Scarlet Pages

In 1911, 17-year-old Elsie Ferguson gives up her daughter to an adoption agency. She is told she will never be able to find out where the baby goes to. We cut, and it's Miss Ferguson's office door. She's a lawyer now, fending off the amatory advances of John Halliday. She does agree to go to a night club with him. We cut to a night club, where Marian Nixon is in a spangly, short dress, sits at a table telling boyfriend Grant Withers she won't marry him. She then gets up and is the lead dancer in a well-shot chorus number.

Anyone who's seen these things is pretty sure how things are going to turn out in the end. The question is: how do we get there? We find out when Withers and Miss Nixon show up at Miss Ferguson's office. Will she defend the girl against the charge of murdering her father? By the end of this scene, Halliday shows up. He's the District Attorney, and he arrests Miss Nixon.

The rest of the movie is a courtroom drama. As usual, there's a considerable gap between what goes on in a real court room and what goes on here. As usual, Fred Kelsey shows up as a dumb cop, giving testimony. As usual, there's a Surprising Secret revealed, which will come as no surprise to the audience. And as usual, there's a reconciliation at the end which takes place way too fast and easily.

Miss Ferguson is pretty good in the scenes that make sense, with a realistic hauteur that might have provided her a good living in Agnes Moorhead-style roles, had she needed them. She didn't. She never made another.

is a stagy and unconvincing melodrama about an unwed mother, a sleazy murder, and (of course) redemption. Elsie Ferguson isn't bad though as the lawyer who learns a terrible secret while defending a showgirl of murder. The rest of the cast, however IS pretty bad: Marian Nixon, Grant Withers, John Halliday, etc. go through their paces without much to offer. Ferguson had been a big silent star playing upper-crust ladies in "weepies." This film was an attempt to revive her career (after 5 years), but it was just too late. Her speaking voice is fine, but the new medium of "talkies" and the new Depression-era sensibility made it clear it was time for Elsie Ferguson to retire from the screen.

SCARLET PAGES (First National Pictures, 1930) directed by Ray Enright, is not a newspaper story but more of a rise to success focusing on a woman with a past living very much in the present. Starring Elsie Ferguson (1883-1961), a prominent stage actress with some silent movies (1917-1925) to her name, SCARLET PAGES not only ranks the limited few to have survived intact but her only venture in a talkie.

Opening in 1911, the story deals with a 17-year-old girl (unseen) abandoning her illegitimate baby girl to the Good Samaritan Orphanage, giving up all legal rights to her child. Move forward 1930. Mary Bancroft (Elsie Ferguson), an accomplished attorney, thanks to the kindness of fellow lawyer John Remington (John Halliday). Mary refuses to marry John, who loves her, for reasons of her own. While dining together at the Golden Slipper Cabaret, Mary and John enjoy the song and dance performance by Nora Mason (Marian Nixon), a young girl engaged to Robert "Bob" Lawrence (Grant Withers). The following day, Mr. Barnes (Neely Edwards) brings forth a client to Mary's office who happens to be Robert Lawrence who wants her to take the case of Nora Mason, arrested the previous night for shooting her father, Henry Mason (Willard Mack). Gathering enough information from both Nora and her mother (Charlotte Walker), Mary agrees to take the case to court, believing Nora (a girl with an attitude) to be innocent and shielding somebody. Other members in the cast include Daisy Belmore (Isabel Kennedy); William B. Davidson (Gregory Jackson); Jean Bary (Carlotta Cortez) and Fred Kelsey (James Murphy).

What makes this rarely seen early talkie worth viewing is Elsie Ferguson. Her voice, diction and theater training were made for talkies, which makes it disappointing that she didn't star in other films during that period, whether they be remakes of her silent movies or screen adaptations to her famous plays. With the exception of her speaking voice, it's uncanny how much Marian Nixon resembles that of the youthful Myrna Loy (then under studio contract to Warner Brothers/First National Pictures). Aside from her slightly weak voice, she gets to sing and perform with the chorus to the catchy tune of "I'm Getting Somewhere." John Halliday, better known for father figure roles in later years, gives an extremely likable performance here. The courtroom scenes are well staged, mostly divided from scene to scene by newspaper headline clippings of the trial, with DeWitt Jennings as the presiding judge. Like many films from this era as testing ground for either silent screen or theatrically trained performers, SCARLET PAGES moves swiftly and gets to the point of purpose without losing the attention of its audience for most of its 63 minutes.

Available on DVD format, SCARLET PAGES turns up sparingly on cable television's Turner Classic Movies. Once seen scheduled in the TCM program guide, make it a point to see it or wait nearly a decade for it to be shown again, if ever. (***)

Considering this is an early talkie directed by journeyman Warner Brothers director Ray Enright who learned his trade at Mack Sennett's Keystone Studios mainly as a gag writer, this is not a bad little programmer. There are several intriguing camera shots from unusual angles. The story is interesting. A brilliant defense attorney on her way up takes a difficult case not to enhance her career but because she empathizes with the young chorus girl accused of killing her father. The reason for the bonding between attorney and client becomes obvious as the plot unfolds. The lady barrister is played with flair and dignity by distinguished silent screen actress Elsie Ferguson, who reprises her role from the Broadway production of the show. This apparently is Elsie Ferguson's only surviving film. The only one she made with sound. That her father was a famous lawyer helped Ferguson in adding authenticity to the role. In some ways, her performance reminds one of a certain lawyer Senator from New York, late of Arkansas, who may be the next President of the United States. There is even a throwaway line by Feguson to the effect that it's legal for women to be successful attorneys, a subtle attack on the sexism that was rampant in Hollywood and the nation at the time. Similar artificial barriers now confront that certain Senator mentioned above.

Since it is based on a play, the film moves at a snail's pace even at 66 minutes. The murder is not shown, which would have been a big plus, catching the audience's attention near the beginning of the movie. There is way too much talk which the studios encouraged to show off the new media of sound cinema believing that audiences wanted as much chatter as possible for their money.

Overall, with the exception of Ferguson the acting is weak. The pivotal role of Nora Mason is damaged by the histrionics of Marian Nixon who was also making the transition from silent to sound. She ultimately retired from films at an early age which may have been a blessing for the industry. At the time character actor Grant Withers was making a grab for the big times and does an adequate job as Bob Lawrence. The rest are blown away by Ferguson who basically has the film to herself.

The speakeasy part of the film is one of the highlights. The Jazz Age is evoked with all its glamor and tinsel. In the precode days, more leg could be shown. So the viewer gets an eye-full. The flappers are flapping as never before, the Jazz trumpets blasting out in a carefree era that was winding down as Old Man Depression snipped away at the fluff.

Some Heavy Going Weigh this one Down as an Early Courtroom Talkie. There is a Pre-Code Subject (out of wedlock babies) and some Cabaret Skin at the Opening, but the Film Struggles to Maintain Interest and much of it is Stiff and Sulan.

Most of the Intrigue takes place Off Screen, like the Murder and the Fatherly Figure's Sexual Advances and Things are Restrained to Cross Examinations. There is a Late Revelation that Dominates the Third-Act that is not much of a Surprise Considering.

Could be an OK Time-Waster for those Interested in Early Sound Hollywood. The Jazzy Sequined Dance Numbers at the Beginning are Unfortunately the Movie's Only Highlight.