Customer Reviews

Strange Interlude [VHS]

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

 

 

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.

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!

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.

It must have seemed like a good idea at the time.

Eugene O'Neil's famous 1930s drama set the theatrical world on it's ear when it arrived on Broadway. A complicated, interesting story of a woman who depends upon a variety of men to meet her various psychological needs, the play was most noted for the fact that the action often came to a screeching halt to permit the various characters to voice their unspoken thoughts unheard by the other players.

It must have seemed a natural for film, for the "spoken thoughts" device could be-- and are-- done via voice-over and therefore create less of an interruption in the action of the film. But there was this one little problem... Hollywood of the 1930s simply was not up the challenge of converting an extremely long play with considerable sexual innuendo into a film.

The play has been chopped down considerably and the sexual issues largely deleted, and the result is a well-crafted but strangely dead film. A lesson in how not to transfer a stage landmark to film. Two stars for an interesting cast and the usual first-rate M.G.M. production values.

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

The movie version of Eugene O'Neill's play is a humorless piece about Nina, a neurotic woman who juggles three men who love her, while she mourns another who died in WWI. In the course of the plot, she marries one of them on the advice of the other two (that's believable,) one of which is named Ned, played very badly by a miscast Clark Gable. Then after being married a while, her mother-in-law suddenly tells Nina not to have children because insanity runs in the family, as evidenced by the sudden mad laughter heard in the house, supposedly from a crazy aunt Nina never heard or heard of before. Took the old bat long enough to give out with the crazy laughter, and right on cue, too! Doesn't the husband know? Isn't it a bit late in the day to mention it? Nina then decides the best thing she can do for her husband is to have a baby by Ned because she doesn't love him (adultery without love doesn't count) so her husband would retain mental health by being a father, but without risk of passing on the insanity. In a spirit of self-sacrifice (and with a straight face) Ned agrees. Wow! First he gives his friend the bride, and then the bride's baby. What won't this guy do for a friend! Frankly, with this plot the only one in the movie who ISN'T nuts is the husband. The play supposedly didn't have all these problems because you can do more with another two hours of plot - like make sense. The play had subjects like promiscuity and abortion in it that Hollywood wouldn't touch - even in the cause of lucidity. Eugene O'Neill plays generally hold up well, because of O'Neill's ability to plumb the depth of characters feelings in a believable way. Unfortunately, this film version shows very little of O'Neill's touch - both because of the film mores of the times (1932), as well as the fact that an intense, complicated, four hour play was mutilated into a two hour melodrama. The result is a laughably dated film, in which none of the characters or their actions are believable. What's worse, the acting is overwrought, with the dialogue interspersed with constant voiceovers, supposedly indicating characters' thoughts. It's an irritant instead of an interesting device. Imagine actors staring with ridiculously distraught intensity at the camera, while a voiceover utters banal comments that add nothing to the mood or the story. Example: Nina is offered belated condolences on the death of her beloved - another character looks at the camera with a furiously deranged expression while the voiceover says "Why did he say that!" Why does anyone say anything in this movie? Groucho Marx refers to this play in "Animal Crackers" when he looks out at the audience and says "Pardon me while I have a strange interlude", and then proceeds to talk to the audience as if the other characters can't hear him. In THAT movie it works. It's too bad they didn't have O'Neill re-write the screen version of the play for the Marx Brothers. It would have aged better and been more entertaining.

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) presents "STRANGE INTERLUDE" (1932) (112 min/B&W) -- Starring: Norma Shearer, Clark Gable, Alexander Kirkland, Ralph Morgan, Robert Young, May Robson, Maureen O'Sullivan, Henry B. Walthall, Mary Alden, Tad Alexander

Directed by Robert Z. Leonard

Great acting all around, especially from Norma Shearer, Clark Gable, and all the main characters. The kid Tad Alexander who played young Gordon was great.

The film is about Shearer's love for four different men: the idealized "Gordon Shaw" (an unseen World War casualty), darkly passionate Clark Gable (as Ned Darrell), popular and successful Alexander Kirkland (as Sam Evans), and ever unrequited Ralph Morgan (as Charlie Marsden). The men have exquisitely trimmed mustaches. Shearer marries one of them - but, fearing heredity insanity will befall her child, she gets herself pregnant by another. The film does not explicitly reveal that "Nina" aborted her first pregnancy.

In Clark Gable, M-G-M found the perfect compliment to Norma Shearer. Both epitomized the strength of their particular gender, and visually, one could not find a better looking on-screen couple.

Special footnote: -- This was the first film in which Clark Gable's trademark mustache appeared.

BIOS:
1. Robert Z. Leonard (Director)
Date of Birth: 7 October 1889 - Chicago, Illinois
Date of Death: 27 August 1968 - Beverly Hills, Los Angeles, California

2. Norma Shearer [aka: Edith Norma Shearer]
Date of Birth: 10 August 1902 - Montréal, Québec, Canada
Date of Death: 12 June 1983 - Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, California

3. Clark Gable
Date of birth: 1 February 1901 - Cadiz, Ohio,
Date of death: 16 November 1960 - Los Angeles, California

Mr. Jim's Ratings:
Quality of Picture & Sound: 4 Stars
Performance: 4 Stars
Story & Screenplay: 4 Stars
Overall: 4 Stars [Original Music, Cinematography & Film Editing]

Total Time: 112 min on DVD ~ Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) ~ (June 22, 2009)

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 the DVD version 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.

You can get all of the Warner's Archive Collection movies at TCM for $17.99. Even with S&H TCM is a better price than Amazon at $28.98.