Charles Laughton is magnificent and mesmeric. This is definitely his film, even if you don't like Victorian period pieces, where people speak "Hollywood Victorian" it's almost worth seeing just for his performance.
Neither Laughton nor Shearer were particularly synonymous with a 'natural' style of acting but their sometimes exaggerated method could be brilliant - especially infused with subtle subversive humour the pre-code era allowed. That time had just passed and so "Mr Shearer" finally had the excuse he'd been waiting for to turn his wife into his studio's top serious actress. Looking at moon faced "Mrs Thalberg" in this, it's hard to believe just how truly sensually erotic she could be when she put her mind to it but since such roles had suddenly become off limits, stuffy serious "proper" drama was sadly her destiny.
A lot of people love a period drama and those who also like 1930s cinema might love this but if you like your 1930s movies to be set in the 1930s this is not for you. Shearer and March are playing poets so maybe that's their excuse for their flowery, over-exaggerated theatrical gesturing. The other excuse is that familiar old trope that Victorian English folk all spoke in a very specific and very annoying manner. This serves to make our poetic pair feel archaic, difficult to relate to and unsympathetic. Were it not for Charles Laughton's excellent malevolent performance, you probably wouldn't care about Rob and Liz at all.
As I've already said though - Laughton's performance is so magnetic that you can't help but reluctantly glue yourself to this. Interestingly he's only 34 years old here, just two years older than Norma Shearer, who's playing his daughter. Even though Shearer reverted to her theatrical style, she and that chubby lad from Yorkshire are both such convincing and talented actors that you don't doubt for one minute that they're father and daughter.....albeit of course in a decidedly unsavoury relationship. Although it's still a twee period drama, I have to concede to MGM, Sidney Franklin and Charles Laughton that they've handled this complicated father-daughter relationship brilliantly; it both sensitively satisfies the faux decency requirement of the Catholic League + Hays Code whilst still conveying the vile and disgusting character of the sadly real-life Mr Barrett.
Neither Laughton nor Shearer were particularly synonymous with a 'natural' style of acting but their sometimes exaggerated method could be brilliant - especially infused with subtle subversive humour the pre-code era allowed. That time had just passed and so "Mr Shearer" finally had the excuse he'd been waiting for to turn his wife into his studio's top serious actress. Looking at moon faced "Mrs Thalberg" in this, it's hard to believe just how truly sensually erotic she could be when she put her mind to it but since such roles had suddenly become off limits, stuffy serious "proper" drama was sadly her destiny.
A lot of people love a period drama and those who also like 1930s cinema might love this but if you like your 1930s movies to be set in the 1930s this is not for you. Shearer and March are playing poets so maybe that's their excuse for their flowery, over-exaggerated theatrical gesturing. The other excuse is that familiar old trope that Victorian English folk all spoke in a very specific and very annoying manner. This serves to make our poetic pair feel archaic, difficult to relate to and unsympathetic. Were it not for Charles Laughton's excellent malevolent performance, you probably wouldn't care about Rob and Liz at all.
As I've already said though - Laughton's performance is so magnetic that you can't help but reluctantly glue yourself to this. Interestingly he's only 34 years old here, just two years older than Norma Shearer, who's playing his daughter. Even though Shearer reverted to her theatrical style, she and that chubby lad from Yorkshire are both such convincing and talented actors that you don't doubt for one minute that they're father and daughter.....albeit of course in a decidedly unsavoury relationship. Although it's still a twee period drama, I have to concede to MGM, Sidney Franklin and Charles Laughton that they've handled this complicated father-daughter relationship brilliantly; it both sensitively satisfies the faux decency requirement of the Catholic League + Hays Code whilst still conveying the vile and disgusting character of the sadly real-life Mr Barrett.