A Donzela Impaciente

A fascinating curio, Impatient Maiden reveals director James Whales' cinema style as well as his personal evasiveness.

This slice-of-life romantic drama concerns one Ruth Robbins, effectively portrayed by Mae Clark. By day, a secretary to a divorce attorney, Ruth brushes up against life one broken marriage at a time. At home, a neighbor's wife attempts suicide when her husband leaves her and it's left to Ruth to summon an ambulance. So when ambulance driver Myron Brown sparks Ruth's interest, Ruth's own cynical attitudes become her biggest obstacle. Distain for marriage and having personal obstacles were themes which may have found resonance to the personally challenged James Whale. He presents his tableau in matter-of-fact style, without undue emphases: Ruth's lonely plight is just something she does everyday.

Lew Ayers as Myron Brown displays a natural ease in his role, and with Whale blocking for him he'll never look better. Supporting roles are well cast. An early Andy Devine keeps the dramatic tone from sinking. On the distaff side, an ebullient Una Merkel is on hand to perk up Ruth. Great casting and solid performances maintain a balance that makes this film more "accessible" than others of this ilk.

The presentation is smartly handled, too. A Whale trademark was a scene transition that followed characters from room to room by tracking the camera through the wall. Though the end of the wall gets a close-up, the viewer's perception is priority. Rose walks from one end of her apartment to the other and in one shot the limits of her 3 room flat are established. Indeed, the film opens with an establishing sequence when Rose leaves for work. In a location shot, she quits her flat into a rundown neighborhood and boards Angel's Flight. She continues her conversation as Arthur Edeson's camera boards and rides down a piece of history. The viewer gets a real feel for what Ruth's life is like.

The attraction between Ruth and Myron is advanced and retracted like waves on the beach. Love can't catch a break until the last reel. Elusive love, what fun the chase is, especially in this film. Recommended.

Clara Bow, the famous sexy flapper, was on her way down as a movie star. Universal was able to arrange with Paramount to get her on loan. Universal had bought the rights to a novel, 'The Impatient Virgin", which, back then, was very juicy, practically pornographic. (It wouldn't be now). Universal expected to make a fortune with that combination.

When she saw the script, La Bow bowed out. Too sexy. The script was made especially for her. Bow was a oner. Exeunt Bow, exeunt the story.

When the script, which followed the book closely, was submitted to the MPPDA, the self-censoring body of the major studios, the organization immediately banned the word 'virgin'. They suggested 'maiden' instead.

They advised against nearly the entire script. The film was assigned to two other directors before James Whale was forced to direct it. He didn't want to, he wasn't interested in it.

The Hays office, which is the MPPDA, advised them to take the heat out of the script. They did. It became a different story, and there was not a single scene in it which was actually hot. (There is a seduction. I won't say if it came off or not).

Whale didn't get along with the star, Lew Ayres. Ayres had made a bunch of movies in the last two years, but he still didn't know his craft. Whale never gave him any advice. He hardly spoke to Ayres.

Still the film garnered some friction. A censor board cut out the main part of the appendectomy scene. It said the seduction was all right.

The film died a quick death, did not get much business in the big city venues, was not re-released, and never made it into Europe.

The review from the New York Times, titled 'A Naive Melodrama', by A. D. S., March 4, 1932 says in part:

Everything it has to say is in the title.

On the whole there seems nothing James Whale, the talented director of "Frankenstein" and "Journey's End," could have done about this one.

What an odd film for James Whale to follow up "Frankenstein" with!

This is a strange little romantic drama, about a woman in love with a young doctor. Because he can't support her financially he leaves her,and she becomes a "kept" woman when she takes up with her wealthy lawyer boss.

At once cynical and romantic, it's hard to work out what the point of the whole thing is. Una Merkel is lots of fun though, and Ethel Griffies nearly steals the picture. And the young and beautiful Lew Ayres is lovingly filmed by Whale. The film also demonstrates what a fine actress Mae Clarke was, and how she deserved better material as she grew older.

In all an unusual and entertaining film from a great director, but also a baffling one.

Coming between the horror classics FRANKENSTEIN (1931) and THE OLD DARK HOUSE (1932), this is all the more disappointing for a Whale movie; in fact, I would say it is even drearier than his worst-regarded effort i.e. THEY DARE NOT LOVE (1941)! The film seems undecided whether it wants to be a comedy or a drama: second leads Una Merkel and Andy Devine are positively irritating but, then, protagonists Mae Clarke and Lew Ayres – both off acclaimed dramatic showcases, she in Whale's own WATERLOO BRIDGE (1931) and he in the Oscar-wining WWI masterpiece ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT (1930) – do not exactly set the screen on fire (incidentally, his doctor role proved prophetic since he would eventually incarnate Dr. Kildare in a long-running series of 'B' pictures!).

To be fair to it, though, the narrative is very typical of the time – with Clarke a secretary in an office dealing with divorce cases (a timely and very hot topic over here at the moment, since Malta is one of only 2 countries in the world which has still not implemented it!) who yearns for romance. She meets Ayres when he is called to pick up an attempted suicide at her tenement house, but their relationship runs far from smoothly…while her dumb pal Merkel falls head-over-heels for his gawky nurse Devine! The trouble concerns both her ageing but suave employer John Halliday's attentions (he even buys her a swank apartment and there is a suggestion that he seduces clients as well!) and Ayres' low income (he is still a student); of course, the two eventually get together in melodramatic fashion – when he has to operate on Clarke due to her suffering from acute appendicitis! Incidentally, despite the title, along the way it is Ayres who does most of the pursuing – in one scene, he phones her up twice in the middle of the night (from an uncredited Walter Brennan's bar!) after having just been with her and then presents himself at her doorstep yet again!

Unfortunately, the copy I acquired is of very poor quality – being generally hazy and missing frames, as well as featuring picture loss and extremely dark night-time sequences; that said, it ran some 7 minutes longer than the official 72-minute length given on IMDb: go figure!

This film starts out with legal secretary Ruth Robbins (Mae Clarke) on her way to the subway to work. Along the way she hears one woman viciously henpecking her husband. Another man says that four years of marriage is enough for any man and walks out on his pleading pregnant wife. Then she gets to work and she is taking dictation in a divorce case where the woman has had enough of her milquetoast husband and is demanding a divorce. This is just another workday though, as her attorney boss is a divorce lawyer. This has, not surprisingly, left Ruth cynical concerning matrimony.

Then, when the pregnant woman who was dumped by her husband attempts suicide, Ruth meets Dr. Myron Brown (Lew Ayres) when he shows up in an ambulance. They are immediately attracted. They don't have your standard dates as Myron invites her to the hospital for an X-Ray and to a medical lecture. Maybe his lack of a blatant come on gets her guard down and she grows to care for him. But he does pop the question. Ruth tells him about all that she has seen and about how all couples start out with high hopes and good intentions and then how their love dies with the death of a thousand cuts. She suggests living together. He angrily refuses and they break up. Meanwhile, Ruth's boss , played by the dapper John Halliday, is waiting in the wings with an offer of being a kept woman. At first I thought this film was going to waste Halliday, but he does show up in this important role towards the end.

Una Merkel does here what she always did so well - provide humorous contrast and a loyal friend to the leading lady as Ruth's roommate. Andy Devine is the male nurse and friend of Ayres' character who takes a shine to Merkel. They have a disastrous pseudo first date that involves Devine's new invention - a zipperless straight jacket. Oh - and he's also very judgmental and moralizing. How does this all turn out ? Watch and find out.

The film has Whales's usual interesting visual style, even for a bunch of mundane settings. Oddly enough, this was the first time Ayres played a doctor, and he said he had the feeling that director James Whale thought him wrong for the part, although one of his early claims to fame was playing the title lead in the Dr. Kildare series over at MGM.