Product Details

• Actors: Norma Shearer, Clark Gable, Alexander Kirkland, Ralph Morgan, Robert Young
• Directors: Robert Z. Leonard
• Writers: Bess Meredyth, C. Gardner Sullivan, Eugene O'Neill
• Producers: Robert Z. Leonard, Irving Thalberg
• Format: Black & White, Closed-captioned, NTSC
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: MGM (Warner)
• VHS Release Date: December 11, 1992
• Run Time: 109 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 630259328X
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #260,219 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Innovative Film, March 7, 2003

By 

mwreview "mwreview" (Northern California, USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Strange Interlude [VHS] (VHS Tape)

I am not a big movie buff, but purchased this film because I am a fan of silent film star Henry B. Walthall. Walthall is only in the film for the first seven minutes and then his character dies. Rather than losing interest in the film, however, I kept watching and found it very enjoyable. It is a very innovative film, based on the Eugene O'Neill play, that includes thoughts of the characters that are audible to the audience. The main character is Nina Leeds (Norma Shearer). Nina is a very obsessive, neurotic woman who controls the hearts of three men while pining away for her dead fiance Gordon, killed in the Great War. Nina continues to control the lives of her three suitors (one of which is played by Ralph Morgan, brother of the Wizard of Oz). She enters a marriage with a man she does not love and, due to a secret curse in his bloodline, cannot bare his child. She decides, as any woman would, to have another man's child and pose it as her husband's. Curiously, she names her son Gordon and, of course, falls in love with the baby's real father (played by Clark Gable). The film covers their lives through old age. It's interesting watching the characters get older. The make-up people did an excellent job. The film is actually quite good once you get used to the audible thoughts and the overall sappiness. It is long (almost 2 hours) but moves very quickly. I recommend Strange Interlude to any classic movie buff or Clark Gable fan.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A NOVEL EARLY TALKIE., November 11, 2002

By 

"scotsladdie" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Strange Interlude [VHS] (VHS Tape)

All about the problems of an unfullfilled wife and her lover. What made this picture notable was the novel idea of combining on-screen dialogue with voiced-over thoughts of the characters. After a time, 1932 audiences giggled as the actors adjusted their facial expressions to correspond to their off-screen voices which made the film unusually novel. The O'Neill play originally ran for a full 5 hours. In 1932, this was considered heavy stuff: it looks very dated now, but in its day it was a small milestone in the cinema. All the adult characters age 20 years in the movie, and the process is done quite convincingly. Gable's restrained performance as the he-man-turned-whimp via love is effective and this performance earned him stature in films. The film is not without merit, and although it isn't entirely successful at bringing O' Neill to the screen, it certainly deserves more kudos than some viewers give it: it was a valiant try at using a new and novel technique which would be used far more successfully in smaller doses in later films. Naturally the synopsis is far more complex than what I gave, it's my way of inviting viewers to catch a rare glimpse of young Gable in the film which introduced his trademark moustache!

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars An odd little experiment of a film, July 4, 2009

By 

calvinnme - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (TOP 50 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Strange Interlude (DVD)

I am rating the film and the quality of the product itself here, not the wisdom of buying at this price versus directly from Warner Bros. for less than twenty dollars, and even less if a sale is going on. This is a Warner Archive product. It is actually a DVD-R that has not been restored especially for this release. Instead it is derived from the finest material Warner Bros. has in their vault, no more no less. Thre are no extras and no scene selections - you can only go forward and backwards in ten minute increments.

This film was an adaptation of a Eugene O'Neill play in which the characters express themselves through thought rather than dialogue. Boy genius Irving Thalberg usually carefully guided the career of his wife, Norma Shearer, but after a long string of talking picture victories he must have been just a little too sure of himself this time. This project had everything that makes a great MGM drama - good production values, great cast, and an interesting story. It also has the odd device of the players making odd silent-era type faces and gestures while their inner thoughts are expressed in voice-overs. This last little item makes it an unintentionally funny film. Didn't anyone involved in this project see Groucho Marx' "strange interlude" scene in Animal Crackers two years before and see how all of this might play out comically instead of dramatically as intended? I guess not.

At any rate, I've always loved this one because it is such an odd misfire involving a first-rate cast. I recently purchased this DVD-R from the Warner Archives, and the print is first rate. The audio and video are both excellent, and I would highly recommend it to fans of Norma Shearer, Clark Gable, and strange little film experiments that didn't quite hit their targets. 1930's Golden Dawn would be in this same category if you need another example.