O Exilado

This story is a bit hard to swallow. A British noble leaves England to save the family name - his cousin, actually - who has embezzled and bankrupted the family fortune, leaving the woman he loves (who is married to the embezzler). He then turns up as a rancher in Texas (honest, I'm not making this up), takes up with an Indian girl who bears him a son. Seven years later, the embezzler dies but confesses, freeing the benighted couple to marry, she in England and he in Texas. Think you can go with it? Well, I couldn't, but the principals are so in earnest and the mood so solemn that you give it a break - a rating of six, to be exact.

I am into acting performances and this picture has many good ones; Warner Baxter (extremely in earnest), Eleanor Boardman and Roland Young (somewhat in earnest) and Lupe Velez, who really doesn't fit and, to my mind, nearly sinks the picture with a catatonic performance. She got better in the "Mexican Spitfire" series in the 40's. As I say, the preposterous plot is played with a straight face, so I gave this head-scratcher the benefit of the doubt.

The Squaw Man (1931)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

This here was Cecil B. DeMille's third attempt at telling Edwin Milton Royle's play. This time out it's Warner Baxter who plays Jim Carston, a British man who is ran out of his country so he heads to the United States and out West. Once there he crosses a rival landowner but things take a turn for the worse when he falls in love with an Indian woman (Lupe Velez), which is a big no-no. This version from DeMille offers up a terrific cast and I think the racial issues are a lot more out front here but I really can't say that this was any sort of improvement over the 1914 version, which I've seen. All but the last reel is lost from the 1918 version so it's impossible to compare all three but this third version features quite a few problems. I think the film's biggest problem is the pacing because at times it moves along at a very slow pace. This includes the early stuff in Britain, which could have been completely left out and I think it would have helped. I also thought some of the stuff in the West dragged during spots but there's no question that the film is still worth viewing for the performances alone. Baxter was extremely good and believable in his part and there's certainly no doubt that he fit the tough guy role just fine. Charles Bickford is excellent as always and we get nice support from Roland Young, Paul Cavanagh and a young Dickie Moore. Velez easily steals the show as she's terrific in each scene she's in. Her beauty is on full display and while I'm sure some might be offended by the way the Indian is played, I thought the performance itself was very good. DeMille delivers a decent picture but at the same time one can't help but wish he had left this alone and attempted something else.

Considering that this film was made in 1931, it sure looks more like a silent film with words rather than a more modern looking film. In 1931 we had films like "Frankenstein", "Cimarron", "Mata Hari", "City Lights", "Dracula", "M", "Public Enemy", "Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde", and "Monkey Business". All of these films had better acting, camera work and better use of sound, and they all had a more modern script. "The Squaw Man" was the third filming of the play, all of them by Cecil B. DeMille. The play was written in 1905 and starred future famous silent film cowboy William S. Hart. It ran for nearly a year and was revived several times, then spawned a novel. But all 3 versions held steady to the Victorian plot, and even by 1931 it seems dated.

It's not exactly perfect that a Mexican-American actress, Lupe Vélez, is plugged in as a Native-American in the third and final version of this film, but it's better to see her than someone like Myrna Loy (no offense Myrna, you know I adore you). And in addition to seeing a person of color in a dramatic and romantic role, the side benefit is that unlike most of her other films, Vélez's character is not some high-strung Latina who has to have a scene or two of animated screaming. Here her character is quiet, doleful, determined, strong, and caring, giving us another side of her as an actress, and her performance is at least as good as the other films I've seen her in, if not better. After being saved by a transplanted Englishman (Warner Baxter) from being assaulted in a saloon, something that would likely have led to rape, her character returns the favor with steely resolve by saving him not once but twice. Vélez has several fine scenes, one of which is when she's in front of the fireplace on a stormy night, radiating soft sensuality. Later she has a perfect reaction to her young son wanting to play with his new train set more than her traditional, handmade horse. It reflects the timeless clash of cultural assimilation, and immigrant parents with kids more drawn to the newer culture they are surrounded by may identify. In several moments throughout the film, Vélez's emotions are conveyed silently through her eyes, and they're all pretty compelling.

Unfortunately, there are also aspects of the character that are harder to like, starting with the broken English she has to speak. It may have been the reality for such a character, but here it's so slow and awkward, and not accompanied with enough other nuance that might help us see that she's just as intelligent despite not being fluent in a second language. And that's at the heart of the issue - the film puts her in a positive light, but it's in a condescending, paternalistic way. She can be attractive, strong, faithful, and a great wife and mother - but she can't be just as smart or the equal of her husband. This culminates in the film's absolute worst moment, when he decides to send their son off to England to get a better education and to have more opportunity, essentially ripping the boy from his mother over her objections. It would be too easy and simplistic to equate this to the heartless and cruel policies of the current American administration at the border, but I have to say I thought of it, and that's not exactly a selling point for the movie. As he talks about this to his friend, he mentions his wife is "primitive" and simply can't understand the British Empire, which was disgusting. It's a white man's world, and as Vélez is neither, she is two steps down in it.

At least the film shows the emotional impact this has on her (in another fine scene from Vélez), and sympathizes with the happy life she's lost in the final images. I also liked how her husband stands by her and refers to her as Mrs. Jim Wingate despite challenges from bothersome locals, and the reappearance of his old (Caucasian) flame (Eleanor Boardman). The film is actually showing us a happy interracial marriage, something that was dangerous and still illegal in many states.

Overall though, it's a little rough going because of the racism and sexism, even if they are milder forms of it, and I debated a lower rating. However, the film scored enough points with me, and exceeded the expectations that I had formed based on its awful title. If you're disenchanted early on, have patience; the only saving grace to a creaky start in England which suffers from a slow pace and poor audio quality is Boardman, who plays her earnest but conflicted role well, and is also quite pretty here. Once the action moves to the American West, Director Cecil B. DeMille tells a good story, one with inevitable conflicts for this couple, and gets some nice shots on location in Arizona. I also loved seeing Dickie Moore, who is just adorable as their son.

As all film buffs know Cecil B. DeMille's first version of The Squaw Man was the very first film done in what we now call Hollywood. He did a second silent version and for his third film on his MGM hiatus from Paramount he did it once again.

Third time was not the charm. Although the actors, especially Warner Baxter as the disgraced English Earl who goes to the American west and meets, weds, and beds an Indian maiden, Lupe Velez are competent and sincere the film is terribly dated. Depression audiences simply were not interested in a Victorian morality tale with a dose of the British stiff upper lip.

It all sounds so quaint and ridiculous. Baxter is accused of embezzlement and he knows who the culprit is, but won't inform because he doesn't want to disgrace the other guy's family. So with admirable rectitude he heads west and make a new life in America.

He also manages to make an enemy of Charles Bickford who was another rancher who covets his land. But Baxter finds love with Lupe, as did most of Hollywood in real life, and he has a son who will in fact inherit his title.

Cecil B. DeMille was a child of his time. Melodramas like The Squaw Man was the stuff that the legitimate theater did when he grew up and learned his trade from David Belasco.

But audiences weren't buying it in 1931, people had real issues about where the next meal was coming from and could they find work. A story about some Victorian honor code just wasn't marketable.

It's a sincere film though and it might be worth a look to judge what public tastes were at the turn of the last century and before the Roaring Twenties.