Renúncia de Amor

Spoiled rich girl (Carole Lombard) falls in love with poor boy (Lyle Talbot). But her father's financial troubles may force her to marry a wealthy prince. Pre-Code soaper features a scene of Carole Lombard in her underwear, which is as good a selling point as any. Carole's good in this and, of course, beautiful. Talbot does okay. Nice supporting cast. Louise Closser Hale is great as Carole's grandmother, Walter Connolly her extremely likable father, and C. Aubrey Smith fine in a villainous role. Enjoyable enough. It's not a bad movie of its type. Helps if you're a big fan of Lombard. The ending seems silly on paper but was surprisingly effective.

Carole Lombard was loaned from Paramount to Columbia to star in No More Orchids in which she plays a spoiled heiress, not unlike the one she played in her later classic My Man Godfrey.

She lives pretty high on the hog, but the pig is about to be slain as this is the Great Depression and the bank that her father Walter Connolly heads is about to go belly up. Her grandfather C. Aubrey Smith does not like his son-in-law.

But he does like his granddaughter and he wants Lombard to marry some empty suit with a title. He fancies being in-laws to nobility. He's got the empty suit picked out. but Lombard wants to marry lawyer Lyle Talbot.

In the end it's Connolly who makes the sacrifice so that Lombard can live her life with whom she loves. Won't say how.

Good performances all around. The revelation here is C. Aubrey Smith who usually plays stern but upstanding upper crust types is a real no good in this one. Good but way off type for him.

A wonderful cast of supporting character actors enlivens a soap opera about how Carole Lombard falls in love with reverse-snob Lyle Talbot and thwarts the plans of her grandfather -- played by the wonderful C. Aubrey Smith -- to marry his family into European royalty. In the meantime her father -- played by Walter Connolly -- is about to see his bank fail.

It seems apparent that the novel on which this book is based is a lot more complex than this movie. The dialogue is competent, but not great, and people tend to play types rather than individuals. But while this is not a great movie, the wonderful players make it far more enjoyable than anyone would expect it to be. Even Lyle Talbot, usually confined to a simple juvenile lead at his home base of Warner Brothers in this period, is excellent, if a tad declamatory.

"Annie" (Carole Lombard) is the spoilt gal used to delaying ocean liners and swapping her baubles at dinner. It's on that very boat, that she encounters "Tony" (Lyle Talbot) who proves completely impervious to her charms and that just makes her even more determined to get her man. Meantime, she gets home to her family where, unbeknownst to her, her banker father (Walter Connolly) is in a bit of a bind. The family wealth comes from her grandfather (Sir C. Aubrey Smith) and he will only help out if she agrees to marry an European prince. She loves her man, she loves her father, her grandad only loves himself and his dynastic plans. What will she do? I like Lombard. She always managed to exude a strength of character, usually disguised amidst some ditziness and flamboyance and here's there quite a bit of defiance too. Talbot does fine as her onboard foil, Connolly likewise as her out-of-his-depth dad and there are also a punchy series of contributions from Louise Closser Hale as the cocktail-loving grandmother. The ending is really quite fitting, but not in the way you might expect and with some really quite lively writing throughout, it's a good watch.

Rather schizophrenic comedy-drama from post-Prohibition but pre-Hays Code, meaning Carole Lombard gets to strut around in her flimsies, make prurient wisecracks, and be not the least timid about getting what she wants. She's a rich girl with a bumbling banker dad (Walter Connolly, playing virtually the same role as a year later in "It Happened One Night") and an aren't-I-adorable grandma (Louise Closser Hale, trying to be May Robson) who falls for unrich Lyle Talbot (a perfectly OK leading man, who looks a bit like the pre-mustachioed Gable, and has some of the Gable swagger). Why her awful grandpa would insist on her marrying somebody else isn't clear, nor is it clear why the sacrifice at the end makes everything all right. But ignore the plot and enjoy the ribald ripostes, and, especially, Carole looking gorgeous and wriggling around with great vivacity. She has star quality, but beyond that, she's a real actress, and you'll notice how carefully she's building and sustaining a not-always-likable character. Fine work.