Customer Reviews

Bachelor Apartment [VHS]

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I must say that I didn't expect to enjoy this movie in another sense than being an early 1930's Pre-Code talkie, an interesting rarity, featuring an early performance by later superstar Irene Dunne.

But I was surprised, because the film is rather funny, thanks to some expert performances, especially by its leading man Lowell Sherman (an actor who also directed some films); maybe he looks somewhat old for playing the "bachelor" to be redeemed of the title (he was 46 when he made the film), but his skill and flair for comedy is undeniable.

Also in the cast, as the girl he falls for, is Irene Dunne, in an early performance as a stenographer. We too, have the rare chance of watching silent diva Mae Murray, who only appeared in three talking pictures (this being one of them) in the early 30s. Yes, at last, I finally had the opportunity of watching the famous diva with the bee-stung lips (I'd never seen any of her more famous silent films). Here she plays an outrageously amoral flirtatious married woman, Mrs. Agatha Carraway, who's after Sherman, in spite of his constant rejections towards her affections. Her performance is affected and flamboyant, but nevertheless funny and winning.

Also in the cast beautiful Claudia Dell, as Dunne's sister, a lesser known early '30s actor, continental and debonair Ivan Lebedeff, and silent star Norman Kerry.

The out of print 1990 Turner Home Entertainment VHS edition features a rather awful copy; people from Turner Classic Movies: This early talkie needs urgent restoring!!.

John Howard Lawson, later one of the blacklisted Hollywood Ten, composed this screenplay which is ostensibly quite the reverse from his normal proletarian bent, but is actually deeply altered by wordsmith J. Walter Ruben to a suave and somewhat risqué (pre-Code) comedy. Fortunately, some sense of Lawson's customary concerns remains, and is dealt with nicely by Irene Dunne, co-starring with the elegant Lowell Sherman, who also directs with his usual flare in this tale of a Park Avenue man about town struggling with a raft of nubile and aggressive young creatures. An early sound film, it forms the first arrangement of what has become a basic cinema plot device, as we know it, that of the carefree unmarried man being chastened from his rollicking ways by exposure to feelings of romantic love. Cinematography by the brilliant Lee Tover is of particular value here and one should advert to the art direction of Max Ree, who garnered an Academy Award for his characteristic talent during this same year (1931) as a result of his work with CIMARRON. Although Mae Murray's flamboyance is transcendental, the acting is generally quite good, with a particularly strong and stage-accented performance from the lovely Dunne as an older sister attempting to shepherd a wayward sibling while standing her own ground against a playboy's blandishments. One of the final pieces of Sherman's tragically shortened directorial career, the film offers many admirable passages, none less so than the opening scene, with that eternal butler Charles Coleman patiently dealing with an importunate telephone and doorbell, setting the pace in a picture that never pushes too hard or tries too strenuously for its effects.

An oddball film, it will only be of interest to die-hard film buffs. While entertaining one of his many lady friends, Wayne Carter (Lowell Sherman), a well-to-do Park Avenue bachelor, is interrupted by the arrival of attractive Helene Andrews (Irene Dunne, in a bizarre role). She has come to the apartment to fetch her younger sister - who is having a tete-a-tete with the butler, not Wayne...Full of actors from the antique era of talkies, including Norman Kerry, Noel Francis, Arline Judge and Bess Flowers, this little curio will be of interest to those who are interested in seeing Mae Murray in a speaking role. Eccentric, affected and thoroughly full of herself, Murray was 42 here (as Agatha Carraway): her once fairly successful career (in silents) would soon be over. Murray was famous for her off-screen eccentricities and haughty behaviour. Her other feature from 1931 was a turkey entitled PEACOCK ALLEY. In 1959, Mae wrote her autobiography: THE SELF ENCHANTED: it was not a best seller, to put it mildly. Murray died in relative obscuriy in 1965, aged 76.