Expensive Women

Warren William isn't getting anywhere with his painting, so Dolores Costello goes out into the world to see what she can make of it. She soon makes Anthony Bushell and vice versa. His father, H.B. Warner doesn't approve, so she agrees to give him up. However, Joe Donohue, who wants her, catches her saying goodbye.

It's a surprisingly stiffly acted bit of drama; perhaps it's simply because the situation arose so much in dramas this period, that no one could think of anything fresh. Certainly H.B. Warner is surprisingly stiff, and everyone is stagebound in their overwritten lines.

This was Miss Costello's last movie under her Warner Brothers contract. She was retiring to raise her children from her marriage to John Barrymore. She would not return to the screen for another five years.

In one of the early talkies, Connie (Dolores Costello, who will be the real life wife to John Barrymore) meets Neil (Warren William) at a dinner party. William was "The Lone Wolf" for years, and was able to play the good guy or the bad guy with equal skill. It takes until ten minutes in, to find a storyline for this film. We can see why its rated 5.9, but to be fair, that's based on only 95 votes so far. Keep an eye for HB Warner, who played "Chang" in Lost Horizon. you MUST see it, if you haven't already. Versatile actor. Polly Walters is in here, and seems to be a cross between Mae West and Jean Harlow. That screechy little voice! Next Connie meets "Arthur" (Anthony Bushell), but that may or may not work out. From First National/Warner Brothers, it's a film about relationships, chance meetings, and the pre-code morals and standards in the 1930s. This was one of the last films directed by Henley. He had been around for YEARS, acting and directing silents. This one isn't any Shakespeare play, but probably interesting historically, for the actors in it.

Expensive Women (1931)

** (out of 4)

Decent pre-code from Warner has Dolores Costello playing Connie Newton, a rich woman who falls in love with Arthur Raymond (Anthony Bushell) not knowing he's already married. The two plan on being together but his controlling father (H.B. Warner) puts a stop to that but soon murder and a trial follows. EXPENSIVE WOMEN isn't a very good movie but there are enough decent moments to make fans of pre-codes watch it. Now, it's very important to remember that studios were pretty much ran like a factory back in the day and I'm going to guess that this film was rushed through production just so the studio could have another "naughty" film out there for crowds to flock to and see. The biggest problem with this movie is certainly the screenplay, which in all honesty is a complete joke. At just 62-minutes the film flies by but the problem is that none of the characters really go through any sort of development and to say they'd one-sided would be the understatement of the decade. The lead character is someone we're supposed to feel sorry for yet the screenplay pretty much forgets to write in any details about her. We learn that she's rich. We learn that she's not a virgin. We learn through all the tough edges that she really wants love. The story here is so poorly put together that these various stages just come and go without too much thought. The first fifteen minutes we see Connie and her easy friend (Polly Walters). The next fifteen minutes has Connie falling in love. The next fifteen minutes features Connie getting her heart broken. Finally, we get an incredibly stupid murder sequence with an even quicker and dumber trial. I won't spoil anything but the final ten minutes of this movie is so stupid that you can't help but laugh at it. The film's rushed production is even more obvious in a sequence around the thirty-minute mark where Connie and her love are kissing in her hallway and a piece of her costume slides off her back and onto the floor. Neither actor notices it and they just go their separate ways living the piece on the floor. Ed Wood would have been proud. The performances for the most part are pretty good with Mrs. John Barrymore doing a nice job in the lead. Walters is pretty funny as the easy girl with non-stop men around her and Warren William steals the film in his small part. Warner is also very good as the father but Bushell really gets lost in the cause. The screenplay writes his character as such a wimp that you can't help but hate everything about him and I must say that this is perhaps the most annoying character I've seen from any movie of this era.

Rich bored socialite Connie Newton (Dolores Costello) falls for Neil Hartley. Bobby Brandon is her drunken party friend. She next falls for the married Arthur Raymond. Arthur tries to get a divorce but fails.

Apparently, Costello was a silent film star who faded after the transition into sound for various reasons. Her voice is fine and her acting should be good for the talkies. She supposedly retired as wife of John Barrymore until that marriage ended. She's the grandmother of Drew Barrymore. She has some of that screen presence although not quite as bright. I just don't like the character. It's not that appealing and her romantic journey is not compelling. I'm not rooting for anybody.

I don't need to repeat the other favorable reviews - I agree with most everything favorable, including the assertion that the movie is not a "hack job." I think the plot does make sense and it kept me relishing just how much "free love" was in the air among young people of the late 20s/early 30s. But old man Raymond is the voice of fascism and his success in the movie is a grim foreboding of the repression that would soon sweep northern European societies (of which I include the US) in the early 30s, where the Democrats ascent to power in the US was accompanied by the "sexual fascism" of the production code. So I think this movie holds up well and is loaded with both wistfulness and chills.

This is the first movie I have seen of Dolores Costello and her facial expressions are delicious even if her verbal delivery is a little wooden. I agree with the favorable assessments of Polly Walters (what a fabulous Betty Boop voice!) and Warren Williams, but disagree with the generally negative takes on Jack Donohue, playing Bobby Brandon, which I read as successfully and self-consciously "rich Irish," right down to the Brooklyn way Jack says "paehty." And yes Anthony Bushell is despicable as the young lover, but somehow I found his performance right, like the repressed bisexual son of a powerful father, doing everything Dad says as a result of his own confused sexuality. Of course, that read puts pressure on his love affair with Dolores, and that's not very convincing, though it won't be the first time I've seen a woman throw herself at a sexually confused young man, attracted to his vulnerability and refreshed by his lack of machismo, so ultimately I was convinced of their love, and the scene where he sleeps on her breast is truly touching, and a beautiful symbol of his weakness.

The Raymond father/son relationship is one of the best illustrations I have seen of how "conventional Protestant morality" was foundering among the Anglosphere "elite" of the late 20s/early 30s. Here's a fellow, ol' man Raymond, who insists he is the soul probity and yet finds himself committing ghastly deeds, and getting away with them. A fine portrait of the corruption of power and the impending death within a generation of conventional Anglosphere morality.

Maybe the Warner Brothers didn't know how radical they were being, but they knew what it took to tell a good story, and they succeeded here, even if you can feel the furies descending on this celebration of "pre-code mores," where murder goes unpunished, the clown gets to laugh at New Year's Eve debauchery (don't miss that image - truly powerful), and promiscuity is rewarded.

So it's a 7 because it is too short at 1 hour and too many characters are left hanging, especially the Raymond father/son/daughter-in-law triangle, which really needs a 5-minute wrap-up scene where their eternal misery is nailed. But watch it and see if you too don't find yourself satisfied with the meatiness of the story.