Some older movies are among the very best ever made; more infrequently, some fall direly short of expectations. This one falls somewhere in the unremarkable middle: lightly amusing, with occasional especial cleverness, but ninety years later, ultimately not making much of an impression. There's no real spark to foster utmost active engagement or demand viewership; most scenes just blithely float on by for the viewer, and while moments of raised voices, argument, or overlapping voices are intended for laughs, the cacophony instead just becomes rather grating. The scenario is, in fact, built for humor, what with cheeky deception, scheming, backstabbing, and angling to land a marriage - yet there's a bit too much zip in the direction (informing delivery of lines, performances, the execution of scenes generally) that serves to quash any sense of comedic timing, and the same is true broadly of the tone of the film, too even-handed and unbothered for its own good. 'The Greeks had a word for them' is very mildly enjoyable, yet there's nothing about it that will help the picture to stand out among its many contemporaries and successors.
Speaking of "standing out": it's no particular fault of anyone involved - the casting director, the hair and makeup artists, least of all the actors themselves - but men and women alike are mostly indistinguishable, just a face in the crowd. It doesn't help that when all is said and done, the three main characters bear personalities and dispositions that are, after all, very similar. To whatever extent the characters do somewhat stand apart from one another at all is a credit to Sidney Howard's writing, I suppose, yet at large these feed into the feeling that the feature has no special claim to fame, or even its own identity. For lack of major vibrancy, all the back and forth in the dialogue, scene writing, and overall narrative becomes not fun, or even just interesting, but instead just kind of tiring. I think stars Joan Blondell, Ina Claire, and Madge Evans do turn in spirited acting that tells me they'd be a joy to watch in another film that lets them shine more brightly. As it stands, I think director Lowell Sherman just lacked the nuance and mindfulness to best capitalize on all the best potential of the material and his cast.
To be clear, I do sort of like this. Of anything, I most appreciate the production design and art direction, and the costume design. It's a fairly forgettable viewing experience, but it's not a bad one; it's a pleasant way to spend eighty minutes. For that matter, maybe I'm being too harsh; maybe there was some limiting factor I'm not aware of in the moment I sat to watch this, such that to give it another try would allow me to enjoy it more. At the same time, there have been some movies I've genuinely fallen asleep in the middle of, and upon waking and finishing them, still found them to be outstanding. This is so middle-of-the-road that it's hard to specifically give a recommendation, seeing as how there are countless other titles that are more immediately deserving. Still, I hope other folks get more out of 'The Greeks had a word for them' than I did, and even if it continues to dwell in a so-so no man's land, there are far worse ways to spend one's time. Don't go out of your way for it, and don't expect a life-changing picture, but if you happen to come across this and are looking for something light, it's decent enough to watch.
Speaking of "standing out": it's no particular fault of anyone involved - the casting director, the hair and makeup artists, least of all the actors themselves - but men and women alike are mostly indistinguishable, just a face in the crowd. It doesn't help that when all is said and done, the three main characters bear personalities and dispositions that are, after all, very similar. To whatever extent the characters do somewhat stand apart from one another at all is a credit to Sidney Howard's writing, I suppose, yet at large these feed into the feeling that the feature has no special claim to fame, or even its own identity. For lack of major vibrancy, all the back and forth in the dialogue, scene writing, and overall narrative becomes not fun, or even just interesting, but instead just kind of tiring. I think stars Joan Blondell, Ina Claire, and Madge Evans do turn in spirited acting that tells me they'd be a joy to watch in another film that lets them shine more brightly. As it stands, I think director Lowell Sherman just lacked the nuance and mindfulness to best capitalize on all the best potential of the material and his cast.
To be clear, I do sort of like this. Of anything, I most appreciate the production design and art direction, and the costume design. It's a fairly forgettable viewing experience, but it's not a bad one; it's a pleasant way to spend eighty minutes. For that matter, maybe I'm being too harsh; maybe there was some limiting factor I'm not aware of in the moment I sat to watch this, such that to give it another try would allow me to enjoy it more. At the same time, there have been some movies I've genuinely fallen asleep in the middle of, and upon waking and finishing them, still found them to be outstanding. This is so middle-of-the-road that it's hard to specifically give a recommendation, seeing as how there are countless other titles that are more immediately deserving. Still, I hope other folks get more out of 'The Greeks had a word for them' than I did, and even if it continues to dwell in a so-so no man's land, there are far worse ways to spend one's time. Don't go out of your way for it, and don't expect a life-changing picture, but if you happen to come across this and are looking for something light, it's decent enough to watch.