It seems to be accepted as fact (and faithfully copied and pasted with the exact same wording on countless reviews) that Tallulah Bankhead made two good films in the 1930s - DEVIL IN THE DEEP and FAITHLESS and four terrible pictures where she over-acts, is too theatrical and lacks a natural screen presence. That so many people have simply copied others' comments and opinions winds me up - so I watched this and was pleasantly surprised.
Just to say that I agree that DEVIL IN THE DEEP and FAITHLESS are good films and that Tallulah Bankhead was great in them. Was she a stage actress who couldn't adapt to pictures? No, not at all. I think this myth, this lie, originates from Paramount's desire to claw itself out of the financial nightmare it found itself in in 1931. Someone said: "Let's get the biggest star from the theatre, put her in a couple of our pictures and we'll make millions!" Well, they got theatre's biggest star, put her in a couple of pictures but found that they were no better ....but importantly, no worse than the rest of what they were churning out. In those first pictures she wasn't the instant perfect match for the movies like Joan Blondell or Barbara Stanwyck but seriously - one of Paramount's biggest stars was Kay Francis for goodness sake! Nancy Carroll wasn't much better in her early days and over at MGM, Norma Shearer was considered a great actress simply by gazing wistfully in the distance every fifteen seconds. She's not quite got the skill she showed in the two later films in this but she's absolutely fine and actually better than most of her contemporaries. Fredric March is also fine, the direction is fine and considering it's from 1931 it looks extremely professionally made.
All that aside, it is however not an especially original story - even from 1931. Every second Tuesday of each month one of the studios (I think they took it in turn) was contracted by law to make a film about a girl from the wrong side of the tracks falling in love with a boy from a stuffy well to do family who would subsequently make her life hell. The slight twist in this is that our girl gets into a spot of bother so has to change her identity. For us the audience, that's not the most entertaining decision because without wanting to disrespect interior designers out there, her first life as a wanton, boozy, high-class prostitute is somewhat more interesting than her second persona as an interior designer. But she's great in both and this film really does keep your attention.
So ignore all the copy and paste negative reviews about this but also don't expect anything too wonderful. It is what it is: a well-acted, well-produced routine 1931 melodrama.
