No Marriage Ties

An alcoholic sports reporter misses the Tunney-Dempsey fight he was supposed to cover, and is fired from his job. Despite being a mess, a kind aspiring artist helps him out, and the two become lovers. They believe in 'free love,' not marriage, and their relationship is open. They live together but at one point she doesn't see him for eight days; she doesn't mind that he's been sleeping around or want to know what he's been up to, saying to him, "so long as you come back to me." Meanwhile, quite improbably the man has gotten a job in advertising and quickly risen to being not just a partner in the business, but the driving force behind its success. One of the clients he takes on is a beautiful woman, and after wearing her down, he becomes her lover too. The rub is that she cramps his style, expecting him to show up for dinner and then wanting to get married to him. He thus apparently has a choice in both women and lifestyles.

It sounds like pretty spicy pre-Code fare and I guess the idea is pretty daring, especially since the couple at the beginning seem quite happy with their relationship. However, as there really isn't much passion on display and little chemistry in either pairing, it actually seemed pretty tame. The cast doesn't have big stars (Richard Dix is the man, Elizabeth Allen the artist, and Doris Kenyon the client), and that might have been part of the problem. More significantly, though, the film doesn't really want to commit itself to this idea of "no marriage ties," or exploring what that means in an honest way. The character of the artist has no depth and comes across more as a sweet fantasy than a real person. The film then veers off into the guy's immorality in the advertising business, selling products that don't work or are harmful, a subplot that takes a life of its own and leads to a dreadful expository speech near the end. Good grief that was bad. It then seems to link what he's doing as an advertising exec with his lifestyle and its consequences, wrapping it all up in a bundle that's rather traditional and conservative.

At 72 minutes though, at least it moves along, and there are some fun little bits to this film that made it entertaining. While drunk the guy refers to his boss as a "sh*t faced mongrel," for example. Another thing is the guy's office being equipped with a giant bar on a revolving stand; he comes in and his secretary wheels it open, pours him a shot, and tells him "Your breakfast," while handing it to him. By contrast, his client's office has some lovely little Art Deco touches and beautiful lettering on the office doors. When he's dating her she takes him to a performance from "The Russian Art Players" where we see a scene of a couple of peasants speaking Russian; he then takes her to a wrestling match the next time they're out. While in the Caribbean and she's in his arms on a boat, we hear a lovely little bit of the song "Venezuela" from a voice that I wish had been credited. With these kinds of things and the initial challenge to traditional marriage I would have given it a slightly higher rating if it hadn't slipped off the rails at the end; regardless, you could do worse than seeing this one.

The movie starts with Richard Dix as a drunk newspaper sports reporter who forgets his assignment to cover a championship fight. Elizabeth Allan plays a young artist without a job who takes him home. Dix and Allan decide to have an affair, but agree on ground-rules - "no ties, no strings." Dix gets fired and stumbles into a job as an advertising ad man. He has amazing success as he easily comes up with catchy phrases. He becomes a partner in the company and hires Allan to draw artwork for his ads.

The movie switches between comedy and dramatic scenes neatly. There is nothing special here in the plot, but Dix and Allan are very good at their craft and make the film easy to watch.

Richard Dix looks a lot like George Reeves who played Superman in the 1950s "Superman" television series. Elizabeth Allan was a successful British actress who had a short Hollywood career of 5-6 years, and went then went back to England because she didn't get enough leading roles. She did play in about a dozen good films, including "Mark of the Vampire," "The Mystery of Mr. X," and "A Tale of Two Cities," and co-starred with Greta Garbo in "Camille." (1936). She re-teamed with Dix in "Ace of Aces" also in 1933, which suggests this movie was well-received.

Taped this film in the late 60's because Richard Dix was a Veteran Actor along with Elizabeth Allan. Dix,(Bruce Foster)had a drinking problem which was portrayed in the 1930's as being funny and cute and enjoyable to view. He was a newspaper man and it seemed Hollywood associated them with always being drunk in order to function. Allan(Peggy Wilson) who appeared in her last film with Boris Karloff "Grip of the Strangler"'58 tries to help Bruce get on his feet and it was refreshing to see that a woman could help a man in trouble without having to see them take their clothes off and jump into bed. There was a beautiful attraction between a man and a woman, which made the story different from the average picture in the 1930's. It is impossible to be critical of this film and its actors, who were super stars in those days. Richard Dix was a leading man in many pictures and made "The Whistler" movie series a tremendous success.

Up until the middle of 1934, Hollywood's films were far more salacious than most would suspect today. There was no rating system for films and parents had no idea if a particular film was family-friendly or not. For instance, "Ben Hur" (1925) featured a couple nude scenes and an impaled head. "Parachute Jumper" showed Frank McHugh flipping someone the bird (so to speak). In "Platinum Blonde", Jean Harlow slept her way to the top and never got punished for it! And, "No Marriage Ties" is a story where the two main characters cohabitate--with absolutely no intention to ever marry. Things certainly were different in 'the good old days'! "No Marriage Ties" begins with Bruce Foster (Richard Dix) losing his job due to his heavy drinking. In the bar, he meets Peggy (Elizabeth Allen) and she takes him home after he passes out from the booze. She has no place to live and he invites her to live with him--no strings attached. Soon, Bruce lands on his feet. Although his drinking destroyed his job as a journalist, he is glib and has a way with words--and soon is taken on as a partner in an advertising agency. Because of him, the agency takes off and he's rich--very rich. It helps that he is rather sociopathic--willing to sell any sort of crap and make it sound like gold. In fact, this causes some tension with his partner who thinks this is immoral. Actually, this conflict made little sense, as I always thought advertising ALWAYS was trying to make crap sound wonderful--and I am sure all advertising agencies would heartily agree.

During the course of Bruce pretty much taking over the advertising world, he sets his sights on the Adrienne Deane Company. This makeup company has very old fashioned advertising BUT its president (Doris Kenyon) is adamant that things are fine as they are. But, using his smooth charm, Bruce is able to get close to Miss Deane--VERY close. Soon they are inseparable--which leaves Peggy feeling awkward and unneeded. So, her plan is to leave and forge a life for herself. But, who does Bruce really need to make him feel complete--his live-in or the sophisticated (and rich) cosmetics queen? In many ways, this film is very reminiscent of one of Clark Gable's better films, "The Hucksters". Both are rather no holds barred sorts of films--showing the seamier side of the industry. Clearly "No Marriage Ties" is seamier--with some scenes of scantily clad models, a HORRIBLY TRAGIC twist and the cohabitation element. In many ways, it reminded me of many of Warren Williams' films of the era--playing a money-grubbing cad. Overall, I really liked "No Marriage Ties" because towards the end, it deliberately avoided clichés and formula--which made it a terrific film from start to finish. My only complaint, after some WONDERFUL twists at the end, the final message from Bruce sounded a bit hard to believe--after all, he IS a horrible human being. Had the movie ended just BEFORE this speech, I would have given the film a 9!

...That being Dix' character Bruce Foster. As in "Lost her and OK with that". In fact, Foster loses lots of things. In the beginning he is on what apparently is one of his frequent benders and loses his job as writer at a newspaper because he is a no show at the fight he is covering. I did some research and apparently this was the Dempsey-Tunney fight at Soldier Field in Chicago in September 1927. A very big deal and a very big egg to lay as a writer to not turn in a story on that event. But on that bender he picks up an out of work artist (Elizabeth Allan as Peggy Wilson), who seems to be on the verge of becoming a prostitute with a John who has all of the charm and looks of Jabba the Hut. It is implied that they begin living together with "no marriage ties" and no hope of any.

This is where things get somewhat outrageous. On another bender Dix is drinking next to a couple of ad men. He comes up with the slogan they've been looking for and ... gets a partnership in the ad firm??? Allan Dinehart plays the other partner who hired him, and it is weird seeing him be the rather dull voice of morality after watching him play shady flamboyant characters over at Warner Bros. Dix plays the guy who will sell anything to anybody using fear as a motivation - "Buy a home before you lose a job!". The movie makes this out as a scandalous thing, but I scratch my head over this one. Foster is not lying to anybody. He is just using proven ad techniques. He gets homeless and hungry Peggy a job as an artist at the firm. He gives a no strings loan of five hundred dollars - a princely sum in 1933 - to an employee whose wife keeps having babies. Doesn't the employee understand how to make this stop? In other words, Foster is personally a generous guy with lots of humanity. He just has this personal motto of "no marriage ties", and as a result, a tragedy ensues.

So if Foster is honest with women - to the extent he is capable - about not wanting to marry, and the worst thing you can say about him is that he expects the consumer and the producer of products to be responsible, how is he insufferable? Mainly because he makes ridiculous headstrong decisions and is the most obnoxious drunk in the history of the world. Dix' drunk routine here is awful. I'm actually surprised RKO would put Dix in this very pedestrian B programmer since he was one of their biggest stars at the time.

The best thing about the film - to me - is the last scene. Is it real or a drunken delusion of what Foster wants to happen? Watch and see what you think.