Anybody's Woman

Ruth Chatterton had some really odd roles over at Paramount. This is a pretty conventional precode tale full of conventional precode tropes, but Ruth Chatterton is the whole show.

Attorney Neil Dunlap (Clive Brook) is dumped by his wife for a wealthy man. He's in a hotel drinking to forget when he sees Pansy Gray (Ruth Chatterton) playing a ukulele and singing in the building across from him. Neil's companion asks Pansy and her companion to come over and join them. They do. A drunken Neil proposes to and marries Pansy that night. A slightly more sober Neil discovers what he did the next morning AND that it made all of the papers. He is going to have the marriage annulled, but an acquaintance, Gustave (Paul Lukas) tells Neil that he respects him for this unconventional act and convinces him to give the marriage a try. Neil thinks he is giving Pansy a chance to "make good".

Well, at home back in Wilmington,DE (Wilmington??? I have to give the film points for an unconventional setting) Pansy has to deal with winning everybody over, including the servants, who are ready to walk out rather than work for her. Her new husband is polite to her, even sobers up with her help, but he is just being "nice". He does not love her. And then something happens that makes him pour out all of his doubts about her character to her. How does this work out? Watch and find out.

Chatterton's Pansy is honest and she knows how to roll with the punches life throws her, but she doesn't quite know how to deal with all of these snobs in her husband's world, especially when she is not clear on who are and are not her friends, because if she is not accustomed to kindness from people, up to now at least she could count on authenticity.

The print I saw had the title "Anybody's Woman" blacked out and a new title "The Better Wife" printed over it. Maybe an artifact of the production code era? By the way, that title is NOT referring to Pansy. This film gets good performances out of all of the main players - Brook, Chatterton, and Lukas. It has very intelligent dialog, and except for the fact that the film could not seem to change scenes without intertitles, it really is quite modern in its viewpoint. And who would ever think that an electric room fan could become a plot device in a romantic moment?

"Anybody's Woman" is the sort of woman that should have been better. It took an interesting idea and didn't do enough with it.

The story begins with Neil (Clive Brook) moping after his wife has divorced him for a guy who is even richer than he is. Feeling very sorry for himself, he goes on a bender and marries a woman with a very colorful past! Pansy (Ruth Chatterton) is a stripper who Neil defended in court several years before and he insists that she is an honest woman...unlike his ex-wife! But when he sobers up, Neil is shocked to see what he's done. He wants to do the honorable thing and either pay her off or keep her...but there is no love or tenderness. As for Pansy, she's a tough woman but also one with a lot of good in her down deep. What's to come of them?

The notion of a man marrying beneath him and later discovering that she is actually a great gal could have worked. But too many dull moments and an odd drunk scene that confused everything just prevented the film from gaining much momentum. Not terrible...but also not all that good either.

Although the only copy seems to be a horribly degraded print on YouTube, it's still worth watching. It's an intelligent and mature, well acted study of the sexism and snobbery which pervaded society in the late twenties. Ruth Chatterton gives an outstanding and inspiring performance which is unusually natural for such an early film.

Clive Brook plays a member of the social elite, he finds himself unexpectedly married to Chatterton's character who might now be called a cheap tart. He thinks he's helping her out of the gutter, she's not too sure. Her suspicions are correct - the social inequality of this impossible mismatch is subtly and skilfully conveyed in Dorothy Arzner's fifth talkie.

Like most of her pictures, this shines a vivid arc light on the unfair attitudes towards women but also on the snobbery of the time. Dozens of films from this period tackled the subject of social injustice but most resorted to sensationalist melodrama, usually with a 'tart with a heart of gold' type being used and abused by an evil moustache twirling villain. Here the rich man in his castle is just as damaged and vulnerable as the poor girl at his gate. Clive Brook's character may seem absurdly pompous by today's standards but he reflected what the upper echelons of society were really like. Since people like that don't exist anymore it's difficult to relate to him but even so, we do develop some emotional empathy for him.

On several occasions, some of Brook's friends try to grope and kiss his new wife but Brook is completely unable to understand that a "woman like that" could possibly be insulted by such behaviour, They were gentlemen after all. Although she's his wife, she's still just a cheap 'showgirl', that's how you treat such people. "What on earth is wrong with the woman?" His typical for the time attitude that "women like that" cannot have the same sensitivity or respect that "decent women" have is cleverly challenged in this. Although directed by proto-feminist Dorothy Arzner and written by one of her favourite female writers, the great Zoe Akins (who was responsible for many fabulous pictures in the thirties - not just HOW TO MARRY A MILLIONAIRE) and even edited by a woman, the film does not present the gentleman as monsters - they're just the way people were and in this film they're actually treated quite sympathetically. Very refreshing.

But it's not all feminist and working class indignation. It's actually an enjoyable story about love blossoming in the most unlikely of circumstances. It's quite unique in that aspect so well worth worth watching - despite to poor YouTube quality.

Doubtless one of the reasons it was felt that there was a pressing need for a production code in 1930 was that Hollywood was still habitually depicting respectable Americans nonchalantly consuming alcohol a full ten years after it had been criminalised; the perils of drink in this particular case being hammered home by the fate of Lawyer Neil Dunlap who wakes up one morning with a massive hangover and a hefty new wife.

As Dunlap's new spouse Ruth Chatterton seems to have been accidentally sent a script meant for Mae West, since first seen she's strumming a ukelele and next thing she's doing an Apache dance. As the film progresses Miss Chatterton's dress sense improves considerably (would that the same could said for her common sense since every time she raises a glass to her lips she returns straight to zero).

For those seeking subversive content the fact that the seductive Other Woman is actually Dunlap's first wife should keep them busy.

Neil Dunlap (Clive Brook) marries burlesque performer Pansy (Ruth Chatterton) after a drunken night which he does not recall. His sister tries to convince him to dissolve the marriage as Pansy is not in the same social class as her lawyer brother. We are also introduced to Gustave (Paul Lukas) who is a friend of Neil's and who falls in love with Pansy. The film follows the story of her fight for acceptance from Neil while Gustave simultaneously plays his cards up front and asks for her love in return for his. She must choose between the two men.....

The film is OK. Ruth Chatterton plays her role well and it is good to see that she can give as good as she gets - she is also self-sacrificing and funny. Clive Brook is annoying in his drunk scenes but good when sober and Paul Lukas gives a determined performance as Gustave, who is a wealthy client of Neil's. There are some good scenes, eg, when Neil confronts Gustave about making love to Pansy and both men are brutally honest with each other......However, I felt that more could have happened during the course of the film. Still, it's OK.