Virtue

Ever put a film on you've never heard about but have been really surprised how good it was? This is one of those movies.

Some people might watch this because they're Carole Lombard fans. Although this might sound sacrilegious to them, I'm not a fan of her comedy but in this she's fantastic. This is a Columbia picture, it's shabby and grimy and Carole Lombard perfectly fits into this unsavoury world as a slightly shop soiled street walker. Unlike in some other films of the period, the star is not a victim, she's not struggling. She's thriving and is part of that environment, she's as much a part of that dirty city as the Brooklyn Bridge.

It's written by Robert Riskin, who would go on to write most of Frank Capra's classic films so you know that however uncertain things get for our heroes, you're probably going to get a happy ending....or do you?

Although the plot is essentially about a prostitute who falls in love with a taxi driver, Riskin's brilliant script weaves it into a lovely story arc where we see characters evolve before our eyes. It's underlying theme however is perception. In the eyes of the others, however much she changes, Mae was and always will be just an untrustworthy prostitute. Maybe on a deeper level it's about how we see ourselves and how we see each other. It's how we see others as reflections of our own preconceptions and indeed of ourselves. Although not quite Frank Capra, director Edward Buzzell does a great job and reinforces the reflection motifs with some clever use of mirrors and reflections.

Overall, definitely worth watching for a great, uplifting story with some of the best fast-talking, wisecracking dialogue ever giving us a real taste of life for the underdogs of New York during the darkest days of the depression.

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."

This one has a prostitute trying to go straight, a tough-talking cab driver whose harsh words hide a heart of gold, and there is even a murder tucked away in the plot.

The story opens on prostitute Mae(Carole Lombard) being escorted to a train that will take her out of New York City - a condition of her not serving jail time for street walking is that she leave town. As soon as the police are gone she gets right off the train. Having no money, she has to ditch Jimmy Doyle (Pat O'Brien), the cabby that takes her back into the city, without paying him. However, Mae is a woman without options, not a woman who is basically dishonest, so as soon as she has the money she pays Jimmy the fare, although at the worst possible time - watch the film to see what I'm talking about.

Jimmy and Mae hit it off and even get married, but they're basically two people looking for love that have two big problems. Mae can't take back her past, and Jimmy can't - with dignity - take back the words he has said about him being all-knowing when it comes to "dames", especially after he learns of his wife's past occupation at a most inopportune time. From that point forward the two have a good relationship on the surface, but underneath Jimmy always has his doubts as to whether Mae's past is really behind her, and Mae feels like she's on probation. Then something comes up that brings all of these feelings to the surface.

Mayo Methot plays Lil Blair, an aging woman of the streets and friend to Mae whose boyfriend Toots is more than happy to have Lil support him and more than unhappy when she can't come up with quite enough money to keep him in race track forms. Lil winds up playing a bigger part in the whole story than her small amount of screen time would make you believe.

This fast moving little precode with heart is everything that the best precodes of the early 30's should be. Many of the precodes that came out of Columbia in the early 30's had a paint-by-numbers feel about them, like they were just going through the motions. This one has very good performances by the entire cast and a storyline that draws you into the everyday lives of these not so everyday people.