J'aimais une femme

This film bit off more than it could chew. At first, the thirty-year time span seemed pioneering for 1933, but as it lumbers on everything becomes routine and boring.

It's still worth it to see Robinson, Francis, and the other actors as they appeared in 1933.

The plot was not perfect and needed some paring down, and the ending left something to be desired, but this is a film you should see.

Here is yet another of the films from early in Edward G. Robinson's career that has inexplicably and unfortunately been forgotten. A tale which anticipates "Citizen Kane" in an astonishing number of ways, it tells the moving story of a multi-dimensional character transformed from an idealistic and impetuous young man into a ruthless, demanding, ultimately abandoned force in business and politics. Robinson's character, John Hayden, knows how to get what he wants, but is never sure what that really is. Solid performances by a first-rate cast complement a scenario able to cover decades with crisp efficiency.

There are some unfortunate sequences in which the dialog becomes florid, stilted, and too much in the manner of a lesser Victorian romance. And the use of "Home On The Range" as a Rosebud motif comes across as ludicrous, to put it charitably. Such flaws, however, do not seriously lessen the impact and entertainment value of this undeservedly obscure picture.

"I Loved a Woman" is a 1933 film starring Edward G. Robinson and Kaye Francis. It's the story of an art-lover in the Victorian era whose family is in the meat-packing business in Chicago. With his father's death, John Hayden cuts his trip to Greece short to go home and take over the company. A humanitarian, he is interested in making life better for the employees by cleaning up the packing house district where the employees live, and he is not interested in the cut-rate practices of his competitors. He meets and falls in love with the pretty Martha Lane, whose father is just such a competitor and in need of money. Martha, too, is interested in causes. She and John marry, but they grow apart as she becomes more practical. John is approached by an aspiring opera singer Laura McDonald (Francis) who wants him to back her studies; he agrees, and he falls in love with her. Laura, however, is ruthless and convinces John that he must be, too. He goes against everything he ever believed in to put his company back on top with disastrous results.

I have to admit I was less impressed with this film than the first person who commented. First of all, with all of the beautiful operatic music in the world, why is the only song Laura sings "Home on the Range" - many times? Okay, I get the cattle theme but it was too much. And I didn't understand John suddenly becoming this ruthless man willing to send to soldiers overseas bad meat with fillers and other substances. Laura gives him one little lecture, and he turns into a third world dictator.

Robinson is very good, though he and Francis wear a lot of makeup. The characters, however, weren't especially likable or sympathetic. John does have the audience's sympathy at the beginning and at the very end, where Robinson's acting really stood out.

I love pre-code films, often even when they're less than great. They're usually so fast-paced, packing more plot and ideas into one hour than today's movies do in two and a half, that one is willing to overlook inconsistencies and implausibilities in the script, if such occur.

But when they reach an hour and a half, they sometimes bog down and become as dull as the inane films the Production Code later foisted on us.

This film is a good example. The history of Edward G. Robinson's transformation from a young idealist inheriting his father's meat-packing business to a ruthless capitalist defies credulity both for his naivete and the ease of his rise to the top when he discards his scruples. The characters are mostly one-dimensional stereotypes. The character of his opera star mistress, a somewhat miscast Kay Francis, who eggs him on with Nietzschean pep talks about dominating the world, sounds like Ayn Rand on steroids.

All this is fine for the first hour or so, when the rapid succession of events keeps you guessing what will happen next and too busy to think about the logic of it all. The last half hour or so, about his well-deserved downfall, goes by much more slowly and grinds to an undramatic ending.

Still worth a look for pre-code fans for Robinson, Francis and other fine actors, but don't put it at the top of your list.

... because at first blush this forgotten Warner Brothers film looks an awful lot like 1941's Citizen Kane, except without the polish. The film was based on David Karsner's book about a determined businessman, loosely based on the life of Samuel Insull. However, it also bears some resemblance to the life of William Randolph Hearst, and specifically how that life was interpreted in Citizen Kane.

Edward G. Robinson stars as John Hayden. The film opens in 1892 with him as a young man buying up all the art he can find in Europe, when he is called home at his father's death to take over the family packing business in which he really has no interest. He falls in love with and marries the daughter of a rival packer (Genevieve Tobin) and finds her exciting and thinks she is a reformer, but she soon transforms into just another social climber and their romance cools. When that happens he falls in love with an ambitious opera singer (Kay Francis), and offers to build her an opera house??? Now tell me that Orson Welles the teenager was not in the front row of the theater, chowing down on popcorn, and thinking how he might spruce up this tale when he got his big chance?

The similarities between the tales end there, and it turns out Kay Francis' character is no Susan Alexander Kane, and also the ignored wife turns out to be more persistent and vindictive than Kane's wife. The film is ultimately a variation on a common Warner Brothers' Depression era theme - a cautionary tale against greed for greed's sake.

Kay Francis may be second billed, but ultimately Edward G. Robinson is the whole show. Since Robinson was two inches shorter than Francis, it looks like the director came up with all kinds of inventive ways for them to embrace and it not look like she was picking him up off the ground to kiss him. Finally, why would anybody think "Home on the Range" would be a good tune to be "our song" for any couple? It's all part of the wonderful weirdness that was early 30s Warner Brothers. Recommended for the novelty of it all.