Conquistador Irresistível

This film has several story elements that simply wouldn't fly today....plus the two male leads are unlikable pond scum. These would make this film a hard sell for most of today's audiences. First the story elements that are now taboo. Robert Montgomery plays a man who falls for a woman instantly and because he KNOWS he must marry her, he pursues her in a manner that clearly would have him arrested for sexual harassment, stalking and possibly rape if he continued in such a fashion! This was all meant to be cute but comes off as creepy today--and it's interesting to see what people thought was okay back in 1932. To make things worse, late in the film, Montgomery slaps his woman caveman style! I am sure N.O.W. would have a few things to say about this. Second, Montgomery and his father (an oddly miscast C. Aubrey Smith) are both leeches who live off rich society women--sort of like man-hos. This is hardly endearing, though once again the writers didn't seem to get this! Talk about creating a hole from which your characters have to extricate themselves!!! Well, somehow, the film is pleasant enough that if you can ignore the huge problems with the characters, it is still a decent time-passer. The writing AT TIMES is decent (particularly the non-stalker dialog) and the film has a few clever moments...though Edward Everett Horton is a bit wasted in the film. It's a glossy MGM production...with multiple problems.

I'm a big fan of Robert Montgomery, whom I think paired best with Norma Shearer. In his early dashing leading man roles, he's like a princely powder puff, smelling of lavender. In this movie, "But the Flesh Is Weak," he's a sticking rose. Like a bee after honey, he pesters Nora Gregor in frame after frame. The movie became too sickly sweet for me midway, and I was wishing for more scenes with Montgomery and Sir C. Aubrey Smith, who plays his gambling father, surprisingly far more dashing than Montgomery in this film. My guess is that another viewing might be more pleasant. Nora Gregor and Heather Thatcher deliver solid performances and are dressed beautifully. Nils Asther plays an even bigger powder puff in this movie, but he's a delight.

A couple of penniless gentlemen - father & son - would probably prefer not to have to live off the money of wealthy women -BUT THE FLESH IS WEAK...

Full of rather sophisticated, pre-Code dialogue, this sadly obscure film of romantic misadventures among the British upper crust should come as an enjoyable surprise to viewers looking for witty words & fine performances.

Robert Montgomery fits in perfectly with the tenor of this production. Dapper & handsome, with just the faintest tinge of scurrility about his demeanor, he fills the part quite nicely, while making it easy for the viewer to comprehend the type of mindset this sort of charming charlatan needs to survive socially.

Two excellent actresses play the women in Montgomery's life; both, unfortunately, are seldom remembered or recalled in Hollywood's histories. English Heather Thatcher is very touching as the lonely, monocled daughter of a duke; her unrequited adoration of Montgomery is quite palpable. Austro-Hungarian Nora Gregor is beautiful & slightly mysterious as the Viennese widow who captures Montgomery's gigolo heart; her confused hesitation in surrendering to his blandishments is both very human & utterly delightful.

Wizened Edward Everett Horton scores as a perplexed, suspicious lord who desperately wants Miss Gregor's love. Wonderful old Sir C. Aubrey Smith is nothing less than terrific as Montgomery's elderly roué of a father, constantly on the lookout for another rich widow to buy him supper. Smith was one of Hollywood's most distinguished actors - and his talent was never more on display than in the sequence here where his character discovers the awful consequences to personal honour of incurring an unpayable gambling debt.

Silent screen matinee idol Nils Asther enlivens the last few minutes of the film, playing a rakish prince. Eva Moore & Frederick Kerr are very humorous as elderly aristocrats. Movie mavens will recognize an unbilled Ray Milland as a young man at Miss Thatcher's party.

This film has an impressive pedigree, based, as it is, on The Truth Game, a popular London stage play by Welshman Ivor Novello (1893-1951). One of the United Kingdom's biggest celebrities, Novello was a phenomenally successful stage & screen actor, composer & playwright. Brought to California by MGM in the very early 1930's, he spent a good deal of time waiting for the Studio to find a suitable American film project for him. Novello eventually wrote the continuity & dialog for -BUT THE FLESH IS WEAK, which would be one of the few substantial outcomes of his brief Hollywood sojourn.

A 1930s movie with Robert Montgomery and C. Aubrey Smith - how cool is that? Not very, as it turns out. Smith and Montgomery are father and son scoundrels who live off wealthy women. At first they are somewhat charming and their close relationship is nice to see. Although the Smith character (nicknamed "Senior" by his son) does maintain a modicum of this charm to the movie's end, the Montgomery character, Max, does not. That he soon into the movie shows his arrogance and obvious disdain for women is not particularly surprising but his downright meanness and callousness is. He sexually harasses and stalks Rosine Brown (and the script makes it clear that she loves it!). At the end of the film she says something like "I didn't know you loved me until you hit me." Maybe I misheard this line as by then I had lost interest in this movie but I don't think I did. The only interesting and positive character in the film was that played by Heather Thatcher, Lady Joan Culver. She, of course, is used and completely humiliated by Max. What makes this a truly horrid movie is that those watching it in the 1930s evidently thought it was an amusing romantic comedy.

I love Robert Montgomery movies and pre-code. But this entry is lacking in too many ways. It is tiresome to the point of Robert Montgomery (who tries to be funny and fails) comes off as a nuisance at the best and a stalker at the worst. The movie moves very slowly and there is nothing likable about any of the characters. Just because is an old movie does not make it a 'classic'.