O Passado de uma Mulher

A ravishingly beautiful 20-year-old Loretta Young is "Midnight Mary" in this 1933 melodrama directed by William Wellman. The film also stars Ricardo Cortez, Franchot Tone, and Una Merkel. Young, on trial for murder of Cortez character, a gangster, is waiting for the jury to come in. She tells her story in flashback. Down on her luck, recently out of prison, she meets Cortez, becomes his girl and gets the easy life. One night, during a shooting, the wealthy Tone helps her escape. After she receives secretarial training, he gets her a job in his law firm. But her past catches up with her.

Loretta Young is stunning and her clothes are fantastic. She gives a very good performance. Since it's a pre-code drama, there's talk of sex, suggestive scenes, and the women get slapped around.

Very entertaining and absorbing, with Young a class act all the way.

Midnight Mary (1933)

Wow, you'll never see so many wipe transitions from one scene to the next, which is a big part of how this great little movie moves and moves. Loretta Young is terrific in a common role for the time--a woman who is good at heart getgin in trouble through circumstance and a little too much trust, or plain old willingness. She is surrounded by a mixed and twirling (and large) cast of secondary characters, a couple of them well known such as leading male Franchot Tone.

William Wellman is a director known most of all for being professional. He has no signature style, and unlike say William Wyler or Michael Curtiz, also accused of being professionally style-less, he has no truly amazing films to his name. But boy does have have a dozen really excellent ones. And few duds. In fact, one reason I went out of my way to see this, at a neighbor's house who gets TCM, is because of Wellman.

And also because of Young, who was a starlet and a beauty in her time. If she lacked some on screen spark to make her a superstar, she still had a lovable, solid, convincing presence every time. In a way, she was perfect for Wellman. Tone, in his come and go role, is fine, as is the quirky Andy Devine (the guy with the hoarse, high voice).

Another reason to see this is the freshness it has as a pre-code film. There is a natural acceptance of couples living together (and presumably sleeping together) that is not a salacious part of the film but just makes it true--or at least less artificial. It's a great aspect to many of this era's movies, in some ways my favorite era of all the 1930s, as great as the later and purposely artificial screwball comedies truly are.

What will hold this back at all for some viewers is a lack of total polish and storytelling finesse (filming and editing, as well as writing). It isn't that films in 1933 were always plagued by small flaws like these, but even the masterpieces of the time feel a little raw in spots. This is a charm, a benefit, if you look at it that way. Don't expect "Casablanca" or even "It Happened One Night" (from the next year) and you'll really enjoy this. The plot is familiar, the acting routine, the lighting bright (high key). But it's really fun and well done and a fast ride. Do it.

This is a seldom-discussed but highly significant title in the pre-code canon, as it delineates the compromises a pretty and (originally) moral young woman must make to extricate herself from poverty during the depression. Overall, it's a predictable melodrama, very typical of its period, and the fact that Wild Bill Wellman was for some reason working at MGM for this one tends to stultify the brashness that was his trademark in his early years at Warners. Nonetheless, the tricky editing is very Warners-like and keeps the story moving at a rapid pace, particularly in the jaw-dropping montage where the eponymous character loses her virginity. Most importantly, the script is very frank about sex and absolutely cynical about American society at the time. The most notorious scene is all innuendo -- in order to distract her gangster paramour, Mary inaudibly whispers in his ear, obviously relating in quite some detail the pleasures she will endow him with if only he comes to bed with her immediately. Loretta Young is luminous as always and Ricardo Cortez has a nice time with his role as a confident hoodlum who knows he has her on a string. As for Franchot Tone and Grady Sutton...

Interesting drama about a young woman named Mary Martin (played by Loretta Young), on trial for murder, who awaits her verdict and remembers back to her past leading up to this crime. From childhood rummaging through garbage at the dump, to being placed in a "house of correction" as a teenager when she is unjustly accused of stealing a pocketbook, to unknowingly playing lookout for a bunch of crooks pulling a job, Mary really is a good girl - she's just had a life that went from one bad break to another, it seems. Unable to find a real job, she ends up a gangster's moll and, along with his gang of hoodlums, she's now dressing to the nines in satin gown, skullcap, and fur coat and assisting them with crimes - but when she meets a handsome, rich playboy (Franchot Tone) one night while out on a "job" with her gang, she asks him to help her get away from this life of crime.

This film is really interesting, well-edited and fast-paced, with compelling story that completely held my interest, and a really great performance by Loretta Young who really makes this film. Una Merkel adds to the mix as Mary's gal pal Bun, and Andy Devine is fun as Franchot Tone's goofy sidekick. Franchot Tone, by the way, looks extremely handsome in this with top hat, white tie, and tails (oh, my), Loretta Young is very beautiful, as usual, and there is just tons of chemistry between the two of them in their romantic scenes. Watch for those kisses - wow!

This Review is worth an 11 for the gowns, 8 for the rest. Loretta in Adrian's clothes was a knockout...I have seen this movie twice on that wonderful TCM and that beaded skullcap hat still makes me marvel...it takes a pretty face to pull that one off. Story is interesting enough but the actors were really perfect for this big little movie. Ricardo Cortez was at his sexy handsome smarmiest..Franchot Tone was at his great kind, rich and wimpiest and sweet Loretta held the whole shebang together and I cannot imagine anyone thinking/saying she wasn't right for the part. Plus, if clothes make the man then clothes really make the woman... Now about the story...Loretta of got a few bum raps along the way, love, etc., but wait, just spend 75 minutes and judge for yourself.