The Devil to Pay!

Ronald Colman plays a prodigal son. While he is NOT a bad guy, he is a bit flighty and hasn't done a lot with his life other than travel the world and have a jolly good time. Now that his latest venture in Africa has failed, he's on his way home to England. His rich upper class father plans on tossing him out on his ear, though thanks to Ronald's winning style, he is reluctantly welcomed back with open arms.

At this point, there are two women in his life--showgirl Myrna Loy and rich girl Loretta Young (who is already engaged). How will all this work out and will Ronald wise up and act like a responsible adult--these are the main themes of this pleasant little film.

This isn't a great movie and certainly won't change your life, but it certainly is very entertaining and fun. Most of this is due to the always genial acting of Ronald Colman. Heck, in the heyday of his career in the 1930s, he could have played in REEFER MADNESS or some other dreck and still made it entertaining and likable due to his charming persona. His seemingly effortless style in this movie make it very easy to like him and it's easy to see why both Loretta Young and Myrna Loy are in love with him in the film! Plus, the writing is very witty and make this a nice romantic-comedy.

This film directed by George Fitzmaurice, who made so many excellent films, is well up to his excellent standard. It is crisp, witty, with some wonderful lines, and has the inimitable Ronald Colman in the romantic lead. Colman plays the irresistibly charming younger son of a wealthy English peer. He is financially irresponsible (spending, for instance, £15 of his last £20 in the world on a cute little terrier whom he names George), but open, wildly generous, contemptuous of lucre, irreverent in the politest possible way, and hopelessly sentimental. He is so dashing that all the women fall in love with him. His girlfriend is a star of the music halls, and hence in 1930 a denizen of the demi-monde, played with her typical svelte, narrow-eyed silkiness by the youthful Myrna Loy. Fitzmaurice was not a great user of closeups, and gals of that day had their faces half-hidden with those awful clinging hats anyway, so we do not get as good glimpses of the faces of the two heroines as we would like. The director seems more interested in the charming Colman, anyway. The romantic female lead is the youthful and fresh-faced Loretta Young, who had not yet become the proto-Julie Andrews we generally know her as, but was still a blushing girl exuding all the sweetness of a rose garden and laughing merrily and heartily the whole time. It is obvious that a character with her terrific sense of humour was needed to appreciate the snob-busting social anarchism of the refreshing aristocratic character played by Colman. The plot barely matters, as is so often the case with these light and amusing films. This is just such fun.

The title notwithstanding, this is a cute little romantic comedy from 1930, and features a lot of star power in Ronald Colman, Myrna Loy, and a very young Loretta Young. Colman is the devil-may-care son of a rich old man who has squandered various opportunities, and is returning home from his most recent in British East Africa. He's so charming and smooth, and you can't help but like the lightness with which he approaches life. He's got a girlfriend in theater star Myrna Loy, but soon falls for the engaged daughter of a friend of the family, Loretta Young. It's interesting to consider the ages of these actors: Young, fresh-faced and just 17(!), Loy, 25, and Colman, 39, but somehow he pulls it off. Young is a bit too girlish in the early scenes in the film, but settles in eventually, and is also quite endearing. Watch it for the two of them.

How can you miss with a cast like Ronald Colman, Loretta Young, and Myrna Loy? The answer is you can't miss. Although Young is a bit cloying in the early part of the film, she is radiant to watch, and a worthy target of the neer do well, Colman. Loy is perfect as the wise-cracking girlfriend who is doomed to second place in the Colman stakes. Colman was perfect for these roles, and would repeat them several times over the course of his career,. Oddly enough, he was at his best in dramatic roles, such as Lost Horizon. Young would go on to date Clark Gable instead of Colman. Loy would gain fame with William Powell in the popular Thin Man series of films. Add a star if you are a soap lover.

"The Devil to Pay" is an early sound comedy romance that has some very terse and sharp dialog from its male lead, Willie Hale, played by Ronald Colman. Opposite him are two young actresses who would go on to film stardom. Both Loretta Young (as Dorothy) and Myrna Loy (as Mary) had been in the silent films a few years before this. Still, this is a very young Ms. Young. She was only 17 when this movie was made, and she had already had the female leads in eight sound films and been in more than a dozen silent films. Myrna Loy was 25 and had been in more than 50 films since her start at age 20 in 1925. Her star was on a slower ascent in Hollywood. Not one of any of the earlier films of these two stars were memorable, or even very good compared to the films they would be in and the roles they would play in the decades ahead. This is by far, the best film for both of the ladies to that time in their careers.

But, the main character of the film, around whom the whole plot revolves, is the more well-known actor at the time, Ronald Colman. His career too began in the silent films. He was 26 when he made his first film in 1917, and he was a popular star by 1930. He had 30 films to his credit, some of which were silent classics. Colman was 22 years older than Young when this film was made - his 39 to her 17. But, besides being a standout talent already in her teens, Loretta Young was a girl who looked much more mature and older than her age - but just the right number of years.

While this is a good comedy, it has a feel of being somewhat disjointed. There are no apparent holes in the plot, but there's no stream that holds together the earliest scene of Willie Hale's (Colman) disposition of his property and goods in South Africa, and then his appearance back home after an absence of two years. Colman gives a nonchalant treatment to his character that is a trademark in his comedies. But, in this case, his wistfulness with his father, Lord Leland (played by Frederick Kerr) is so pronounced that it's hard to take him at all seriously. So, did he fear his father's reaction and treatment, or was that just nonsense?

The story has a nice ending - a type that should be familiar to fans of old black and white movies. There isn't any great acting in here, but Colman's presence is commanding in his scenes. That's most often because one is waiting for and expecting the next bit of comedy or witticism to come from him. Indeed, without the comedy in the dialog, this film wouldn't be much worth watching.

Fans of Colman, Young and Loy should enjoy this film, and others who like the older movies may be entertained by it. But modern audiences would probably struggle to sit through this film. Here are some favorite lines.

Willie Hale, to his father, Lord Leland, "Oh, come now. How could anything I do disgrace you?... Anything disgraceful that I may do merely gains for you an unfair sympathy from a sycophantic world."

Lord Leland, "Now...now you're blaming me for bringing you into the world!" Willie Hale, "Heh, heh, I should be extremely mortified for your sake if I had to blame anyone else."

Willie Hale, "Have you had a moment's boredom since I've been in the wrong? No! Your only trouble is, you have the father complex - 'Here's my son and he hasn't done any of the things I should like him to do and for that reason I should kick him out.'"

Mary, "I'd shoot anyone who tried to take you from me, Willie." Willie, "Are you a good shot?"

Lord Leland, "Well, then, what do you want to go to New Zealand for?" Willie Hale, "Because, if I ever want to go to Australia, I'll be near."