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Ophüls reworks the opening in Caught, the nervous maiden in bridal veils (Sally Eilers) is a model at a fashion show, the idealized image is pricked at once by lecherous customers. (She fights leers with wisecracks: "When they deliver baloney at my door, I always give them a receipt.") By contrast, the irritable mug on the Coney Island ferry (James Dunn) is a breath of fresh air, even matching her in slangy patter: "Listen, sister. If you don't want guys to salute ya, take down your flag." The great staircase that in 7th Heaven embodied spiritual ascension becomes here a totem of earthbound struggle in a beautiful extended scene, with human tragedy and comedy streaming up and down a grubby set of steps. "That's the tenement for ya. A woman dies, a baby's born, and a guy's wife won't let him eat Limburger." Domestic foibles in intimate spaces, a buoyant early-talkie reconfiguration of Vidor's The Crowd. The go-getter is grudging with sentiment while the "smart Jane" cloaks morbid fear with hard-boiled snap, the ideal couple to impulsively decide to get married after one night together in a darkened apartment. Pregnancy is a knot of misunderstanding and financial anxiety that finally dissolves into mutual joy, such are the surprises of melodrama enlarged by delicacy and humor, the Frank Borzage forte. (When the desperate husband steps into a boxing ring in hopes of raising money, the potential pummeling turns into a bout of droll commiseration with a sympathetic palooka.) Following along is the wife's best friend (Minna Gombell), who shrugs at the hero's antipathy: "What the heck, Napoleon had a couple of enemies, too." A sterling work, of marked interest to Cromwell (Made for Each Other) and Cukor (The Marrying Kind). With Frank Darien, William Pawley, Claude King, Charles Sullivan and Paul Fix. In black and white.
--- Fernando F. Croce |