EX-LADY (Warner Brothers, 1933), directed by Robert Florey, stars Bette Davis in her first leading role. Already two years into the motion picture business, and only a year at the Warner studio, Davis might have elevated herself to a leading status, but would take a few more years before taken seriously as an actress worthy of superior movie roles. Rather than offering Davis an original premise, the studio awarded her a remake of the more recent release of ILLICIT (1931) starring Barbara Stanwyck, James Rennie and Ricardo Cortez. For this retelling with some alterations, Davis plays a modern-day woman living by her way of thinking, with material predating the frankness and carefree living revolution of the 1960s and 70s.
The plot deals with Helen Bauer (Bette Davis), a commercial artist, in love with Donald Peterson (Gene Raymond), an advertising writer, who agrees to Helen's advanced idea of living together without getting married. She is confronted by her stern father (Alphonse Ethier), who opposes to her liberal ideas, while Helen considers her father's way of living old-fashioned and out of date. Although she feels getting married would complicate matters with her relationship, Donald prefers to make things right. After agreeing to a wedding ring, both Helen and Don find their joy of romance has now dimmed, causing Donald to lose his accounts in business to later focus his attention on Peggy Smith (Kay Strozzi), a wealthy advertiser,. After leaving her husband, Helen focuses her attentions on Nick Malvin (Monroe Owsley), Donald's competitor. Featuring Frank McHugh (Hugo Van Hugh); Claire Dodd (Iris Van Hugh); Ferdinald Gottschalk (Mr. Smith); Bodil Rosing (Mrs. Bauer); Gay Seabrooke and Bobby Gordon.
While EX-LADY is an interesting but dull pre-production code melodrama, its sole interest is on the young Bette Davis. As much as she may appear out of place as a modern-day woman with loose morals, she does what she could to make her performance believable, right down to her cigarette smoking manner that has become the Bette Davis trademark. With this being Davis' sole working opposite Gene Raymond, they satisfy but not enough to show any chemistry between them, even when sleeping in the same bed for the night. At 67 minutes, other than Davis and Raymond as center of attention throughout, some scenes, which might have been considered daring at the time, seem awfully tame by today's standards. Regardless, it's interesting to see the sort of material that got by to label EX-LADY something more than an an adult melodrama.
Aside from a 1974 broadcast on WPHL, Channel 17 in Philadelphia, EX-LADY has become a rarely seen movie gem until the days of cable television as Turner Network Television (TNT) and finally Turner Classic Movies (since 1994), along with distribution on home video and DVD, that makes EX-LADY readily available with great interest for its immoral views theme and Bette Davis rising above routine material. (*1/2)
The plot deals with Helen Bauer (Bette Davis), a commercial artist, in love with Donald Peterson (Gene Raymond), an advertising writer, who agrees to Helen's advanced idea of living together without getting married. She is confronted by her stern father (Alphonse Ethier), who opposes to her liberal ideas, while Helen considers her father's way of living old-fashioned and out of date. Although she feels getting married would complicate matters with her relationship, Donald prefers to make things right. After agreeing to a wedding ring, both Helen and Don find their joy of romance has now dimmed, causing Donald to lose his accounts in business to later focus his attention on Peggy Smith (Kay Strozzi), a wealthy advertiser,. After leaving her husband, Helen focuses her attentions on Nick Malvin (Monroe Owsley), Donald's competitor. Featuring Frank McHugh (Hugo Van Hugh); Claire Dodd (Iris Van Hugh); Ferdinald Gottschalk (Mr. Smith); Bodil Rosing (Mrs. Bauer); Gay Seabrooke and Bobby Gordon.
While EX-LADY is an interesting but dull pre-production code melodrama, its sole interest is on the young Bette Davis. As much as she may appear out of place as a modern-day woman with loose morals, she does what she could to make her performance believable, right down to her cigarette smoking manner that has become the Bette Davis trademark. With this being Davis' sole working opposite Gene Raymond, they satisfy but not enough to show any chemistry between them, even when sleeping in the same bed for the night. At 67 minutes, other than Davis and Raymond as center of attention throughout, some scenes, which might have been considered daring at the time, seem awfully tame by today's standards. Regardless, it's interesting to see the sort of material that got by to label EX-LADY something more than an an adult melodrama.
Aside from a 1974 broadcast on WPHL, Channel 17 in Philadelphia, EX-LADY has become a rarely seen movie gem until the days of cable television as Turner Network Television (TNT) and finally Turner Classic Movies (since 1994), along with distribution on home video and DVD, that makes EX-LADY readily available with great interest for its immoral views theme and Bette Davis rising above routine material. (*1/2)