Amante Discreto

According to the Citadel Film Series book The Films of Ronald Colman, the movie-going public did not take to Colman in Cynara playing an adulterous husband. His image as the ultimate civilized man of the English speaking world did not jibe with infidelity. Still Colman does give a decent performance in a rather dated melodrama.

Colman when we meet him is one happily married if somewhat bored man to Kay Francis. He's a successful barrister. But when Francis is on a girl's holiday, Colman rather casually drifts into an affair with young Phyllis Barry.

Of course it ends in tragedy as these things do, especially back in the day. It does resolve in the best tradition of stiff upper lip English dignity which I think today's audience will not understand. But that would also be in the Ronald Colman tradition as well.

King Vidor got good performances out of his cast. Kay Francis as the wronged wife has little to do here, but look martyred. A favorite character actor of mine Henry Stephenson lends his worldly wisdom to the proceedings. And there is a nice performance by Viva Tattersall as Barry's friend and Colman's accuser.

Cynara is a nice, but terribly dated film. Audiences back then were put off by this digression from the Colman image. Audiences today will be thrown by all those rather silly romantic notions and the idea that we must preserve appearances at all costs.

Sad pre-Code film about adultery and its effects on the people involved has Ronald Colman starring as a British barrister happily married to Kay Francis. She goes off to Italy to save her silly sister from getting involved with the wrong man. Ironically, that leaves Colman easy prey for a conniving shop girl (Phyllis Barry) he meets by chance.

Although she knows he's married and nothing can come of their affair, she relentlessly pursues him and he falls for her. She loses her job and becomes totally dependent on him. He tries to break if off just as Francis returns from Italy but with tragic results.

Colman is excellent as the intelligent man who falls prey to temptation. Francis is wonderful as the wounded wife, and Barry is good as the conniving Doris. Co-stars include Henry Stephenson as the randy friend who starts all the trouble, Florine McKinney as Garla the silly sister, Viva Tattersall as Millie, Paul Porcasi as the restaurant owner, Halliwell Hobbes as the official, and Elspeth Dudgeon as Mrs. Weeks.

There's also a clip from a Charlie Chaplin movie.

King Vidor directed "Cynara," an early talkie starring Ronald Colman and Kay Francis, in 1932. The title is based on a poem by Ernest Dowson that contains the line: "I have been faithful to thee, Cynara, in my fashion."

Colman plays a barrister who is faithful to his wife of 7 years, Clemency (Francis) but succumbs to the carnal temptation of a young girl (Phyllis Barry) while his wife and her sister are in Venice.

As others commented, there are some lovely effects, including the film within a film, and a piece of paper that Colman rips up that dissolves into flying pigeons in Venice.

And there are very good performances by Colman, Francis and Barry, who has the difficult role of the young girl who, because of a mistake, is not considered quite respectable, and falls for Colman.

The problem I have with the story is that the Colman character is such a devoted husband in the beginning and so happy about being married 7 years. In practically the next scene, with the encouragement of his friend (Henry Stevenson) he has taken up with this girl. If some of that had been left out of the script, it would have been much more believable.

At any rate, well worth seeing for the director, the precode aspects, and the stars.

Recently I was finally able to see this early sound classic with Ronald Colman and Kay Francis. I haven't seen many movies with the latter, and her understated beauty suits Colman perfectly.

Colman looking elegant in his perfectly tailored suits, plays a conservative and happily married (to Kay, as Clemency) barrister whose life is turned upside down by a chance affair with a shop girl played sensitively by an unknown at the time, Phyllis Barry. King Vidor, the director, took a chance in casting her, but his faith in her ability paid off. She brings just the right touch of pathos and desperation to the role of Doris. (And just happens to resemble Kay more than just a little.) In David Shepard's book on King Vidor several effects within the movie are discussed, such as the movie within a movie scene with Charlie playing the little tramp when they all go to the flickers the night he and Tring (character actor Henry Stephenson in a salty role.) meet the girls, and the fade out scenes of Colman tearing up the paper with the girls address to a scene of Clemency in Venice with her sister and the scraps of paper have dissolved into pigeons in flight.

I would say that this was a different type of role for Colman. Yet even though he plays an adulterous husband, his kindness and tenderness toward Doris is always there, and all parties suffer because of the infidelity. Even in a precode, no one gets away from the consequences of their actions! I highly recommend this movie for Colman and Francis fans and as a fine example of an early Vidor sound movie. I enjoyed it more than Street Scene as the sound quality was better by this time, and the story flowed more smoothly.

Cynara (pronounced as the Goldwyn publicity department insisted "SIN-ara") is an obscure film from the early Hollywood sound era. It is almost unknown today. However, Cynara was an important film in the careers of five of Cynara's principals, and for that reason is worthy of fresh reappraisal by a contemporary audience.

Samuel Goldwyn and Ronald Colman---the producer and actor made eighteen films as a team, and Cynara was their next to last venture. The partnership was becoming increasingly contentious as exemplified by the fact that Colman did not want to do this film. He felt that the role of barrister Jim Warlock, an unfaithful husband with easily compromised moral values, was inconsistent with his carefully crafted screen image of usually portraying decent, honorable and often heroic leading men. . Goldwyn supported the idea of making a film version of this London and Broadway stage success in spite of Colman's reluctance. Colman's instinct proved to be right---the film failed at the box office, and provided the ultimate basis for a permanent estrangement between the two men. They made one more film together to settle a lawsuit that resulted from their dispute, and then never worked with each other again.

King Vidor--one of Hollywood's greatest directors made his first film in 1919, and had a career as a top notch craftsman that did not end until 1959. In Cynara, Vidor took a rather somber and down-beat story and was able to turn it into a serious yet engrossing drama with complex characters involved in a realistic and believable narrative. Notwithstanding the Colman role's shady behavior and relatively ease at being tempted, King was able to to create in Warlock a man who could also be kind, warm and greatly troubled by his unethical actions. It is one of King's least typical but most accomplished films.

Henry Stephenson--the only actor from the Broadway cast to reprise his role for the film version, Stephenson was one of Hollywood's busiest and most successful British character actors. He and C. Aubrey Smith often took turns playing like parts throughout the 1930s and 1940s. Similar in age and physical appearance, Stephenson and Smith created an extensive gallery of aristocratic Englishmen that defined such characters in the minds of most American moviegoers for generations. Interestingly, they both died at the age of 85 after prolific and distinguished acting careers.

Phyllis Barry---a discovery of Goldwyn, this British dancer's most famous film role was as Doris Lea, the doomed "other woman," in Cynara. Groomed for a major Hollywood career, she never reached anything close to Goldwyn's expectations. Relegated to a succession of nondescript bit parts, she died in relative obscurity of a drug overdose while in her early 40s.

As for Cynara, it is interesting in capturing an uncharacteristic portrayal of a cad by Ronald Colman, and Kay Francis is quite good as Colman's trusting and ultimately betrayed wife. But the best part in Cynara is played by Henry Stephenson in a sly and most entertaining role as Colman's friend who helps to lead him down the road of marital infidelity with considerable demonic charm.

Seek out Cynara.. It is well worth your time and attention.