Courage

English boy Willie Smith (Robert Montgomery) refuses to be only a clerk in the post office. He becomes a globetrotting nomad. He gets various odd jobs like a bell boy in Toronto and a Canadian cowboy. He ends up in South Africa where he meets Mary Blayne (Madge Evans), the daughter of a British admiral. She is left to choose between an unpleasant engagement and Willie on his unlikely playwright dream.

This pre-Code romance is rather straight. The pairing doesn't have the most heated chemistry. As far as I can tell, she falls for him for being a former Canadian cowboy. Maybe it's more than that, but they do need to work on that meet-cute. As for the melodrama, it gets rather boring especially since the couple is apart. I never got that taken with this relationship.

For some reason anyone who says a wrong word about this film gets the thumbs down.Well i don't care this film is so creaky that you can positively see the joints ache.The characters seem to be set in a sort of nevernever land which only existed in plays or films.Montgomery is hardly believable as an Englishman,whatever the slight excuses for his accent.Roland Young is totally wasted.Madge Evans seems totally vapid.One reviewer has referred to it as being a "precode"film,but other than the last line i cannot see very much in this that would not have been passed by the censor in 1934.Quite frankly this film is simply not worth watching unless there is absolutely nothing else to do such as watching the grass grow!

Other internet sources state this is a rare direct-to-screen original by Frederick Lonsdale, the playwright responsible for such drawing-room comedies as THE LAST OF MRS. CHEYNEY and like the two versions of that film (1929 & 1937), this one bubbles and sparkles with great lines. From Robert Montgomery's first scene, he delivers clever observations with the clipped wit of an intelligent philosopher filled with the wonder of discovering something better in life. Lots of short funny scenes as he wanders the globe drifting from job to job, gathering experiences to enrich his writing. Lovely Madge Evans (better known for DINNER AT EIGHT & David COPPERFIELD) plays the pretty and pampered daughter of a high society stalwart member, an admiral with plans for her to marry "well." Fate introduces these two idealistic lovers in a lowly tobacconist shop and their perceptive exchange quickly shoots arrows through their hearts. They are fated to love forever before the scene ends. Starting with humor, gracefully slipping into romance, spiking with the passions of obsessive love, dipping down into harsh realities only to be tried and tested… the ending comes as only a playwrights guilty pleasure could imagine.

Bottom line, I loved it and fans of smart precode love stories will relish in this forgotten little gem! 8 out of 10!

When Halliwell Hobbes describes his and Beryl Mercer's son as a wastrel sad to say he was proved right. The son who grows up to be played by Robert Montgomery is just that. It's a term of the century before the last and more used in the United Kingdom than here. I wish it was in more usage now because it describes many that I've known.

Those people also don't have the good luck to have a happy ending fall from right out of the blue as is in Lovers Courageous. We get to see a bit of Montgomery's life going from place to place and occupation to occupation never 'finding himself'. Eventually he meets and charms Madge Evans in South Africa, daughter of British admiral Frederick Kerr. They marry without his approval and live a life of not so genteel poverty.

I've known a few in my life so that this kind of movie about a wastrel won't find a friendly audience with me. Nevertheless the cast does a fine job.

But I doubt you'll believe the ending either.

I have been a Madge Evans fan for 55 years, and I believe this movie is among her best. Not only is she at her most beautiful, her acting is extremely touching because she is at her most vulnerable. Madge Evans is the wealthy daughter of an English man who falls in love with a poor playwright. (Robert Montgomery).

Madge Evans had a contract at MGM for 5 years before they dropped her. Irving Thalberg was a genius, but he missed the chance to make Madge Evans a huge star. She does comedy and drama equally well.

This movie is truly a little gem that you will treasure. Unfortunately, it is not available on DVD, but you can catch it on TCM. Enjoy!