A Rival da Esposa

I saw and reviewed the 1941 remake of "When Ladies Meet" almost three years ago. I was a bit cold on the film--and thought it should have been much better considering the star-filled cast. However, when I saw the 1933 version today, I really appreciated it. This leads me to wonder--is the original version that much better or has my taste just changed over the last few years? I am not sure which--but I can highly recommend this earlier film.

The film is about adultery--a common topic during the Pre-Code era (up until mid 1934 when the new Production Code tightened the moral code within Hollywood's films). At first, it appears to actually endorse it or take a judgment neutral view--as Myrna Loy and Frank Morgan prepare to run off together even though Morgan is married. However, Loy's friend (Robert Montgomery) inexplicably loves her and wants to split the pair up because he feels this relationship is wrong. So, he connives to have Loy meet the wife (Ann Harding). What happens here is what makes the film so good--the women don't know who the other one actually is and they become friends. Only later do they discover the truth. I loved this final portion and I'd say more, but I don't want to ruin it. Suffice to say, it handles this moral quandary in a responsible and satisfying manner.

Aside from a few quibbles (such as why Montgomery wants Loy is she shows such selfish behaviors), I really enjoyed the film. Fine acting and a nice script make for an adult film that really is as good and hard-hitting today as it was back in 1933. Well worth seeing.

This first film version of the Rachel Crothers play finds Robert Montgomery as the irrepressible playboy who will do just about anything to win Myrna Loy back from the clutches of married publisher Frank Morgan. Even if that means bringing Morgan's wife Ann Harding into the picture. And When Ladies Meet, watch out.

A later version was done by MGM but with more of an emphasis on the mistress than the wife. Joan Crawford had Myrna Loy's role and Ann Harding's part was done by Greer Garson.

Robert Taylor played Montgomery's role and the difference between the two films is the quality of their performances. Taylor had developed a real gift for light comedy, but for Robert Montgomery this kind of part was what made his reputation.

Frank Morgan was far better than Herbert Marshall because he played the role as the two timing rat he was. You watch Marshall's performance and you'd think he was the wronged party. As for Morgan, no one loved him more than I in the role of the inept bumbler he usually played, but parts like in When Ladies Meet and also in Hallelujah, I'm a Bum do show him to good advantage in other kinds of roles.

It's hard to choose between Garson and Harding though. Both of them have the best part in the film and both make equally good use of it. Each are the best in their respective casts.

Eliminated from the second version is a great deadpan performance by Sterling Holloway as the allergy prone golf caddy who destroys Montgomery's game as he's playing with Harding.

The original play ran on Broadway for 191 performances in the 1932-1933 season and starred Walter Abel, Frieda Inescourt, Herbert Rawlinson and Selena Royle. Ironically all of these folks had substantial film careers, but could never be classified as any kind of box office.

When Ladies Meet is witty and bright and a great example of the sophisticated type comedy that's just not being done any more.

I love old movies for many reasons, that they are time capsules of the era they come from being the primary one. This is a classic based on the source, the cast & the studio. That the same studio remade it post-code is remarkable, I just wish Myrna was given the wife role this time, opposite her old friend Joan. Unfortunately, when Myrna left MGM for Fox to film The Rains Came, Greer assumed many of her roles, beginning with Goodbye, Mr. Chips (Myrna, in her un-diva way, cites Greer's generosity to her decades later while touring,apparently oblivious to the fact she enabled Garson's star turn. No wonder Loy was friends with Crawford for fifty years!). There is no such thing as a bad Myrna movie, this one also scores points for trivia like the terrace beneath the Brooklyn Bridge, when's the last time you saw that?! Any old movie can be criticized for many things,but eyebrows? No wonder today's hits come from comic books...

I wonder if millennials have even heard of the double standard. It used to be a real thing and a well-know phrase. It underlies one of the threads of this film's plot. Simply put, it meant it was OK for a man to have sex before marriage but if a woman did she was "a fallen woman" "a tramp" and some worse names. This begs the question of with whom the males were supposed to romp, but that's in tomorrow's lesson.

The central character is Mary (Myrna Loy), a successful novelist, unmarried and in love with a married man. She has based the protagonist of her latest, almost-finished, novel on herself. In the end of the novel this character gets the man and all concerned, even the wife, approve because their love is something so wonderful. This makes for a clever plot device in the film, as Mary gets to discuss the work in progress with various people with various degrees of understanding how autobiographical it is. One of these conversations leads to the film's climax and is a genuinely unsettling scene.

The hero, Jimmie (Robert Montgomery), is a type common in 1930s films, The Idle Rich Playboy With a Heart of Gold. He lectures her sternly on the importance of the double standard, gallantly explaining "Gosh, I've persuaded so many women and hated them afterward." The noble virtuous sort. Naturally he has an ulterior motive, namely Mary, whom he wants for himself, but only if legitimized by the marriage ceremony, and of course undefiled.

Jimmie's efforts don't stop there. He manages to intrude or otherwise disturb Mary and her lover whenever they have a moment together. It took me a while to realize that he was doing so to prevent their affair from being "consummated" as they used to say, since in the year 2020 I at first assumed it had already been consummated.

So, like many early-30s films, it's not only well done but gives you some insight into what was going on in those days. And as in many such, the final twists and turns look predictable but turn out be not exactly what you expected.

Definitely not an "action" film and a bit of a talkfest at times. Sometimes the characters seem to be debating rather than conversing. Lightened a bit by Alice Brady as a ditsy middle-aged rich woman with a boy toy. Her character helps move the plot along in places by blabbing people's secrets, then pretending it was an accident. You know the type.

I had a blast watching this sparkling and affable MGM classic - the first and best adaptation of Crothers' luridly sophisticated play, beautifully shot in black and white with some stylish Cedric Gibbons art direction. Elegant and effervescent, this pre-Code film is a triumph of casting: Myrna Loy, Ann Harding, Robert Montgomery, Alice Brady, and Frank Morgan all in top form. Loy is surprisingly enjoyable as the lady novelist Mary who is deeply in love with the publisher Rodge (Morgan). I agree Ann Harding steals the show; she never looked beautiful and radiant as the wife of the publisher. Alice Brady is a revelation as the whimsical society matron Bridget. The film sometimes feels too gabby but it is aided by the stars' charisma and a tremendously witty dialogue.