker; however, she plays it straight, so this is not one of her signature madcap roles, to say the least. I agree with the reviewer who singles out Methot's performance as especially good. Her role here is the first time I've seen her and I'm impressed. She manages to make the betrayal of the gigolo Toots O'Neill deliciously believable in the midst of a pretty contrived murder sequence.

Be sure to cock an ear to the first 15 minutes. That's where Rifkin's dialogue really shines with a number of fast-moving innuendoes. Once the two lovebirds get hitched, the patter settles into a more conventional mode. Good thing O'Brien's not supposed to be rich because this is a pretty cheap production. The newly-wed's cold water flat is fine, but check out the "casino"—a heavy curtain, a bare table, and a chuck-a-luck. So I guess we're supposed to use our imagination. However, despite the flaws, the movie remains an entertaining 70 minutes.

Carole Lombard and Pat O'Brien star in "Virtue," a 1932 pre-code film featuring Ward Bond, Mayo Methot and Jack LaRue. Robert Riskin wrote the script and Lombard is a prostitute who's thrown out of New York - escorted onto the train, in fact, by a policeman - but she gets off at another city stop and stays in town. She meets and eventually marries a cab driver (O'Brien) who has no idea of her past. When he finds out, he's upset, but he's really in love with her, and they stay together. Then she's implicated in a murder.

"Virtue" moves at a fast pace, has very good dialogue, and Lombard gives an excellent performance as a street smart woman who falls in love unexpectedly. She's very beautiful and quite sophisticated in appearance, though her comrades in the streetwalker trade seem a lot lower class. Pat O'Brien, who worked into his eighties and usually played the best friend to someone like Jimmy Cagney, does a good job in a rare leading role for him.

Since the film is precode, it contains a lot of innuendo, my favorite being O'Brien's advice to Ward Bond, who wants to get married. "It's your doughnut," O'Brien says. "Dunk it."

Screenwriter Robert Riskin may be best known for his collaborations with director Frank Capra, but this well written, character driven melodrama will make you want to check out his other credits. The always terrific Carole Lombard is the tough but sweet woman with a past, and Pat O'Brien is her man, a soft-hearted blowhard. Mayo Methot is Lombard's world weary best pal, and Jack LaRue is her good looking but dumb as a box of hammers gangster boyfriend. Walking cliches, one would expect, but the script is careful with details, and the characters act logically and believably, even in the most unbelievable situations. The good writing clearly energizes the actors, with O'Brien and Methot, in particular, rising to the occasion. You might come away suspecting that Robert Riskin just may be more interesting than Frank Capra.

This movie asks that not unusual pre-Code movie question -- can a woman live down her tawdry past by marrying a good-hearted lout? And, while there is the usual collection of misunderstandings and Plot Contrivances, some really sharp acting out of Lombard and (of all people) Pat O'Brien. Also helpful is that this movie never loses sight of its emotional core, the understandably troubled relationship between Lombard and O'Brien. Also interesting is that Mayo Methot (the future battling Bogart) gets a far larger role than is usual -- and is good in it. Ward Bond also appears.

See this if you want to see Pat O'Brien do perhaps his best take on his urban loud-mouth with a heart of mush character. Maybe he is reacting to the genuine warmth coming off of Lombard's character. But it's unusual to see a Columbia movie of this vintage this well-acted, outside of Capra and Stanwyck.

Definitely worth a look. But don't really look for surprises in the plot. That is standard order for one of these ex-fallen-woman numbers.