Smart Woman

The great Mary Astor never looked better and rarely had such a juicy role. She had an incredibly long career, with nary a dud, and it spanned movies like this, the poignant "Dodsworth," the justly famous "Malteste Falcon," "Meet Me in St. Louis." Its highlight was the magnificently over-the-top "Great Lie," for which she won of the most richly deserved Oscars in that award's history.

Here she is a loving wife who returns from a trip to Europe only to learn that her husband plans to ditch her. She learns from his sister and his business partner, who become her partners in thwarting him.

He invites his old-digging girlfriend and her bossy mother for a weekend at their country home. So she invites a very eligible nobleman she met on shipboard and she and her cohorts collaborate to make it seem hat she is in love with him and more than glad her husband has found someone else.

The girlfriend is treated humorously, not cruelly. (An example of a cruelty in a comedy is the Gail Patrick character in "My Favorite Wife." Nor is the happy ending forced. Everything works out. The bad are dispatched, the good reunited.

Gregory La Cava directed and boy! This makes clear how different a fine director can make a relatively routine movie look from the way it would like if handled by a routine Doctor.

A SMART WOMAN uses duplicitous ingenuity to attempt to win back her adulterous husband.

Mary Astor shines in this sophisticated--and unfortunately obscure--little soap opera, which rewards its viewers with an intelligent script and fine acting. Crisp, cool & calculatingly composed, Astor uses her intelligence to get exactly what she wants. Inviting her spouse's mistress to spend the weekend in their country mansion may not seem like the usual tack to follow, but for Astor it's all part of her game plan.

Robert Ames plays Astor's erstwhile husband; Ruth Weston is his outspoken sister. Noel Francis is the gold digger after his money & Gladys Gale is her ambitious mother. All four offer good support, but the best fun comes from John Halliday as an affable English knight agreeably in tune with Astor's schemes and snippy Edward Everett Horton as Ames' brother-in-law. As usual, Horton effortlessly steals his every scene.

In some ways, this film is a bit regressive in its views on women and marriage. After all, it seems to say that if a man cheats on his loving wife, she should move heaven and earth to keep him. But, if you can look past this, the film is quite enjoyable and worth your time.

The film begins with Mary Astor and John Halliday on a cruise. She went to Europe because her mother was there--dying. He is just a nice rich English nobleman who has fallen in love with her. However, despite his infatuation, she is loyal to her husband back home and Halliday must let her go. Unfortunately, however, when Astor arrives, the husband is not there to meet the boat...and she soon learns it's because he's met someone else--a younger woman! Instead of fighting her husband, however, she acts quite accepting of this--even offering to have the mistress and her mother come to their estate for the weekend! Personally, I would have shot the guy...by Astor has a plan. She invites Halliday and pretends that she, too, has met someone else.

It's all very sophisticated and clever--and very well written. I've actually seen several films like this, but this is one of the better ones--and a darn good movie for 1931. Intelligently written and with sparkling dialog--this film is a winner.

Mary Astor was seen in any number of supporting roles (for example "Midnight" with Claudette Colbert and Don Ameche, just to stay with La Cava productions)but here shows she could hold the stage effortlessly as leading lady. And "stage" is the word since the film's origins as a play for theatre are rather obvious (the same set does for about 70% of the time). The remaining characters are stereotypes and Ames is somewhat wooden but the script is often very amusing indeed and with Gregory La Cava to mastermind the production everything sweeps along splendidly. Though short (65m) and nearly forgotten (no reference book on my shelves mentions this film) this is worth seeing by anyone with a taste for comedies of the period.

This early Gregory La Cava film is a nice comedy-drama, starring the beautiful and talented Mary Astor, who is the show's main attraction, because I have to admit that I found the other leading player, Robert Ames, who plays her husband, rather dull in this one.

The film's plot has to do with the marital problems between Astor and Ames, after the former arrives from a travel to France. Noteworthy performances by John Halliday as a debonair man of the world who befriends Astor and Edward Everett Horton as Ames' Business Partner, who's highly amusing in his role, as always, and gets to say a lot of witty lines & wisecracks.

Early 30's and Mary Astor fans will have a good time watching this film, which at 68 minutes, is very short by today's standards.