Sur le velours

I say "oddly" because I cannot nail down precisely why I like it so much. There's just something magical and Christmas-like - in a renewed hope kind of way - about this film.

I admit that I would find Terry Parker (George Brent) an unendurable jerk if it were not for the first scene showing the airplane wreck plus his one serious speech to his good friend and benefactor Gibraltar (Warren William) about why he is wrecking his own life with wild abandon. One act of carelessness - not being sure he had enough fuel when he piloted his family to an event - has resulted in all of their deaths while he walked away unharmed, and now he is being intentionally reckless and insuring that he will never be successful or happy. He feels he's living on borrowed time and he wants to be sure he can't pay back the loan.

However, he can't help but reach for some bit of happiness when he meets Amy (Kay Francis) at a party. The two run out on the party, have a grand night together strolling through the park, riding in a carriage, and dunking donuts at dawn in a dingy diner. Then Terry learns that Amy is "Gibraltar's Amy" - the girl that his only true friend in the world loves and just told him about the day before. He won't betray that friendship, so in spite of Amy's pleas that the feeling is not mutual between herself and Gibralter, he refuses to see her any more and goes on a bender to try to get her out of his system. Uncharacteristic for almost any role Warren William ever played, he selflessly finds Terry, sobers him up, brings him back to Amy, and steps out of the way so that Terry and Amy can be together. Amy and Terry are immediately married, and Gibraltar lets them lease a lovely vacant house he owns on Long Island for only 4.50 a month.

The two are fabulously happy at first, but then Terry starts in with his passive aggressive destruction of their marriage. He just can't let himself be happy. The whole thing ends rather abruptly and rather unbelievably in the way that so many 30's Warner films did, but the final scene is sure to warm your heart.

What's great about this movie? It has a rather offbeat and unique premise even if word by word the dialogue is forgettable, Kay Francis and George Brent had amazing chemistry here as in all of their films, and there's that great romantic score playing through most of the film. I always thought that Warner's did these 30's high society dramas actually better than MGM, even though that was somewhat MGM's stock and trade, because Warner's knew to keep things moving and to the point rather than let things drag on as was the case in several similar films by MGM of that same era. Highly recommended.

There's not much of a plot. George Brent piloted a plane which crashed killing his parents and sister, while he walked away with hardly a scratch. So he believes he's living on borrowed time - "living on velvet" as he puts it. But he meets Kay Francis, the fiancee of his best friend, Warren William, and they fall in love. William wants her to be happy and not only approves of their marriage, but helps them out by setting them up in a Long Island estate he rents at $4.50 a month. Still the marriage has its problems because of Brent's irresponsible attitudes about working.

Although the movie is somewhat enjoyable at the melodramatic level, there is one sequence that had me in stitches. To appreciate it, you must know in advance that Kay Francis always had trouble with the letter "r", which often sounded like "w". I notice it in all her movies. Here, George Brent gently ribs her about it. The night they meet, he tells her he likes the sound of her voice, and asks her to say something nice and long. She begins "30 days has September, Apwil June..." "Apwil? Apwil?" he interrupts. "Repeat after me please 'Around the rugged rocks the ragged rascals ran'." Miss Francis repeats it, purposely exaggerating the "w" sound and starts her poem again this time saying "Aprrril", but letting the "w" sound creep in for some of the other months. It is a very funny sequence. As star of the movie, she easily could have suppressed that dialogue, but all the more power to her for letting it stay. It raised my opinion of her considerably.

Director Frank Borzage goes out of his romantic comfort zone where a pair of lovers is trying to survive in a dangerous, shattered world. Here the emotional damage is in the relationship itself as the husband is suffering from PTSD arising from survivor's guilt. And in dealing with this decidedly unromantic situation Borzage's dreaminess and airiness of tone just seems all wrong. Not only is it stupidly sexist in its eschewing all medical help...psychiatry was certainly available to affluent couples in 1935...and insisting on the wife's sole responsibility to effect the healing, but it seems to trivialize the very real horrors of this particular mental illness as George Brent goes through the first three fourths of the film with insouciant charm and a never ending line of banter that we're supposed to find, as Kay Francis playing his wife does, delightfully eccentric rather than disturbingly delusional. And when Francis finally leaves him and he suddenly, magically, and most unconvincingly decides to pull himself together and declare himself cured we're supposed to buy it 'cause the couple is sitting in a snowstorm, all snuggly, while the snowflakes and the annoyingly mushy score swirls around them. And you just want to grab Borzage by his sentimental shoulders and order him to watch some Cukor or Sirk to properly restore his balance of light to darkness. Give it a C plus.

PS...I'm guessing this is the first film to even hint at global warming even though they erroneously blame it on the gulf stream.

There's really nothing too special about LIVING ON VELVET to distinguish it from many other Warner melodramas of the '30s. The trio of stars--GEORGE BRENT, KAY FRANCIS and WARREN WILLIAM--are suitably cast in the leads and the script moves along at a brisk pace to tell the story of an adventurer (Brent) and a society woman (Francis) who fall in love but can't seem to save their failing marriage until he nearly loses his life in an accident. The plot is really as simple as that.

It's performed capably by the three stars with Warren Williams given little to do except to stand on the sidelines while Brent and Francis fall in love. Director Frank Borzage keeps the story moving swiftly after the first meeting of Kay Francis and George Brent at a party wherein they fall instantly in love. Nothing much happens except that their romance loses its luster when she decides to walk out on him, but soon returns for the happy ending.

It passes the time pleasantly, but don't expect too much. It's typical Warner Bros. romantic fare for Miss Francis and that's about it.

Kay Francis, George Brent, and Warren William star in this romantic love story directed by Frank Borzage. Living On Velvet is a typical tender romance that Borzage liked to direct. But he's done so much better with other films.

Warren William's character is too unreal. He and Kay Francis are an item until Brent appears in her life. Then William just steps aside and starts playing cupid. I don't see that in real life.

As for Brent he's a rich guy who likes to fly. That is until his parents and sister are killed in a crash that he walks away from. Then he becomes an irresponsible vagabond in need of a keeper. Francis decides to be said keeper. Why his salvation is so important we never do find out.

Living On Velvet has some plot similarities to another Borzage film Next Time We Love. It's sure not as good as The Mortal Storm or Three Comrades.

Nice, but not nearly as good as the aforementioned work.