Indiscret

Indiscreet was directed by legendary Leo McCarey and starred superstar Gloria Swanson as a woman who hides her past only to find her ex-boyfriend has taken up with her sister. Dumb plot but played for laughs. Swanson was a marvelous light actress and she looks great here. She sings well and, in only her 3rd talkie, has mastered the new medium. Swanson had a great voice and you hear it here--all the inflections and phrasing-- 20 years before her masterpiece, Sunset Boulevard. What a talent. Too bad after The Trespasser in 1929 her films did not do well at the box office. Ben Lyon is the handsome leading man. Monroe Owsley is the creepy boyfriend. Maude Eburne is funny at the aunt. Arthur Lake, Barbara Kent, Nella Walker and Henry Kolker co-star.

Of all the many silent era stars, most of them female, whose careers would fizzle out in the sound era, the finest of them all was Gloria Swanson. A consummate actress since the late 1910s with a seemingly effortless ability to express vast amounts without stepping out of the bounds of realism, her skill and versatility were initially enough to secure her lead roles in the earliest talkies. Indiscreet is however among her last pictures before going into a retirement of sorts.

The movie is a romantic musical scripted by Buddy de Silva and directed by Leo McCarey, and is very much a product of its "pre-code" time. Just as the Marx Brothers comedies of this era had plots loosely thrown together for the sake of laughs, Indiscreet has a plot loosely thrown together for the sake of cheeky innuendo. One gets the impression that de Silva was a fan of rather crude sexual humour, and would been downright crass if he'd been allowed, the jokes are dressed up in such a sophisticated wit it seems almost admirable. Director McCarey had spent the silent era making slapstick shorts, and this is the earliest feature I have seen of his, but he seems to have adapted well, utilizing the long takes and relaxed camera that stood him in good stead for silent comedy. His gradual angle changes for the first musical number, "If You Haven't Got Love", eventually moving round to have Swanson facing the camera, are a nice way of subtly building up the song. It's a far cry from the ostentatious musical direction that would start to appear a few years later, but it fits the needs of these small, intimate numbers, and hints towards his incredibly light touch for 1944 Oscar-winner Going My Way.

And Miss Swanson's tuneful voice is a pleasant surprise, especially since few ex-silent stars could properly enunciate their lines, let alone sing. Her style seems entirely undaunted by the switch to sound. Still, she remains primarily a performer of visual expression, and Indiscreet provides us with some classic Swanson moments – a devilish flick of her eyes here, a sarcastic glance there. We also get to see some of the best examples of her comedic talents, such as her indignant attempt to butter crackers during the dinner party scene. This also comes as a surprise, since although Swanson started out at comedy studio Keystone she hated her tenure there, and never showed the sense of humour she does here. The other cast members of Indiscreet are certainly adequate, but none of them really stands out, with the exception of supporting player Arthur Lake who is rather good fun to watch. But even he remains a mere satellite around Swanson's star.

So, Indiscreet begs the question: If Swanson is so good here, and seems so smooth in her adaptation to sound, why did she stop making movies, barring one or two sporadic appearances before her spectacular comeback for Sunset Boulevard? It was probably at least partly because roles then tended to dry up for leading ladies once they were a few years into their thirties, and I doubt Swanson would have enjoyed living out her career playing matrons and mothers. And besides, it seems Swanson was by this point getting a little bored of Hollywood and movie life, and probably had in her more than a little of Norma Desmond's contempt for the talkies. But whatever her reasons, as Indiscreet shows, her departure was cinema's loss.

This 1931 release is weighed down by too much wan dialogue (further impaired by a damaged soundtrack). Gloria Swanson, playing some sort of sophisticated commercial artist, dumps her philandering boyfriend (weasly-faced Monroe Owsley as… what else? an irresponsible party boy) for a novelist (charmingly played by Ben Lyon), only to discover months later that her innocent younger sister (Barbara Kent) is now engaged to the cad, whereupon she plots to undo the union. Inserted into this rather unexciting scenario are two good DeSylva, Brown & Henderson numbers, both sung by Swanson ("If You Haven't Got Love" and "Come to Me," the latter sung twice); the music to "One More Time" is heard in a night club scene. If this seems odd for a straight comedy-drama, the reason is that DBH originally wrote the script as a musical. Too bad their plan didn't pan out. Swanson commands the screen but some of the situations she is required to play have dated badly. There are a couple of cute bits of slapstick worked in at a breakfast gathering and a ship's deck, but it's mostly routine and worth a look and listen only if you're a fan of any of the stars or if you like DeSylva-Brown and Henderson songs.

Not by any means a good film (which even director McCarey admits -- see his interview with Peter Bogdanovich in "Who the Devil Made It"), but nonetheless an interesting one. As McCarey points out, the beginning of sound was a difficult period in the film industry, and this one suffered from the "no more musicals!" diktat which followed -- of course -- several musical flops. So the script -- originally a musical by the great team of DeSylva, Brown and Henderson -- was divested of most of its songs and rewritten in ten days. "How was that?," asks Bogdanovich. "Lousy," says McCarey. Well, yes, it's strangely unfocused, veering nervously between comedy and melodrama, and making the viewer nervous withal. Yet it is fascinating to watch Miss Swanson, who, in one of her first sound pictures, combines the gestural grace of the best silent acting with an already secure command of the more naturalistic technique of sound film acting (and has a better than decent singing voice, besides). As with many 1930-31 releases, this one is plagued by a very uneven soundtrack -- one marvels that these problems were so fully overcome within a year or two. Supporting players include Maude Eburne, charmingly blowzy in a Marie Dressler role, and the actor whose most famous performance is that of Katherine Hepburn's father in "Holiday" -- here playing more pleasantly a similar (though slightly less obnoxious) role. Arthur Lake, best known as Dagwood Bumstead, is not easy to watch, but Ben Lyon makes quite a reasonably handsome and charming leading man. Obviously a very uneven film, but worth seeing for its minor virtues.

Indiscreet is a pleasant film in the vein of a P. G. Wodehouse farce with many charming moments. The dialogue is consistently sharp, often amusing, and is similar to the comedic repartee of later films by Preston Sturges, Billy Wilder, and Frank Capra.

The plot revolves around a coquette, Geraldine Trent (Gloria Swanson), who finds the perfect man (Ben Lyon), only to be tempted by an old flame (Monroe Owsley). The choice she makes is easily predictable to connoisseurs of romantic comedy, but the plot is of secondary importance due to the presence of Gloria Swanson.

Prior to viewing Indiscreet, I had never seen Swanson in any other film aside from Billy Wilder's mesmerizing Sunset Boulevard. To see Swanson in this film is to be in awe of her magnetism and talent as an actress. A far cry from some 'one-note' comediennes of the silent era, Swanson imbues an otherwise shallow character with a layered personality. She is truly a forgotten gem of early cinema.

In contrast to Swanson's star power, Ben Lyon is flat and devoid of charm as her love interest. Supposedly one of the more popular stars of Hollywood, I fail to see any justification for such laurels. Indeed, a cardinal sin of any film is when the villain or rival is more charming and attractive than the hero. This film is guilty of that sin with a far more interesting Monroe Owsley cast as the rival.

Despite the lackluster performance of Lyon and some predictable elements, Indiscreet is an entertaining film. At the very least, watch Indiscreet to glimpse a young Gloria Swanson at the height of her powers.