Living on Velvet

I say "oddly" because I cannot nail down precisely why I like it so much. There's just something magical and Christmas-like - in a renewed hope kind of way - about this film.

I admit that I would find Terry Parker (George Brent) an unendurable jerk if it were not for the first scene showing the airplane wreck plus his one serious speech to his good friend and benefactor Gibraltar (Warren William) about why he is wrecking his own life with wild abandon. One act of carelessness - not being sure he had enough fuel when he piloted his family to an event - has resulted in all of their deaths while he walked away unharmed, and now he is being intentionally reckless and insuring that he will never be successful or happy. He feels he's living on borrowed time and he wants to be sure he can't pay back the loan.

However, he can't help but reach for some bit of happiness when he meets Amy (Kay Francis) at a party. The two run out on the party, have a grand night together strolling through the park, riding in a carriage, and dunking donuts at dawn in a dingy diner. Then Terry learns that Amy is "Gibraltar's Amy" - the girl that his only true friend in the world loves and just told him about the day before. He won't betray that friendship, so in spite of Amy's pleas that the feeling is not mutual between herself and Gibralter, he refuses to see her any more and goes on a bender to try to get her out of his system. Uncharacteristic for almost any role Warren William ever played, he selflessly finds Terry, sobers him up, brings him back to Amy, and steps out of the way so that Terry and Amy can be together. Amy and Terry are immediately married, and Gibraltar lets them lease a lovely vacant house he owns on Long Island for only 4.50 a month.

The two are fabulously happy at first, but then Terry starts in with his passive aggressive destruction of their marriage. He just can't let himself be happy. The whole thing ends rather abruptly and rather unbelievably in the way that so many 30's Warner films did, but the final scene is sure to warm your heart.

What's great about this movie? It has a rather offbeat and unique premise even if word by word the dialogue is forgettable, Kay Francis and George Brent had amazing chemistry here as in all of their films, and there's that great romantic score playing through most of the film. I always thought that Warner's did these 30's high society dramas actually better than MGM, even though that was somewhat MGM's stock and trade, because Warner's knew to keep things moving and to the point rather than let things drag on as was the case in several similar films by MGM of that same era. Highly recommended.

Kay Francis, George Brent, and Warren William star in this romantic love story directed by Frank Borzage. Living On Velvet is a typical tender romance that Borzage liked to direct. But he's done so much better with other films.

Warren William's character is too unreal. He and Kay Francis are an item until Brent appears in her life. Then William just steps aside and starts playing cupid. I don't see that in real life.

As for Brent he's a rich guy who likes to fly. That is until his parents and sister are killed in a crash that he walks away from. Then he becomes an irresponsible vagabond in need of a keeper. Francis decides to be said keeper. Why his salvation is so important we never do find out.

Living On Velvet has some plot similarities to another Borzage film Next Time We Love. It's sure not as good as The Mortal Storm or Three Comrades.

Nice, but not nearly as good as the aforementioned work.

At it's core, this is just a typical parlor drama of the thirties. All of the voyeuristic fantasy of the wealthy classes is on display for the masses. Largesse and a total lack of want or fear of it, pervades the film from start to finish. Even the disasters revolve around the objects of the very rich; personal airplanes, big automobiles, etc. George Brent plays George Brent and does it well. Kaye Francis emotes all over the place but does manage to come off as self deprecating with a wink, wink scene in which she makes fun of her famous speech impediment. Warren Williams spends much of the film, wearing a hang dog expression as the unrequited beau of Francis and Brent's noble pal. Combined with an illogical plot and eye rolling dialogue 'Velvet' is another great depression, studio artifact notable for only the curious, era psychology of it's target audience.

"Living on Velvet" is a passionate, though slightly incoherent Borzage melodrama starring Kay Francis and George Brent. I'm a fan of director Borzage and the always wavishing Kay Fwancis (she had trouble pronouncing the Rs), so I was very eager to see this one. I happened to watch "Living on Velvet" the other night together with another Borzage love story with Francis & Brent called "Stranded", also made in 1935 for Warner Brothers. Of the two films, "Living on Velvet" is the best and most uncompromising illustration of Borzage's lifelong preoccupation with spirituality and humanity. Francis is wonderful in the role of Amy Prentiss, the passionate, devoted wife of Terry Parker (Brent), a rather reckless pilot who miraculously survived a plane crash with his family. The most romantic & unforgettable moment is of course the scene in which Terry meets Amy, seriously looking each other for the first time, their charging eyes never even blinking. The scene is one of Borzage's greatest achievements. It illustrates his genuine commitment to his material; the couple is looking at love itself, something concrete and tangible. Our involvement and identification are heightened through the emotional intensity of the couple's passion. The capable supporting players include Warren William as Gibraltar, Terry's best friend, and Helen Lowell as Aunt Martha.

Director Frank Borzage goes out of his romantic comfort zone where a pair of lovers is trying to survive in a dangerous, shattered world. Here the emotional damage is in the relationship itself as the husband is suffering from PTSD arising from survivor's guilt. And in dealing with this decidedly unromantic situation Borzage's dreaminess and airiness of tone just seems all wrong. Not only is it stupidly sexist in its eschewing all medical help...psychiatry was certainly available to affluent couples in 1935...and insisting on the wife's sole responsibility to effect the healing, but it seems to trivialize the very real horrors of this particular mental illness as George Brent goes through the first three fourths of the film with insouciant charm and a never ending line of banter that we're supposed to find, as Kay Francis playing his wife does, delightfully eccentric rather than disturbingly delusional. And when Francis finally leaves him and he suddenly, magically, and most unconvincingly decides to pull himself together and declare himself cured we're supposed to buy it 'cause the couple is sitting in a snowstorm, all snuggly, while the snowflakes and the annoyingly mushy score swirls around them. And you just want to grab Borzage by his sentimental shoulders and order him to watch some Cukor or Sirk to properly restore his balance of light to darkness. Give it a C plus.

PS...I'm guessing this is the first film to even hint at global warming even though they erroneously blame it on the gulf stream.