Marianne

With the current rush to assure us that Marianne Davies was the victim of a CITIZEN KANE hatchet, job her films are being rather weirdly up rated.

MARRIANNE creaks and what Davies shows here is guts rather than talent, performing in French (of a sort), singing, doing her impressions and delivering the awful `I present you with the air' dialogue with a scary determination, she registers like somebody's mum trapped into appearing in a local operetta society performance.

The studio have poured the best state of the art technique into the piece with varied angles, glossy sets and even a wobbly dissolve in camera to impress the voracious early talkie audience but they would have done better to flesh out the doughboys in Europe plot with more than the two gags they repeat endlessly.

Of the desperate cast, Benny Rubin manages to seem most at ease.

In the title role of Marianne was Marion Davies in her sound debut at MGM. In this she plays a French waif who is engaged to a French soldier blinded in combat played by George Baxter. That is until the sight of doughboy Lawrence Gray gets her French mojo going.

It's not a great film by any means, but it does display the comedic talents that Davies he had. She's positively a pixie in this film flitting back and forth between Baxter and Gray.

Benny Rubin and Cliff Edwards get to do a comedic bit or two, but this film without a big male screen name opposite Davies allows the film to really be her show. As this film is pre-Code there are some truly risque lines and situations in it. There is also a French language version shot simultaneously with some cast alterations.

Marianne is not a great film, but a must for a Marion Davies fans.

Marianne (1929)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Three American GI's (Lawrence Gray, Benny Rubin, Cliff Edwards) at the end of WW1 fall in love with a French woman (Marion Davies) but she wants none of it and has to fight all of them off even though her heart might change. Apparently this film was originally made as a silent but the studio went back and re-filmed the entire thing. I'm sure they scrapped an entire movie because of Davies' famous lover but it would be interesting comparing both versions. This one here has a lot of music sequences so it would be interesting seeing what they did in the silent version. Considering this is an early sound film you have to expect some of the rather poor sound quality but Davies performance will have her fans wanting to check this out. There's really not too much story here and certainly not enough to carry a 112-minute film. The movie runs a tad bit too long because it's quite predictable so getting to the ending takes quite a while especially when you know who she's going to fall in love with. The music sequences are all rather strange because they pop out of anywhere and the film doesn't try to hide the fact that many of those doing the singing really aren't that talented in the field. The rather bland singing makes for an interesting experiment and in some ways it makes the film seem almost surreal but at the same time the bad singing works against the "musical" aspect of the film. Davies gets to belt out a couple lines but they're hidden within some comedy. Either way, she turns in a fine comic performance even though her French accent isn't the greatest. The think accent is also hard to understand at times due to the sound quality but it's only a minor problem. The three male leads are all fine in a strange sort of way and they're certainly over the top in a campy but entertaining way.

French farm girl MARIANNE has constant difficulties with the American soldiers stationed in her barn after the Armistice.

This film was the starring talkie debut for Marion Davies, one of the most charming and talented actresses of her day. As the mistress of William Randolph Hearst, one of America's most powerful men, Davies probably could have had her pick of roles. In some respects, MARIANNE is an odd choice. There is virtually no action, most of the scenes take place in a kitchen and a barn, and Davies speaks her entire dialogue, often in French, with a very thick accent. But she is so lively and full of joie de vivre, so infectiously good-natured even when angry, even mimicking Chevalier & Bernhardt, and impersonating a young male officer, that she becomes the main reason for watching the film today. It is indeed unfortunate that Marion Davies' gifts have become obscured and her films nearly forgotten.

Lawrence Gray, who had shown much skill as a comic actor during Silent days and had worked with Davies then, here plays the American doughboy who falls for Marion. The funny business is handled by two of MGM's newest acquisitions, Yiddish dialect comedian Benny Rubin and ukulele-playing Cliff Edwards. Marion's noble French boyfriend is enacted by George Baxter.

As with many other early sound films, the movie suffers with too much talk. However, the recurring musical sequences are mostly quite welcome. The opening scene, with its idyllic look at Marion's village, shows the quality of art direction for which MGM was famous.

And pity the poor pig Anatole!

From director Robert Z. Leonard. Marion Davies stars as Marianne, whose beloved Andre (George Baxter) has shipped out to the front. Sometime later, a company of American G. I.s are stationed in town, and one of them, Stagg (Lawrence Gray) falls hard for Marianne. Stagg, along with his buddies Soapy (Cliff Edwards) and Sam (Benny Rubin), make life miserable for the poor French girl with their incessant jokes and songs, although she eventually warms to them all. Also featuring Scott Kolk, Robert Edeson, and Emile Chautard.

This was Davies first sound film, and I found her charming, funny and with a good voice, even with her thick and phony French accent. The scenes where she dresses as a French soldier are a highlight. My favorite song was one by comic relief Rubin, a cantor-esque number called "The Girl from Noochateau". The movie is overall is harmless fluff, a bit overlong at 111 minutes, but a promising sign in the development of the musical in the new sound medium.

This was meant as a musical take on 1925's "The Big Parade".