Primrose Path is a 1940 film starring Ginger Rogers, Joel McCrea, Marjorie Rambeau, Henry Travers, and Miles Mander.
This is a movie that seems to take place during the Depression so it seems a little late.
It's fascinating to trace the history of these stories. In the 1930s, plays and subsequently films were about the upper class and everyone spoke like Katharine Hepburn. WHen playwrights like Odetts came along in the 1930s, the common man began to appear in plays, novels, and films.
This is a story about a girl from the other side of the tracks, Ellie (Rogers). Her grandmother is a retired prostitute and her mother (Rambeau) is one currently, as the father, an intelligent man, drinks constantly. Ellie wears pigtails when she goes out because she says men ignore her.
One day she meets Ed Wallace (McCrea), a working class guy who owns a restaurant and gas station. Once he kisses her, that's it. It would have been for me, too.
Her mother encourages her to make a play for him. Ellie leaves her family, goes down to the club where Ed works, he doesn't want to get married, they kiss a couple of times, and in the next scene, they're hitched.
They seem very happy, but Ed hasn't met her family and knows nothing about them. When he does meet them and realizes how they've made the precious little money they have, and hears them talk, he comes to the conclusion that they don't like him because he doesn't have a lot of money. He rejects Ellie.
Good movie with wonderful acting. Rambeau was always theatrical but an excellent actress. Here, despite the way she makes a living, she feels responsible for her family and is loving to them. Rogers and McCrea, on the other hand, give relaxed, natural performances. Both of them are wonderful. The whole cast is strong, which helps the story.
If my mother had seen this in 1940 - or even 2000 - she probably wouldn't have known Rambeau was a prostitute or that her mother had been one. That's the thing with these films - you have to watch them carefully to catch things.
The novel on which this is based supposedly is very sexy. If you've ever seen "This Above All," I read that book when I was WAY too young and there was sex all over it. Kind of wished the movie had been that way too. Ah, the code - it dulled down so many films.
This is a movie that seems to take place during the Depression so it seems a little late.
It's fascinating to trace the history of these stories. In the 1930s, plays and subsequently films were about the upper class and everyone spoke like Katharine Hepburn. WHen playwrights like Odetts came along in the 1930s, the common man began to appear in plays, novels, and films.
This is a story about a girl from the other side of the tracks, Ellie (Rogers). Her grandmother is a retired prostitute and her mother (Rambeau) is one currently, as the father, an intelligent man, drinks constantly. Ellie wears pigtails when she goes out because she says men ignore her.
One day she meets Ed Wallace (McCrea), a working class guy who owns a restaurant and gas station. Once he kisses her, that's it. It would have been for me, too.
Her mother encourages her to make a play for him. Ellie leaves her family, goes down to the club where Ed works, he doesn't want to get married, they kiss a couple of times, and in the next scene, they're hitched.
They seem very happy, but Ed hasn't met her family and knows nothing about them. When he does meet them and realizes how they've made the precious little money they have, and hears them talk, he comes to the conclusion that they don't like him because he doesn't have a lot of money. He rejects Ellie.
Good movie with wonderful acting. Rambeau was always theatrical but an excellent actress. Here, despite the way she makes a living, she feels responsible for her family and is loving to them. Rogers and McCrea, on the other hand, give relaxed, natural performances. Both of them are wonderful. The whole cast is strong, which helps the story.
If my mother had seen this in 1940 - or even 2000 - she probably wouldn't have known Rambeau was a prostitute or that her mother had been one. That's the thing with these films - you have to watch them carefully to catch things.
The novel on which this is based supposedly is very sexy. If you've ever seen "This Above All," I read that book when I was WAY too young and there was sex all over it. Kind of wished the movie had been that way too. Ah, the code - it dulled down so many films.