Marianne

When most silent stars feared the talkies, Marion Davies jumped in with this saucy musical comedy, playing a WW I French girl wooed by 3 American doughboys (Lawrence Gray, Cliff Edwards, and Benny Rubin). Good songs, including title tune and 'Just You, Just Me," as well as Edwards' solo (I forget the title) keep this early talkie moving nicely. Davies was a consummate comedienne and proves it in her starring talkie debut, doing impressions of Maurice Chevalier and Sarah Bernhardt as well as singing and dancing. Edward and Rubin are good comic foils, and Gray is a handsome leading man. Solid MGM talkie with good production values and sound. Davies and Gray had starred together in the silent film, "The Patsy." And I SILL say that Davies ranks with Lombard, Loy, and Arthur as the 30s best comediennes.

In the title role of Marianne was Marion Davies in her sound debut at MGM. In this she plays a French waif who is engaged to a French soldier blinded in combat played by George Baxter. That is until the sight of doughboy Lawrence Gray gets her French mojo going.

It's not a great film by any means, but it does display the comedic talents that Davies he had. She's positively a pixie in this film flitting back and forth between Baxter and Gray.

Benny Rubin and Cliff Edwards get to do a comedic bit or two, but this film without a big male screen name opposite Davies allows the film to really be her show. As this film is pre-Code there are some truly risque lines and situations in it. There is also a French language version shot simultaneously with some cast alterations.

Marianne is not a great film, but a must for a Marion Davies fans.

French farm girl MARIANNE has constant difficulties with the American soldiers stationed in her barn after the Armistice.

This film was the starring talkie debut for Marion Davies, one of the most charming and talented actresses of her day. As the mistress of William Randolph Hearst, one of America's most powerful men, Davies probably could have had her pick of roles. In some respects, MARIANNE is an odd choice. There is virtually no action, most of the scenes take place in a kitchen and a barn, and Davies speaks her entire dialogue, often in French, with a very thick accent. But she is so lively and full of joie de vivre, so infectiously good-natured even when angry, even mimicking Chevalier & Bernhardt, and impersonating a young male officer, that she becomes the main reason for watching the film today. It is indeed unfortunate that Marion Davies' gifts have become obscured and her films nearly forgotten.

Lawrence Gray, who had shown much skill as a comic actor during Silent days and had worked with Davies then, here plays the American doughboy who falls for Marion. The funny business is handled by two of MGM's newest acquisitions, Yiddish dialect comedian Benny Rubin and ukulele-playing Cliff Edwards. Marion's noble French boyfriend is enacted by George Baxter.

As with many other early sound films, the movie suffers with too much talk. However, the recurring musical sequences are mostly quite welcome. The opening scene, with its idyllic look at Marion's village, shows the quality of art direction for which MGM was famous.

And pity the poor pig Anatole!

I have been interested in Marion Davies ever since my first visit to "The Ranch", Wm Randolph Hearst's estate in San Simeon, now a California state park.

Charlie Chaplin considered Marion to be one of the best female comedians (the IMDb spell checker can't find the female equivalent) - the tragedy as I have heard is that Hearst kept pushing her to do dramatic roles. This was one such movie - and I understand her first "talkie" (besides one of the world's first) - there are some scenes of her in a comedy role but I have to say the movie was so boring to me I hit fast forward (it is not in the theaters anymore ;-) ) - just to get to the end.

Of the Marion Davies movies I have seen, so far "Show People" is my favorite - in it you can tell she has a self-deprecating sense of humor about herself and "show people" (particularly if they have met success)

Anyway I think my giving this a "5" was generous - it seem to just wander and wander without a destination until the end.

With the current rush to assure us that Marianne Davies was the victim of a CITIZEN KANE hatchet, job her films are being rather weirdly up rated.

MARRIANNE creaks and what Davies shows here is guts rather than talent, performing in French (of a sort), singing, doing her impressions and delivering the awful `I present you with the air' dialogue with a scary determination, she registers like somebody's mum trapped into appearing in a local operetta society performance.

The studio have poured the best state of the art technique into the piece with varied angles, glossy sets and even a wobbly dissolve in camera to impress the voracious early talkie audience but they would have done better to flesh out the doughboys in Europe plot with more than the two gags they repeat endlessly.

Of the desperate cast, Benny Rubin manages to seem most at ease.