Customer Reviews

Private Lives [VHS]

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4 star:		(1)
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Well, it ain't Noel and Gerty, but it ain't bad, either. Long regarded as a pale imitation of the West End and Broadway original (which MGM helpfully filmed so Mrs. Thalberg could study Lawrence's effects at leisure), all these years down the road the film version stands on its own pretty legs. Nice comic playing from Montgomery and a really fine performance from Norma Shearer (if only she'd been this light in THE WOMEN, that movie would be a half-hour shorter!) Fun to compare this to the play; both the opening-up and the dance around the censors find some happy solutions. Plenty to enjoy here.

Considering this movie is over 70 years old, it holds up extremely well! Montgomery and Shearer act in a refreshing, modern manner, and the dialogue is sparkling. One can see what the public saw in both the leading players: Montgomery has a sly, rascally personality, while Shearer is quite the 1931 "moderne". They play a couple with a tempestuous relationship. Although once married, they have since divorced and married other mates. While honeymooning at the same French hotel, (Quelle coincidence!) they have trouble showing affection to their new spouses and realise they still feel passionately about one another. The video print is clear and sharp and the sound is very good. Excellent acting combined with Coward's witty dialogue make this film a rather surprising treat from the early talkie era.

One of the many underknown gems from the screwball comedy genre, "Private Lives" has it all. A first rate cast; Montgomery, Shearer, et all, deliver a performance as prickly and as sharp as anything ever done by Grant & Hepburn or Powell and Loy. A top notch script full of Noel Coward's grace and wit is easily the equal of "His Girl Friday" or "The Philadelphia Story." And , of course, a supporting cast only the old studio system could plug in to fill out the roster. So why isn't it better known? Who the heck knows, know you do! Enjoy!

With "Private Lives", MGM production head Irving Thalberg attempted to further the career of his wife, Norma Shearer. He would have done better to put her in another of the naughty drawing-room comedies she was so good at doing. In 1931, it was impossible to put an honest "Private Lives" on film, and the compromises that were made to turn the play into a Shearer vehicle actually sabotaged Norma.

The movie version is "opened up" considerably from the play; screenwriter Hans Kraly threw everything from train trips to mountain-climbing into Coward's two-set comedy. Kraly missed the point Coward was making: that Elyot and Amanda's world is themselves alone. Staging some of their famous fights in public made them look pathetically in need of professional help, not inextricably bound to one another.

Kraly was required to do some violence to the play's text by way of studio-mandated censorship. Coward had motivated his characters by giving Elyot and Amanda dialogue with a keen erotic edge, much of which Kraly was obliged to remove. With so much of the sexual charge gone, the remaining words felt like little more than disagreements between two unsympathetic people.

Shearer also suffered from the casting of Robert Montgomery as Elyot. His performance is clockwork, remembering every line and bit of business, hitting every mark, but never finding Amanda necessary as life itself. Shearer was often able to transcend her lack of training if she was playing to a deeply talented actor, and it's too bad she didn't have that blessing on this film.

The supporting cast was uneven; Una Merkel has a weird, grainy accent that slides loopily between transatlantic hoity-toity and Southern belle, and she joins Montgomery in playing by the numbers. Of the four principals, Reginald Denny is the one who gets his role, Victor, exactly right. Victor's tweedy and stolid, but he wants to be sexy and carefree, and Denny does his dilemma perfect justice.

There is one really fine thing in this movie; Cedric Gibbons' set of the Riviera hotel where the two couples meet is Art Deco at its best. As with all truly great movie sets, this one suggests much more than is actually shown. We can tell that in this hotel, every man wears a Charvet scarf, all the linens are hand-laundered Porthault, and every guest and staff member is available for amour. If you're looking for joy here, you can have it, whether you're seeking the emotion or the perfume.

And there's Shearer. Despite all the baggage MGM saddled her with, she's a delight in the balcony scene and again in the knock-down, drag-out fight she has with Montgomery (highly athletic in real life, Norma actually knocked her co-star out at one point). While she never reaches the heights legend gives to Gertrude Lawrence, she knows what Amanda's about, and she is able to communicate it, mostly by playing between the lines of mangled dialogue.

Chalk this one up as an honest try, within the considerable limitations of the studio system, to do something the movies seldom attempt any more: bringing intelligent comedy to the masses. If this "Private Lives" was not all it should have been, it's much, much more than any major studio would do for moviegoers today. Watch it.

This is a thoroughly entertaining, amusing comedy, based upon Noel Coward's famous stage play. Norma Shearer is close to perfection as Amanda and Robert Montgomery is equally good as her ex-husband Elyot, who meet by chance while honeymooning with their respective newly-acquired spouses.

I had expectations about this particular film and they were surpassed by the top-notch material. Norma Shearer looks radiant and is much better suited to this kind of comedic roles than to dramatic ones, in which she sometimes tends to overact (for instance, in "Strange Interlude" a flawed but still worthwhile film).

"Private Lives" must contain one of Norma's best performances ever; she's fresh, lively, with lots of spunk, mischievous, fierce, determined, stubborn, flirtatious, a joy! Bob Montgomery is excellent as her counterpart and probably this is the best of their five pairings. Witty, delightful and sophisticated dialogue; the leads also handle in an excellent way physical comedy, near the conclusion of the film.

Reginald Denny and Una Merkel are very good as their respective new spouses.

Top production values and first class treatment by the MGM gloss. Sidney Fraklin's direction is deft and the pacing is great.

Recommended.

If you like Noel Coward, sophisticated people and their marriages and divorces, and their cynicisms and very polite violence, you will love this film. Every scene is a riot.

Una Merkel is ecellent, but Norma Shearer and Robert Montgomery are superlative. I have the VHS and I have worn it out. An older movie, but who cares? It cheers you up for weeks!

Norma Shearer is superb in this classic, hilarious, devastatingly honest film from the brilliant Noel Coward play. Norma's roots in silent film is read on her face in an exquisite moment early in the scenario, in which she slowly, agonizingly, then tenderly, then with horror, realizes that she and her new husband are located in a hotel suite next door to her ex, and his new bride. The play of emotions on Shearer's face, from shock, to dread, to agonized pain, then tender warmth and remorse, and back to horror and panic about what she must next do, is worthy of an Oscar, in and of itself. This film made me worship Norma Shearer as one of the greatest acting talents, ever. And the play itself is so warm, so realistic, so tender, so honest about the crazed reality of love. The screaming fight scenes alone between the Norma Shearer and Robert Montgomery are absolutely amazing in their honesty; one will never see in all the films of today anything about love and marriage that is so honest, and simultaneously, so completely hilarious. It is really one of the most spectacular plays, and one of the most adorable films, that has ever existed.

I will await this movie's reissue on DVD with feverish hope and anticipation...

British wit Noel Coward (1899-1973) is best remembered for his wickedly funny comedies. Many, myself included, consider PRIVATE LIVES his single finest work. Opening in 1930 London co-starring Coward and the legendary Gertrude Lawrence, the play not only received tremendous critical acclaim, it also ran more than one hundred performances--something largely unheard of at the time. Moving quickly, MGM snapped up the film rights long before the original run ended and released a film version in 1931.

In the "Pre-Code" era censorship was not a significant issue, and the story follows the original stage play to the letter. After divorcing each other, Elyot and Amanda find themselves honeymooning with new spouses in adjoining hotel suites--and suddenly dessert their new spouses to resume their torrid love. Unfortunately, they both remain as eccentrically combative as ever, and it isn't long before the fur begins to fly.

The great failure of the film, however, is in the dialogue. As noted, censorship was not really an issue--but MGM advisors felt the script was too British for the American market and fiddled with the lines to make them "less English" in tone. But where a Noel Coward play is concerned, it isn't so much what you say as exactly how you say it, and in altering bits of wording the screenwriters significantly blunted the razor-like quality that made the original such a great success.

Even so, the 1931 film version of PRIVATE LIVES does a credible job of capturing the Noel Coward theatrical fire in a bottle, and the thing that makes the film work is Norma Shearer. One of the few silent stars to make a full transition to sound stardom, Shearer was among the most critically acclaimed and popular stars of her era. Although most widely acclaimed as a dramatic actress, modern viewers usually find her dramatic performances highly mannered--but what now seems mannered in drama works very, very well in comedy, and PRIVATE LIVES may be her single most accessible film for modern audiences. She is excellent throughout.

The remaining cast is a mixed bag. Robert Montgomery has the look but is essentially miscast as Elyot; still, he acquits himself well by avoiding the obvious missteps, and when he and Shearer click the whole thing goes off with a bang. Reginald Denny is quite expert as the stuffy Victor, and while Una Merkle seems as miscast as Robert Young she too renders a solid performance. Like most MGM films of the 1930s, the production values are top of the line from start to finish, slick, glossy, and attractive, and director Sidney Franklin (noted for his skill with actresses) keeps the film moving at a smart pace.

PRIVATE LIVES has had numerous revivals on stage with stars that range from Tallulah Bankhead to a memorable teaming of Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, and it remains a staple of world theatre; perhaps in the future there will be yet another film version that bests this one. But even so, this 1931 film will more than do until that wished-for-one comes along. Recommended.

GFT, Amazon Reviewer

This title, among quite a few now listed at Amazon, is available directly from the Warner Archive for only $19.95. Why pay more?

I absolutely love this film! Norma and Robert are fantastic as exes who end up at the same place on their respective second honeymoons. Una Merkel does a bang up job as the insecure second wife. There are so many great one liners, but among my faves are: "I'm bruised beyond recognition." and "Sollochs!"

It's a must have for any Norma Shearer fan and definitely if you are a Shearer/Montgomery fan.