Rockabye

Gorgeous Constance Bennett was a major star of the early 30s and gave several excellent performances (What Price Hollywood? and others) yet she never won an Oscar nomination. She specialized in playing suffering women (as did Kay Francis) in women's pictures—never the kinds of roles that won big awards. In Rockabye, Bennett plays a stage actress who is implicated in a sleazy affair (with Walter Pigeon) where money was involved. In a terrific court- room scene, Bennett blurts out that the baby she is adopting is not Pigeon's child, which is what the prosecutor was trying to establish. Although she tells the truth the newspapers splash nasty headlines about her and the adopted baby is taken away. She flees to Europe where she finds a new play to do on Broadway. She gets involved with the playwright (Joel McCrea) and returns to Broadway in triumph. But that's not the ending.

This briskly paced film is a terrific little pre-Code drama that boasts a wonderful performance by Bennett. McCrea is also very good. Paul Lukas is OK as the love-struck manager. Walter Pigeon has a small role in the opening scenes. Jobyna Howland is a hoot as Bennett's mother. Clara Blandick is the housekeeper, Charles Middleton is the prosecutor, Virginia Hammond is McCrea's mother, Walter Catlett is a barfly, and Sterling Holloway is the night clubber who keeps asking for "Poor Butterfly." And little June Filmer is wonderful as the baby.

Bennett has a few excellent dramatic scenes, gets to sing a jazz number, and then there are all those balloons!

Constance Bennett brings vim and vigor to this soppy story of maternal longings. In Bennett's most recent hit movie, What Price Hollywood, she said, "I can't have a baby in every picture", but in that film, and in Rockabye, no kidding, there's a baby. In Bennett's private life, as all fan mag readers knew, between marriages Bennett had adopted a baby and was raising it as a single, working mom. This was unusual in 1932, but as fan mag readers also knew, Bennett did as she pleased. In Rockabye, Bennett, a celebrated Hollywood star with an adopted baby, plays Judy, a celebrated stage star adopting a baby. A case of art imitating life. Did Bennett's femme fan base vicariously see themselves in Bennett's character, a lone woman with child? Not likely, as Judy did not struggle alone to raise an adorable tyke but had multiple hands assisting - namely a nanny, nurse, governess, cook, and her own mother, plus a male presence in the person of her doting manager. Did Bennett's femme fan base wonder why Bennett didn't marry first and then pursue motherhood? Did the adoption agency wonder? Did audiences wonder why Bennett, at the peak of her Star Power, insisted on making this never produced and unproducible play?

Bennett is fabulous and gives a wonderful and lively performance. In films prior to What Price Hollywood Bennett was passive, even lethargic. In Rockabye she kicks up her heels, sings in a speakeasy with the pals of her youth, gets frisky with scrambled eggs and balloons, and has a rollicking good time with her new love. I suspect Bennett was playing herself, a free-spirit who thumbed her nose at conventions. Bennett too is believable in the script's hard-to-swallow scenes of sorrow and sacrifice. Variety's reviewer wrote, "This actress is one of the few who can somehow achieve conviction in just such stagey things" and "She is accountable for practically all its merits."

How did the public respond to Rockabye? After the opening in New York, Variety predicted it would do well, as all Bennett films had done. Bennett's biographer wrote that it was a colossal box-office flop. TCM wrote that RKO records showed it was a respectable hit and grossed slightly more than the very successful What Price Hollywood. So it was a flop and a hit? Maybe it was both. After a disastrous preview of Rockabye, the film was remade with a new director and costars. This would have doubled production costs and resulted in a loss, regardless of grosses. RKO then wised up - in future, no more babies.

10 stars for Bennett. 0 stars for story.

This enchanting 1933 movie's series of remarkable moments -- a courtroom trial where a blonde Broadway actress actually defends a former "friend;" realistic playtime with a darling little girl; exuberance in a speakeasy, with old chums; a joyously funny, sexy scene in a kitchen; and much more -- are simply delightful. The plot doesn't do justice to the energy and excitement generated by Constance Bennett, Joel MacCrea, Paul Lukas and many others... she's a "Gashouse" neighborhood girl who has made herself into a lady, an actress who searches for love through family, children, travel, a new man, her work, etc., and he's an old-money college-boy playwright with a strong social conscience. And her agent loves her... But see the movie for its pleasures and overlook the occasional creakiness -- it's an unexpected treasure.

I believe this is the earliest Joel McCrea film I've seen thus far, though I am familiar with many of hislater films. By contract, I just discovered Constance Bennett this weekend, watching as I am all her Summer Under The Stars films featured on TCM.

I can now say without reservation that the charm-o-meter pointed entirely in McCrea's direction. He's ridiculously good-looking and has exquisite physical movement. Bennett, while not exactly a dog's behind like, say, Bette Davis, has no s3x appeal, no zip, no nothing. She's just a doll playing dressup. Maybe Depression-Era audiences were thrilled to see her change outfits every scene. Snoozerama for me.

There is one interesting pre-Code scene in the kitchen. Bennett slaps McCrea suggestively. McCrea gives her a playful shove back. They do this a couple more times. All thetime smiling. It's pretty clear what they were going for here. But that's where the thrills end.

Rockabye (1932)

* 1/2 (out of 4)

Growing up trashy but turned into a lady, an actress (Constance Bennett) wants to adopt a child but isn't allowed after her past is brought up in a court trial. This is an early film from George Cukor that really doesn't have any of the charm or spirit that his later films have. The film is incredibly slow moving and the 67-minute running time feels longer than three hours. Bennett is good in her role but she doesn't have a lot to work with and Joel McCrea is wasted as is Walter Pidgeon. With a cast like this you'd expect a lot better.