Other Men's Women

The plot is pure hokum, so it's the extras that "make" the movie: The backdrop of trains and trainyards, Joan Blondell in an extraneous role as a saucy waitress, James Cagney in an early supporting part (he has a nice bit on top of a moving train, and also does some dancing), J. Farrell MacDonald helping plant peas by making holes in the dirt with his peg leg, cool bridge and train miniatures, etc. Approach with modest expectations

I woke up early, turned on the T.V. flipped to TMC just as this movie was showing opening credits. Happy Accident! I loved it! Yeah, the plot was hokey and melodramatic, but as a whole the movie was very charming. It was a "moment" filled movie. Lot's of scenes and dialogue that was original, and fun. Like a scene where Bill,Lily, and the Peg-Leg guy are planting seeds in the garden. Or Bill's Tag line "Have a chew on me". It was made in 1931, so they were able to get away with all sorts of lines that would not have been included had the movie been made a few years later, after the code was established. For instance Bill's waitress girlfriend commenting to a customer, "I'm APO, Ain't Puttin' Out". Hee! I always find those pre-code "Talking" films interesting. The films that existed before people got bent out of shape about the things you could and could not say, do, or insinuate in a movie. Definitely a fun and entertaining viewing. Even more fun when you realize a good portion of the things they were saying wouldn't be allowed in movies again until the 1960's.

I have no doubt that when William Wellman directed James Cagney in Other Men's Women he had him filed for future reference and then used him so successfully in The Public Enemy. Cagney and Joan Blondell in secondary parts outshine the leads of Grant Withers, Mary Astor, and Regis Toomey in this working man's love triangle film.

Not that the leads give bad performances, but charisma can't be kept down. Toomey is a railroad worker married to Astor and one night he brings an inebriated Grant Withers home to sleep it off. Turns out that Withers and Astor knew each other back in the day and before long the love sparks start going off.

Around this time Grant Withers was married to Loretta Young ever so briefly, but in Young's Catholic tradition, the marriage was annulled due to his real life drinking and carousing. Withers's excesses led his career on a downward spiral and he took work where he got it and in mostly lower grade films until his suicide in 1959. John Wayne tried to use him in films when he could. Withers would appear in support of James Cagney in 1954 in Run for Cover as a western outlaw leader.

Toomey was a very competent character actor, but just not lead material. Still he does well and in a few years he'd be supporting James Cagney in G-Men. Mary Astor is fine, but far from Brigid O'Shaughnessy, you'd never know it was the same actress.

Cagney as a friend to both Withers and Toomey and Blondell in an early gem of a part as a wisecracking waitress, show exactly why they would rise to the top of the Warner Brothers pecking order.

William Wellman did some very nice location photography in and around the railroad yards, very similar in fact to that done by John Frankenheimer in The Train. And Wellman got good performances from his cast.

But I'm sure he had no doubt as to who a future star was.

Grand film, has all the elements of a greek tragedy with a socko ending. And all ends honorably. A definite 10. Story plot, character development and even the scenery. From a dance-hall to the railroad yards to a bridge under siege by flood. And Jimmy Cagney dances! How could you go wrong. Dialogue a bit 'racy' in spots.

Depression-era movies get to me.

If it's not the plot, the locales, the characters, the old acting style, the old manner of speaking, the manners of the era, the "clean" way of thinking, the gritty realism and authentic feel of location shooting inside or outside or sometimes even the costumes...something always captivates me about the talkies of 30's and late 20's.

There may not be prodigious film-making here but two scenes will remain engraved in my memory:

1- The blind man struggling alone in the rain in the railway yard. One particular close-up was intriguing. There was no intense melodrama here, just a man in turmoil. Wonderfully done.

2- Bill's encounter at the end with an old "friend". As Bill realizes that this old friend may offer him some hope he runs out and boards a moving train. He proceeds to get on the roof to release his romantic glee by running down the entire length of the train from caboose to the engine car. His boyish joy made me smile.

Ah, that bygone era of innocence. With all of the misery that happened then, these were some of the charming highlights that linger on.

We are the richer for the preservation of every film from that era. Each contributes another chapter in the art of film and of the heart of man's growth.