Runtime: 68 minutes
Directed by: George Abbott
Starring: Tallulah Bankhead, Harvey Stephens, Irving Pichel, Jay Fassett, Ann Andrews
From: Paramount
In an attempt to have more variety, appeal to the followers that prefer movies of this vintage, and to support what the Criterion Channel curates, this was viewed. This Pre-Code effort from Paramount was a remake of what I understand is an even saucier picture from Cecil B. DeMille from 1915. A notable reason to check this out: it is a rare screen appearance from Tallulah Bankhead. She worked far more on stage than on screen.
The plot sounds simple enough: a young married woman is not good with money so she ends up in deep debt. A suave worldly fellow swoops in and tries to woo her; he turns out to be a real creep so things go sour and there are some buckwild moments in the final act. However, it was more complex than it sounds & in addition there were some elements that made me chortle. The villain has a “white name” (Hardy Livingstone) but as the original had Sessue Hayakawa as the bad guy, that has to be why the remake has the Livingstone character as a weeb! He is so obsessed with “the Orient” that he has Japanese servants and some rooms of his mansion are stereotypical Japanese rooms. One scene has him hosting a themed party... where everyone dresses as all the Asian stereotypes you can imagine. That plays differently almost a century later.
It's an amusing 68 minute yarn which is carried by Bankhead's performance. Not bad for a motion picture I did not know even existed until a month ago.
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