Courage

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.

The story begins when Willie Smith is a child. He has no interest in school or a career and is a dreamer. This is made worse by very inconsistent parenting--with the father trying to be strict and the mother coddling the boy. Years pass....and Willie has been bouncing about the world doing various jobs and getting fired from them. One reviewer described him as a wastrel...and this isn't far from the truth.

Later, Willie meets a woman whose station is well above him. She is the daughter of an admiral and he's about to lose yet another job. On impulse, she insists he marry her....which common sense would say is not a great idea. Can they manage to make a go of it....especially since his job prospects are minimal? And, if they do marry, what next?

This is only a fair film. I think part of it is the plot but to me the bigger problem is the dialog. It all seems to dreadfully earnest and artificial...like a play and not real life. Not terrible but clearly among Robert Montgomery and Madge Evans' lesser work.

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!

"Lovers Courageous" is billed as a drama and romance, but it is much more than that. It is a powerful, deep love story. From the first encounter of Willie and Mary, one can sense an attraction of souls. This is akin to the poor boy meets right girl theme; and spoiled child meets reality. It's also a story of adventure for the sake of experience, which more than one renowned novelist has lived. Combine them all, and one has "Lovers Courageous."

It's a story with depth of feeling and expressions of those feelings in some passages of erudite dialog. And, although not considered a comedy, it has some witty dialog in places.

The lead roles are played wonderfully by Robert Montgomery and Madge Evans as Willie and Mary. But others of the cast are excellent as well. Roland Young has a type of guardian angel role. While his Jeffrey seems to harbor deep affection for Mary, his is a love that is most interested in her genuine happiness. He has met and respects Willie. So, when it's so apparent that Mary and Willie have such love, he will do what he can to help them be reunited. Reginald Owen is excellent as Jimmy and Frederick Kerr is very good as the admiral, Mary's father.

The love between Willie and Mary is expressed in rich dialog. It may seem slow to some at times, and those who don't particularly enjoy such deep stories will find the pace too slow. But for others, the story and pace move along just right.

The screenplay was written by British playwright Frederick Lonsdale (1881-1954). The story is somewhat autobiographical of Lonsdale, except for the globe-trotting travels of Willie. In the film, Willie works as a tobacconist, which is what Lonsdale's father was. Lonsdale was born in Jersey of the Channel Islands, and drifted around the UK, taking different jobs. As with Willie in this film, he struggled for several years trying to become a playwright. His breakthrough came through his wife. She was working as a chorus girl to support them when she showed a script to her employer who, in turn, sent it to producer Frank Curzon. That led to the stage production of his first work, the highly popular 1908 musical, "King of Cadonia." He would write more librettos for musicals and many stage comedies. More than two dozen of his plays were made into movies.

The year 1932 had many very good films, and "Lovers Courageous" did well at the box office. While filmed entirely at MGM studios in Hollywood, the film has some stock footage of a passenger ship sailing.

Incidentally, Lucky Charms was a brand of cigarettes in the UK in the 1930s, and typical of brands of smokes at the time, it had a sort of sales gimmick. Some brands offered coupons redeemable for gifts. This one had collectable charm cards. They were pictures of various items: The Heart, The Frog, The Cross 'Scorpio, The Abraxas, The Scarab, and others. Why anyone would want those is beyond me.

Here are some favorite lines from the movie.

Mary, "Of course, I intend to marry Jimmy." Jeffrey, "Good! Pity he's so rich, isn't it?" Mary, "Why?" Jeffrey, "You'd make such a marvelous, uhm, poor man's wife." Mary, "Sarcastic little brute, aren't you?"

Mary, "Tell me, do you mean to be a tobacconist all your life?" Willie, "Being a tobacconist, being a cowboy, being all of the things I've been, all of these are interests on the way." Mary, "To what?" Willie, "If I told you, you might laugh, and that would be discouraging." Mary, "No, won't, I promise."

Willie, "Sometimes, I'm so unhappy I can't sleep, and sometimes I'm so happy I don't want to." Mary, "Because of me?" Willie, "Sometimes I'm so happy, I don't need food. And sometimes I'm so unhappy, it chokes me." Mary, "Because of me?" Willie, "No - because I've got to be in the tobacconist shop tomorrow morning at nine o'clock."

Jimmy, "I say, you look as though a couple days of hunting would do you good."

Willie, "What are you doing here?" Mary, "I've come to ask you to be my husband." Willie, "Are you mad?" Mary, ,"Stark staring in love with you."

Willie, "Wait a minute. Where are you going to stop until we get married?" Mary, "Well, I'll stay here." Willie, "Oh, you can't do that." Mary, "Oh, don't talk nonsense." Willie, "But..." Mary, "If you say another word, I'll pop into the bed now." Willie, "Don't you dare!" Mary, "Oh, what a prude you are."

Admiral, "But, for your mother's sake and mine, you won't do this." Mary, "Aren't you and mother only concerned about my sake?" Admiral, "Why, off course." Mary, "Then why do you want me to marry a man I'll be unhappy with? You only seem to be concerned with what other people will say. Things that don't matter. Not me at all."

Admiral, "Do you realize you'll make Jimmy look the most awful fool that ever lived, and break his heart?" Mary, "One good day's hunting will mend that."

Willie,, "I think for a common little tobacconist's assistant, I behaved rather well. Because, as a playwright, I could have been terribly unpleasant."

Willie, "The next time I marry, I'm going to have a chorum service." Mary, "The next time I marry, I'm going to marry a man who doesn't pinch me when the minister says 'obey.'"

Mary, "Willie?" Willie, ,"Mm hmm?" Mary, "Where'd you steal that meat from?" Willie, "Jones." Mary, ,"Good, wasn't it?" Willie, "Mm hmmm". Mary, ,"There must be an awful lot of nice people in jail."

Willie, "We'll go to Paris, Rome, anywhere!" Mary, "No! Let's stay home and have a baby". Willie, ,"Yes, let's."