Sur le velours

At it's core, this is just a typical parlor drama of the thirties. All of the voyeuristic fantasy of the wealthy classes is on display for the masses. Largesse and a total lack of want or fear of it, pervades the film from start to finish. Even the disasters revolve around the objects of the very rich; personal airplanes, big automobiles, etc. George Brent plays George Brent and does it well. Kaye Francis emotes all over the place but does manage to come off as self deprecating with a wink, wink scene in which she makes fun of her famous speech impediment. Warren Williams spends much of the film, wearing a hang dog expression as the unrequited beau of Francis and Brent's noble pal. Combined with an illogical plot and eye rolling dialogue 'Velvet' is another great depression, studio artifact notable for only the curious, era psychology of it's target audience.

Coming just before " Stranded" , a movie dealing with the plight of people left out in the cold ," Living On Velvet" ,if there were any doubt about it,shows how much Frank Borzage was an auteur.His sympathy for suffering people was infinite and the things he tells us still reverberates today.

A man has lost all his family in a plane crash.So he is "living on velvet" now,playing the part of a faux bon vivant,incapable of "filling the void" .A man ("Gibraltar") will have to sacrifice his true love for a woman to give Clarence a reason to believe in life again.There are real saints in Borzage's work: Margaret Sullavan would do the same in " the shining hour" where she's willing to leave her husband she loves dearly so that two people will be happy.

Like this ? try these ......

"Phone Call from a stranger" (Jean Negulesco,1952) "Fearless" (Peter Weir,1993)

A young wife tries to bring her improvident husband's head out of the clouds before his dreaming spoils their relationship.

What might have been a mere soap opera in other circumstances, here, thanks to high production values & a literate script, comes across as a fine, thoughtful drama. Most especially, however, the film owes a great deal to the trio of excellent performances which raise it above the ordinary.

Kay Francis, crisply articulate, coolly sensual, plays the wife who wants to make a success of her marriage, but is afraid her husband will never come down to reality. George Brent, playfully sophisticated, is the pilot fleeing a terrible personal tragedy, feeling he has cheated death and life from henceforth is mere LIVING ON VELVET. Warren William takes what is essentially a supporting role and turns it into something special. As the wealthy friend of Brent's who loves Miss Francis terribly, he assumes the role of benefactor for the couple, swallowing his own disappointments in an attempt to see them successfully established in marriage. Together, the three stars enact a story well worth watching.

Elderly Helen Lowell portrays Miss Francis' stern aunt. Samuel S. Hinds has the tiny role of Brent's doomed father. Slow-burning Edgar Kennedy helps to liven up a scene as an exasperated diner counterman.

Movie mavens will recognize chubby Harry Holman, uncredited, as a nervous bartender.

The brief & dangerous military air show flying sequence, early in the film, is especially well presented.

Well, I have to start by saying that my hubby and I only watched maybe one-third of this movie before turning it off and switching to another TCM recording - and we are both bigtime George Brent and Kay Francis fans, especially when they are together! Kay looked lovely (in her lovely gowns), and George was charming (and I've always liked Warren William) but the plot was TOTALLY UNBELIEVABLE! This is one of those films where you really have to "suspend disbelief."

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.