Customer Reviews

Pre-Code Hollywood - The Risque Years (Of Human Bondage / Millie / Kept Husbands)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

"Millie" and "Kept Husbands," both made in the very early 30s, are both a delight--a journey into America's past when movies were amazingly frank and frisky. "Millie" is the dramatic show-stopper with the legendary Helen Twelvetrees delivering a powerhouse performance. She's Millie, a weepy, naive young woman who marries a jerk and then she falls for another, bigger jerk. She has a baby who grows up to be a beautiful young woman. You watch Millie being used and dumped by more heels and she becomes increasingly bitter and gradually becomes an alcoholic. By this time, Millie has become a bitter, haggard woman who murders the sleazy heel who tries to seduce her daughter. In the courtroom scenes, Twelvetrees looks amazinly like Susan Hayward in her later years and the movie ends rather abruptly. But the scenes of Twelvetrees defending her daughter will stay in your mind, long after the movie has ended. "Kept Husbands,' is a risque, sophisticated drama, beautifully scripted and acted by Joel McCrae and Dorothy Mackail. Both are delightful as the beautiful young couple who marry for all the wrong reasons. Dorothy wants to "keep" her handsome architect all to herself and arranges a In-Name-Only high priced job with her father's construction empire. Joel is finally repulsed of being a kept husband and flees. The two stars are totally delightful. This is the first time I've seen Mackail and in some scenes, she looks exactly like Marion Davies, a close friend. You can't go wrong visiting the past in these two gems of a by-gone era where women were always beautifully gowned and everyone sat around having cocktails, flirting madly with each other and then slinking off into the boudoir.

Millie (Helen Twelvetrees) is a young girl jumping into marriage with a man named John (James Hall). Despite her inhibitions, she puts all she has into their relationship and bears a child, but finds that John has been cheating on her. She drops him and soon moves on to Tommy (Robert Ames), a reporter who appears to be very devoted to her. Not the case, as pointed out by Millie's two best friends, lovers Helen (Lilyan Tashman) and Angie (Joan Blondell). Time goes on, and Millie's daughter Connie (Anita Louise) becomes a beautiful young teenager, who unsuspectingly draws glances from men old enough to be her father.

For a pre-code, this film is surprisingly dull. Yes Millie is a woman who has "loved" multiple men who have jilted her, and yes she knows men that try to take advantage of both jaded and naive women, but these things are staples of melodrama, a genre that transcended the production code. The most shocking thing here is the lesbian relationship between Blondell and Tashman, which is only mildly important to the story.

The Alpha version of Millie is exceptional. The print quality is outstanding and far better than I expected. This is the old Pre-Code story about Mother Love with exceptional performances by Helen Twelvetrees, Joan Blondell, Lilyan Tashman, and John Halliday.

MILLIE, produced by Radio Pictures Corp. in 1931, is a fascinating Pre-Code marvel starring lovely Helen Twelvetrees in the title role. Another reviewer has already outlined the plot, so there's no need for me to elaborate on that. Suffice to say, if you have a fondness for the movies of Pre-Code Hollywood, MILLIE will deliver a fun evening of entertainment.

Fans of Joan Blondell will love her early supporting role as one of Millie's wisecracking friends; she plays a woman involved in a thinly-veiled lesbian relationship with Lilyan Tashman (a real-life lesbian actress whose few movies are sadly lacking on DVD); she passed away six years after this film was released. MILLIE was one of the first mainstream Hollywood films to depict a lesbian relationship.

Helen Twelvetrees is fascinating to watch in the title role. In lots of ways the story is incredibly predictable (and the final reel drags the plot into sickly sweet territory); but it all adds to the charm of the movie. MILLIE will be a great addition to any classic movie collection.

Alpha's DVD is one of the best I've seen from this budget company. The image is a little jittery but it's sharp and stable for the entire duration of the film. The soundtrack is clear and strong, too. Another incentive for checking out this fascinating example of Pre-Code cinema.

This collection from Roan is one of their best. All 3 films look great with only minor imperfections. Recommended.

Millie is an excellent pre-Code drama with convincing acting and a plot that moves along at a fairly good pace despite some slow points here and there. The casting is well done and the choreography is great! The cinematography is very good and the sound is fine; the quality of the print is really rather good for an "Alpha Films" DVD release.

When the action starts (and believe me, there'll be lots of action in this picture), we meet Millicent 'Millie' Blake (Helen Twelvetrees) who gets a surprise proposal of marriage from a man (John 'Jack' Maitland played by James Hall) she's not quite ready to settle down with; but she goes through with it even though she's rather nervous on her wedding night, to say the least. Time passes; and Millie and Jack now have an adorable baby girl. They are living well in fancy Westchester County, New York, too. There's just one little problem: Jack no longer loves Millie! He says he still loves her; but Millie knows better. One day, when Millie goes to have lunch with her "more-than-just-good-friends" Helen 'Hel' Riley (Lilyan Tashman) and Angie Wickerstaff (Joan Blondell), Millie discovers Jack fooling around with another woman--and that's it for their marriage.

Millie leaves her daughter Connie with Jack because she wants Connie to have all the best in the world that Jack can give her with his money; Millie sees Connie as much as she can and she gets herself a new life. Millie gets a job at a hotel lobby concession stand and she thinks of letting one of two men into her life: James 'Jimmy' Damier (John Halliday) and Tommy Rock (Robert Ames). Although Jimmy could take good financial care of Millie, Millie wants to remain free of relying on men; she proudly says several times that she likes to "pay (her) own way." Tommy does finally manage to catch her, though; and they begin a romance that is also shattered when Millie finds out, again through friends, that Tommy is not being loyal to Millie.

Millie is through with men; but then the greatest challenge comes a few years down the road: what to do when older men start eyeing her now grown (well, sixteen years old) daughter Connie? Millie wants no man doing to Connie what men have done to her; and when she realizes that Connie is being wooed by Jimmy despite his promises to steer clear of Connie, Millie must make a hard choice--and she's quite emotional about it, too!

Of course, the plot can go anywhere from here. What happens to Connie when Jimmy pursues her--will she defy her mother or will Millie lay down the law--or go even further to make sure things don't get out of control? What about Jack and Tommy, the men from Millie's past--will they be able to help, or will one or both of them do nothing to help Millie when she needs it? And what becomes of the love relationship between Helen and Angie after Angie decides to marry a rich older man purely for his money? No spoilers here--watch and find out!

Millie is one of the better pre-Code films released by Alpha Video. It's great to see fine performances by stars including Anita Louise as the grown Connie and Helen Twelvetrees as Millie; Joan Blondell also does a wonderful job of portraying Angie. I highly recommend this for fans of pre-Code drama and the stars of this film.

It's refreshing to see some of the pre-code movies make it on to DVD. Granted, if you're looking for high quality sound and resolution, you may be sorely disappointed. "Of Human Bondage" (1934) is taken from W. Somerset Maugham's novel and is directed by John Cromwell. If you have never seen this movie, you have a treat in store for you. Watch as Bette Davis rockets into the spotlight with her immortal line to Leslie Howard "I'd like to kiss ya, but I just washed my hair." "Millie" (1931) is a the story of a romance that leads to murder. Starring Helen Twelvetrees and a very young Joan Blondell."Kept Husbands" (1931) had the ads that blazed "Every Inch a Man-Bought Body and Soul by His Wife!" Dorothy Mackaill and Joel McCrea star.They don't call these "The Risque Years" without good reason.

"Thank God for simple pleasures; a good appetite, roast beef, and beer." that's the moral of "Of Human Bondage." Too bad one has to whether 100+ minutes of one woman playing one man for a fool before the lesson is acknowledged. The Mildred character couldn't be more manipulative herein. Kudos to Bette Davis for the portrayal and Somerset Maugham for writing the book upon which this film is based. It's almost a truism that no film can best its novelistic heritage. One shouldn't be surprised by this. To squeze 300-400 pages of character development into 80-100 minutes of film is almost a task beyond the possible ("The Remains of the Day" comes to mind as both an exceptional book and film; and "Frankenstein" was a fabulous film, but only because it left out half the book).

Somerset Maugham's book "Of Human Bondage" is a ultimately positive parable of how a lack of self-worth sets one up for putting up with too much nonsense. "You're free," one tells Phillip. "Yes," he responds, "but suddenly, suddenly there is nowhere to go. I had to be free to realize that. I had to be free to understand that all those years that I dreamed of escape was because I was limping through life." But even then the character played ably by Leslie Howard betrays the notion that at the end he's not for embracing life's simple pleasures---that which makes life really enjoyable, but for settling for peace and tranquility---not one and the same thing. "I'll see the film because I'll never read the book" may seem logical, but is one that oughtn't be indulged in, I'd posit. If such is your predilection I'd say ignore the book as well as the film. Or see the film if such is your inclination, but certainly don't go out of your way to see it; and if you buy this 3 film set keep in mind that you won't wind up watching "Of Human Bondage" more than once.

Of the collection "Millie" works best as a film. Its story is told from the opposite viewpoint from"Of Human Bondage," by which I mean from the viewpoint of the woman who is endlessly courted by men. Where we see things through the eyes of the sap as played by Leslie Howard in "Of Human Bondage" as Bette Davis manipulates his feelings for her, in "Millie" we have a woman who plays independence in a different manner; not taking anything for anyone...until she winds up losing almost everything. "Millie" is a film that can be re-viewed, but that's not to say it is great cinema.

Then finally we have "Kept Husbands;" the plodding simple story of a rich man's daughter who decides she is going to lasso Joel McCrea's character within a month of meeting him. Soon he becomes a vice-president of 'daddy's' company and a "yes, dear" man to his pampered wife...until he declares that he just can't take it anymore and walks out. Then the wife tries to track him down at his mother's house. "Can you blame him? Who'd stand for being called a---" the spoiled wife bemoans to her mother-in-law . To which the mother-in-law responds: "All husbands are kept. Some of them are kept with money, but most of them with love, devotion, and sacrifice. Why, it's every woman's mission in life, keeping her husband." And having tried keeping him with money ultimately decides it's worth another attempt trying with love. Cheers

Fine performance by Helen , however disappointed as it states it was in color. I was expecting 2-strip technicolor.

Loved this movie. This is definitely a movie of "forbidden Holywood". This movie touches on lesbianism, attempted rape and how life in the fast lane affects one woman.