User Reviews

What a relief it was to see this film. I'd watched a series of duds from 1931 and I was getting discouraged. I didn't expect much from this movie, yet I got a quality flick.

Brock Trumbull V (George Bancroft) was a bullheaded owner of a shipbuilding company. He only wanted two things in life: money and a son to carry on his business, Trumbull & Son.

Brock's daughter, Anne (Frances Dee), wanted nothing more than her father's love, but she would never get it so long as she was a girl.

Brock got the son he so desperately desired at the cost of his wife's life. She died after childbirth and died rather bitterly--throwing it in Brock's face that at least he got the son he wanted.

Years passed and things were better than great for Brock since he had his son, but they turned for the worse when his son, Brock Trumbull VI (David Durand), died at only eight-years-old. All that remained in Brock Senior's life was his daughter and his company and it was clear which one he preferred. Right after his son's soul left his body he yelled, "Almighty God, if you had to take one, why him?" And Brock was too ignorant and self-absorbed to know or care that his daughter heard that bellow of his.

At its core, "Rich Man's Folly" is about preferring money and power over family and other things in life. At the same time there was a parallel theme that I think was equally important--the follies of sexism. He couldn't even see his daughter due to his insane love of his son and his insane desire to have a son. Anne was brilliant and beautiful, and what's more, she loved her father and wanted to join him in the family business, but she may as well had been a bug. It was quite sad.

It was clear that something dramatic or traumatic would have to occur for Brock to realize money wasn't everything and to realize he had a lovely daughter who loved him. Would he wake up to that or would he ever realize it?

Free on Rarefilmm.

George Bancroft's larger than life personality made him a perfect silent gangster and when talkies revealed his beautiful speaking voice his career thrived. But along the way he had developed a massive ego (one story went that in a shooting scene he refused to lie down, shouting "It takes more than one bullet to kill Bancroft"!!), he came to believe his screen persona. So even though he had a few more outstanding performances in him, the film offers were just not there after 1931. "Rich Man's Folly" was based on Charles Dicken's forgotten novel "Dombey and Son" and George had a tailor made role as a ruthless ship builder who fails to see the worth in his young daughter until it is almost too late!!

Brock Trumbull (Bancroft) finally gets his longed for wish of a son but at such a cost. His wife's (Dorothy Peterson) dying words puts her feelings into perspective - she thinks that no-one has been considered in Brock's relentless quest for a son. They already have a lovely daughter Anne (first Dawn O'Day, then Frances Dee) who he completely ignores and whose secret wish "I think my brother will love me" comes true with a vengeance. Brock Jnr. (David Durand) is sickly and sensitive and turns to the gentle Anne as a kindred spirit. It is obvious he is not going to be a formidable "And Son" that the father is hoping. As in the book there is the prophetic "what is money" conversation - just before Brock Jnr has to give a speech in the rain and of course he doesn't survive!!

"Dombey and Son" was a huge, rambling novel. In the book, the quirky Paul touches many people who, in their turn, are enchanted by Frances. In the movie the love Anne finds with Joe Warren (Robert Ames) a ship-building competitor, allows her to blossom in confidence and her explosive speech about the faults of her father prove a real eye-opener to Paula (Juliette Compton), Brock Snr's tarty new wife. This was a superb role for Bancroft - he got many emotion packed scenes, maybe the best one happened at the cemetery where he hears Anne's heartfelt reply to Joe's apology for reducing her to poverty. She may be poor materially but not in love which is the first time she has ever experienced it - her father is hiding among the bushes and it is a revelation to him!!

Frances Dee was a real find, both pictorially and talent wise. She married Joel McCrea a couple of years later and suddenly her career didn't seem so important anymore but in quite a few of her early films she was given chances to show there was a lot of talent within her and she always came through. Robert Ames had the very supporting role of Joe Warner. He had been a stage actor, appearing opposite Ruth Chatterton in "Come Out of the Kitchen" but this was almost his last film. He was an alcoholic (he look haggard in this one) and had died by the end of the year.

A brauva performance by George Bancroft makes this pre-code drama one of the best films of 1931. He's a business magnate who as the film opens is awaiting the birth of his second child, praying for a son to whom he can leave his company to, just like the past six generations of men before him. So the family has been blessed with strong sons, but that chain has to end some time. That time seems to have arrived as a curse on the family seems to take over.

His wife Dorothy Peterson is too weak to survive, and he's too overjoyed by the arrival of his son to share his grief with daughter Dawn O'Day (later known as Anne Shirley), who desperately wants her father's love and acceptance. The siblings become very close, but the brother isn't as strong as his father hoped, and shows little interest in the business. A shocking moment for the older daughter (now Frances Dee) leaves her scarred for life.

The forgotten Bancroft plays a strong character, not brutish or abusive, but definitely neglectful and obsessive in his goals. He makes you understand the deep pain within his soul, and when he nearly slaps Dee, it's as if his eyes have just been opened to his selfish nature. Joyce Compton comes on late in the film as his gold digging second wife, while Robert Ames plays Bancroft's business rival whom Dee falls in love with.

This film has many themes that the great plays and it's novels have dealt with, and it is presented in glorious fashion. Great representation of what was going on in the business world during the depression adds a bit of reality to the film's conclusion. Bancroft certainly deserve to be nominated for an Oscar for his performance, commanding the film from start to finish, and one of the best acting jobs of the early days of sound films.