User reviews

Yeah, as the above quote indicates, this is an old, old movie. But it's a darling one, starring Dorothy Mackaill and Joel McCrea. McCrea plays football star Dick Brunton, who now works for Mackaill's dad. Dad brings Dick home for dinner one night, which doesn't make anyone very happy - after all, they're filthy rich and he's just filthy, i.e., a working man. Mackaill can't take her eyes off of him - and who can blame her? McCrea is gloriously handsome and shy. After a month has gone by, Mackaill, a spoiled brat, has proposed marriage and bought herself an engagement ring. She tells dad they'll need $50,000 a year to live on. Since poor Dick only makes $180 a month, Dad says he'll make up the difference. Dick soon begins neglecting what little work he has to do as Vice President of the family company and starts feeling like a kept man.

There are several "kept" men in this movie, the difference here being that Dot and Dick are truly in love. Mackaill does a beautiful job of being a manipulative daughter and wife, but we're able to see the vulnerable woman underneath who finally realizes what's important in life. McCrea, only 26 here, is at his natural, adorable, hunky best.

Mary Carr gives a sweet performance as Dick's mom, the one who offers the summary comment quote. Ned Sparks is on hand with some funny lines and great delivery.

All in all, a delightful movie, if dated, though I'm sure there are still some people today who think that keeping your man is all that matters.

Long forgotten, Dorothy Mackaill was a Ziegfeld girl who was big in pictures in the late silent and early talkie periods. Then she disappeared. Kept Husbands is a great little film that showcases her talent as an actress. It also boasts a very young Joel McCrea. Racy for its time, it's the story of a spoiled rich girl who proposes to a working man and then runs rampant over his life until the big blowup. Fast paced and funny in spots, this little gem is sure worth watching. The stars are terrific and attractive. Supporting cast includes Robert McWade as the indulgent father, Florence Roberts as the snooty mother, Ned Sparks as comic relief, Mary Carr as McCrea's mother, former silent great Clara Kimball Young in an embarrassing turn as the bitchy society woman, and Bryant Washburn as the creep.

Filled with funny lines and double meanings, this is a swell little pre-Code film. Mackaill is terrific as the spoiled "kitten" and was a solid actress (see her in Safe in Hell also); McCrea is also very good as the bewildered husband; Mary Carr is also noteworthy as the doting mother. Clara Kimball Young was a sensational star of the teens. She was 41 when she made this film and is just AWFUL. She worked for another decade.

NOTE: The IMDb lists Llewellyn as being played by Freeman Wood. I think it was Lucien Littlefield, who was also listed in the film's opening credits.

This is the story of Dick, he plays a football hero turned steel worker. He is of humble (poor) beginnings, but has drive an ambition. He saves some workers at the plant and does not accept the thousand dollar reward for doing so, garnering an invitation to his admiring boss's home for dinner. At dinner, he meets his boss' daughter, Dot. She is selfish and spoiled and while initially prepared to mock and make fun of this poor blue collar steel worker...happens to glance the fob on his pocket watch realizing he is a well-know man local football hero! This changes everything for her and suddenly she is throwing herself at him.

These two are completely unsuited for one another.

"There isn't a man in the world that a woman can't land if she wants to."-Dot

"She's about as useful as a little silky kitten. That's what they should have called her-kitten."-Dick

This doesn't stop Dot from aggressively pursuing Dick even to the point of proposing, at which time she agrees to live on his salary and everything. A promise she clearly never intended as immediately upon their marriage they go on a European honeymoon where she is buying fur coats and dresses that are far, far beyond Dick's means. When back home the partying lifestyle and spending doesn't end. It really hits the fan when she tries to prevent Dick from going on a business trip her father is sending him on (and he wanted her to go with...but she didn't want to miss out on the local parties!!!!)

"There is only one thing I'll keep-my self respect!"-Dick

I am glad it had the ending it did...but I was a little surprised at his mother:

"All women keep their husbands, some with money others with love."-Mrs. Brunton

It was clear this was not a live match at least on Dot's part which made this whole film a bit depressing for me. Mixed feelings if I would recommend. I would say proceed at your own risk.

This film begins with a rich guy announcing to his family that he's bringing home a worker from his factory. As his family is made up of spoiled rich folks, they assume this guy would be a bumpkin. However, Dick (Joel McCrea) turns out to be well-mannered, quite humble and an All-American football player! He doesn't tell them about the football--the boss' daughter, Dorothy (Dorothy Mackaill) recognizes him. And, although she sure seemed pretty snobby, now she suddenly is VERY interested in Dick (take that how you might) and later announces to her father that she is going to marry that working man. However, even if she does hook him, can it even work out? After all, they are as unlike as can be--he's a decent, hard-working man and she's just a seemingly vacuous rich girl.

Unfortunately, soon after the marriage, it becomes apparent that Dorothy feels that because she comes from money, she should make all the decisions in the marriage. And, for a while, Dick is emasculated (again, take that how you might). Eventually, however, he gets near the breaking point--he has a great opportunity and she wants him to give it up so he can stay home by her side. Soon, the marriage fizzles. Is there any hope for this couple?

All in all, the best way to describe Dorothy's behavior throughout the film is...well,...IMDb won't let me use language like this! She is too awful, as it makes you wonder how a guy like Dick could put up with her for ANY length of time. I wish her part have been a bit more subtle. Because of this, the film is severely impacted. Had she been likable and less one-dimensional, the film would have been significantly better. As for McCrea and his part, he was quite good and this sort of piffle didn't significantly mar his career. Overall, a decent idea for a film but it was in need of a significant re-write.

By the way, get a load of the Christmas tree (about 20 minutes into the film). It's pretty amazing. And, about three minutes later, watch the ridiculous acting of Dorothy's mother--it made me chuckle. Also, the current image on IMDb seems to imply that this is some sort of saucy Pre-Code film. Well, since it came out before mid-1934, of course it's Pre-Code--but it is NOT a sexy film nor one that would have violated the toughened Production Code. It looks like a case of false advertising.

The leading lady is physically rather graceless and her performance is forced. The saintly mother character is a bit sickening. But otherwise I enjoyed Kept Husbands. Joel McCrea is attractive. His performance in the beginning of the film is believable and natural. Unfortunately, towards the end of the film he becomes wooden and could be any run-of-the-mill leading man of the era. I agree with the earlier commenters who note that the makeup in Kept Husbands is enjoyably natural, with the exception of a few of the "rich" ladies who wear the heavy pancake, frizzed hair and shoulder-showing dresses of that film era, and so are indistinguishable from one another. The sound quality is excellent.

Although it's part of the Roan Group's "Pre-code Hollywood - the Risque Years" DVD series, this RKO second feature is bereft of any racy material or dialogue. It's just a simpleminded, routine morality play championing humility and hard work, with the occasional funny line at the expense of the idle rich. The primary benefit is seeing the ever-wry Ned Sparks rather unusually cast as a steelworker, the platitude-spouting "jiminy cricket" of the lead character. When he tests a cigar left behind in a posh business office, he comments "Connecticut wrapper -- asafetida filling". As all Indian food buffs know, asafetida (aka devil's dung) is a foul-smelling resin that must be stored in isolation lest it contaminate other foodstuffs with its rancor. Apparently, in the 30s, it was used as a folk medicine among the lower classes. Never underestimate the educational value of old movies!

Joel McCrea is a steel worker whose valor moves his boss to invite him to dinner. The boss's wife and daughter are terrible snobs and think this a hilarious idea. It turns out he was a star football player from Harvard, despite his humble origins. And the daughter sets her sights on them.

(All this occurs in the first 15 minutes.) McCrea, one of my great favorites, is not the star he was soon to become. He's a fine actor and looks good but his image is not yet set.

The daughter is a very disagreeable character, in my view. What better catch could anyone want than McCrea? And she doesn't always appear to appreciate him.

Last week I watched Joel McCrea turn in an absolutely stunning performance in Merian Cooper and Earnest Schoedsack's brilliant 1932 thriller, "THE MOST DANGEROUS GAME" and again he reminds me here of just what an underrated actor he was during the Golden Age of Hollywood. His natural blond good looks (he pioneered surfing during the sport's early days in Los Angeles) and extremely competent acting on the heels of his residency at the nearby Pasadena Playhouse stand out in stark contrast to other leading men in an era when Billy Haines, George Arliss and Ramon Navarro were still representing America's young marrieds getting into jams as they get on their feet in the early days of The Great Depression. Dorothy Mackaill has the tricky job of playing a spoiled brat who is also in many ways by 2004 standards a modern woman whose doting industrialist father isn't making her emancipation any easier--but she pulls it off, and we wind up liking her! Sounding a little at first like one of the most outlandish stars of the day, Paramount's Mae West knock-off Peggy Hopkins Joyce, Mackaill proceeds to give a spot-on performance that represents some of the most natural acting I have seen out of anyone from the early talkies era; her knows-what-she-wants character Dot is effected flawlessly. I forgot that I was watching an actress perform, so finely tuned is her sense of timing. An Ex-Follies girl who came to the US from England at the age of 18, she is at ease before the camera, apparently aware of the fine line she is walking in a part which few other performers from that shaky time in the industry would have been able to master with such seamless grace. I am surprised and disappointed that her film career was in its twilight and that soon thereafter she would be serving full-time as a caregiver to her disabled mother. The writing and direction are both deserving of praise here, as well. The intelligent dialogue (including the contemporary slang, which I find fascinating whenever I can find it) stands the test of time remarkably well: it is real, never banal or contrived despite the familiar conflicted Depression-era highbrow-working class storyline aspect. When Dot asks her father to pay her new husband $50,000 a year, the kindly industrialist explains that he cannot comply, reasoning quite correctly that "it would hurt the organization"--having served a hitch in B-school, I liked that wise old man and contemporary manager right off the bat! Motherhood receives a tender treatment and ever so effectively. The lighting has a definite early Warners'-First National look to it. Sound recording, almost always a liability in those days, is accomplished neatly, as is the makeup: lips appear to be real rather than painted on and during the proposal scene McCrea's wholesome tan face appears not only untouched but luminescent. Rarely have the actors of 1931 looked quite so good. Helpful Trivia: At the time of production, Miss Mackaill was 28; cowpuncher McCrea, 25.

KEPT HUSBANDS (1931) tells the story of Dot Parker (Dorothy Mackaill), a wealthy young socialite who sets her sights on the hard working Dick Brunton (Joel McCrea), a supervisor at her father's steel plant. She bets with her father that she can get him to agree to marry her within four weeks. When she does, she uses her father's wealth to treat Dick to a life of luxury. Dick, however, begins to feel unfulfilled and trapped by luxury, longing for a simpler life, and tensions arise between the two. Directed by Lloyd Bacon.

This pre-Code film shows an assertive young woman who isn't content to wait for the man to propose to her; she takes the initiative in the relationship. While this may seem rather tame now, it was revelatory to audiences in the 1920s and 1930s. It sends a mixed message about this, though, since Dot's character is eventually shown as a spoiled girl who will resort to manipulative and dramatic behavior to get her way. The title refers to Dick and another character, who both come to feel useless and unfulfilled because they live off of the wealth of their wives and family rather than the sweat of their brow, and are helpless victims of controlling women. So what are we supposed to take away from this, exactly? It seems to extol assertive women as modern while villainizing them as controlling at the same time.

It also touches on the clash between the idle wealthy and the working class, with the rich portrayed as elegant yet superficial, and the working class as rustic yet wise and loving (via Dick's parents). The characters aren't really defined that well. The script gets really silly in the last act, settling for a pat, forced conclusion

Dorothy Mackaill and Joel McCrea both do fine work in their respective portrayals. Mackaill shows intelligence and humor in her portrayal, and McCrea is refreshingly low-key and naturalistic. The supporting players also do effective work here, although I found Dick's dad a little on the stiff side. The sets are appropriately well furnished and luxurious. The cinematography and editing are well executed, not really outstanding but quite professional. It's somewhat entertaining as a pre-Code look at gender roles, but it sends a mixed message and is rather simplistic. SCORE: 6/10

The whole idea of this movie disgusted me. It reminded me of the Richard Pryor movie "The Toy" where a young rich kid says, "I want to buy that Black man." "Kept Husbands" doesn't have the racist overtones of "The Toy," but it has the same sentiment of rich people getting what they want. The leading lady, Dorthea 'Dot' Parker (Dorothy Mackaill), wanted Richard 'Dick' Brunton (Joel McCrea) for her husband and you would've thought she was talking about wanting a new fur coat.

This movie wanted to drive home two messages:

1.) Ambitious men who marry rich women will become emasculated pets.

2.) A "working" class person would never fit in with a high society crowd.

It could be said that the point of this movie was that these axioms are not true, but I'd proffer that the movie wanted to show an exception not a rule. In either case we got to see rich aristocrats in all their glory.

Sidebar.

It seems the 30's were all about showing wealthy people. I've watched many movies from that decade and many of them feature rich people partying and attending one social engagement after the other. They're all pretentious people that don't behave like they're from this universe. It was as though Hollywood wanted to provide a means of escapism for the millions of poor people out there.

Back to "Kept Husbands."

Along with the rich cardboard cutout people we got to see a couple of kept husbands. They were "yes dear" automatons with no gall, gumption, or life.

Richard became such a husband though he put up a weak front. Dot told her father, "I'm going to marry him... that boy was made for me, and what's more, I'm gonna have him."

Her father, Arthur Parker (Robert McWade), replied, "Now I'm a pretty good judge of men. I tell you this boy has real character and he'll never propose to you."

"Now see here dad, listen," Dorothy retorted. "There isn't a man in this world a woman can't win if she really wants to land him." And with that she told her father that she'd have Dick in four weeks tops.

And four weeks it was. Dick didn't propose to her, she proposed to him, but he accepted. Then, by and by, he became a trophy husband. He was given a cushy job he didn't earn where he didn't do any work, yet was paid handsomely--all to take care of daddy's little girl.

Did Richard lack integrity or did he love his wife so much he only wanted to please her, even if that meant living off of daddy and being available for all of her social engagements?

I'll say this: it was hard to tell if Richard was being a pet out of love, it looked more like obsequiousness. He'd take a stand only to relent after his "Kitten" pouted. It was enough to make a grown man cry. So, whether it was a lack of integrity or genuine love, where I'm from we call a guy like that a simp, a stooge, or a sucka.

This is being sold as a pre-code movie, but it has little of what you'd expect.

Its a simple redemption story of a spoiled rich girl who "buys" a lower class but swell guy as a husband. At the very end, and only in the last few seconds, does she come around. Its more leveraged around class than sex.

But there is a really interesting scene: our rich girl is miffed at her husband so goes off with an old friend, almost certainly a former sexual partner. He locks the door and they work through a few role games, him chasing her, and she being coy in order to increase the charm of being caught. All the while they are taking archetypal roles from movies. Now, remember that this is 1931, so the roles are relatively new and unsettled.

What's so amazing about this scene is that you do not know, you are never allowed to see what side she is on, whether she really is running away so as not have sex, or playing the role to enhance the game of seduction. It seems that the actress is carefully in a scintillating state, showing and denying. Its masterful, and very engaging. Its only two minutes or so, but fabulous. Sexy stuff in the story and of the story.

Ted's Evaluation -- 2 of 3: Has some interesting elements.

Better than what the title seems to imply.

When a childish heiress meets his father Steel 'Boss', she happens to remember his athletic prowess and quickly smitten. She proposes to him and quickly got married. The rich-poor dynamic slowly trickles within their relationship AND eat them up.

Its good. Dorothy Mackaill lively performance perfectly blends with Joel McCrea's notorious stiffness. They compliment each other and really make work of the film.

Also, want to commend the writing. The film is notorious Victorian in Values and can borderline the Pre-code Drab Cautionary Tales of the era BUT the writing actually gives the McCrea's character actual reason to feel small without really resorting to sexist remarks. In the same, MacKaill's has some of-it-times attitude but does not resort to dumbing it down. She still has her own dignity even though she does realize she have to give some away.

Recommended. Better than expected.

In the history of talkie films there was never a more stalwart hero than Joel McCrea. So much so that he rarely if ever deviated from his screen image. But at times you can go overboard with the nobility and Kept Husbands is a great example.

McCrea is a poor kid from the wrong side of the tracks who probably on scholarship went to college and became an All American. So what does he do upon graduation is go back to the town steel plant to work. Before the action of the film started McCrea saved some lives during a plant accident and he actually refuses an award from the company president. But he does accept an invitation to dinner and there meets Dorothy Mackaill the spoiled daughter of said president Robert McWade.

McWade is a guy who earned his own money, but he married into society and Mackaill and wife Florence Roberts are to the manor born. Still Mackaill likes what she sees in McCrea and who wouldn't and they marry.

But the inevitable quarrels happen and quite frankly these two are just terribly mismatched. She's spoiled, but also he's a bit of a fathead. But this is the movies and this one sure doesn't reflect real life, especially during the Depression when people couldn't afford to be real particular if a chance at some legal money comes along.

For which I'm sure that a lot of the movie-going public who plunked down their dime for admission couldn't believe McCrea's character. It certainly doesn't hold up well for modern times.

Yet another in the seemingly endless slew of Depression-era Cinderella stories with a lead character gender switch as its sole source of inspiration.

A principled young working man (Joel McCrea), poor and content to be so, captures the heart and libido of a spoiled and flighty heiress (Dorothy Mackaill). Despite his reservations, they tie the knot, a decision he quickly (and predictably) lives to regret as he discovers that being rich isn't all it's cracked up to be, especially when you feel like a neutered house cat.

Unlike the kept husband of Frank Capra's similarly themed "Platinum Blonde," who retained a jaundiced sense of humor about his fairy tale predicament, McCrea's Cinderella Man is a sulking dolt. Wearing a perpetual scowl, our blue collar hero takes every opportunity to rain on his new bride's parade. He gripes about extending their European honeymoon, grouses about her spending sprees, beats himself up for taking hand-outs from his father-in-law, and spends an uncomfortable amount of time nestled in the arms of his gray-haired mama (and kissing her flush on the mouth to boot).

The witless, by-the-numbers writing seems all the more leaden under Lloyd Bacon's stodgy, snail-paced direction. Worse yet is the horrendous miscasting of the leads. As if McCrea's wet-blanket turn wasn't tough enough to bear, the usually reliable Mackaill is forced to play the thankless role of an empty-headed ditz, a stretch for (and insult to) this intelligent and sophisticated Ziegfeld beauty. With Clara Kimball Young, Ned Sparks.

Dorothy Mackaill, ex-Ziegfeld star-turned-actress, did some great early talkies in the 1930's, this being one of them. She's pouty and childish as 'Dot', the rich bride of blue-collar worker Joel McCrea--who hates being married to money! Very fresh, fast and funny showcase for 'Dot', a great actress who was perhaps before her time.

There were so many mixing-of-the-classes romances among the early talkies, and this one, statically directed by Lloyd Bacon, is one of the less likable. I love the chipper, forceful Dorothy Mackail, a big name then and forgotten now, and Joel McCrea is at his fittest and most appealing. But as a spoiled heiress who marries a steelworker who works for her dad, she's playing a strident, shrill brat, and he, meant to represent solid middle-class values, has his own moments of selfishness and what would now be regarded as unforgivable sexism. The rich-folk trappings are lavish beyond credibility, and the supporting characters--a wealthy wolf still after Mackail, McCrea's wise, loving mom, Ned Sparks spouting cliches--aren't very interesting. It's over in 80 minutes, and very abruptly, with an unconvincing Act Three resolution, but it feels longer.

Nearly a century old, this romantic dramedy starring Dorothy Mackaill and Joel McCrea is surprisingly fresh and heartwarming, thanks to the utter sincerity of the performances, and a terrific commitment to tried and true dramatic arcs. What a breath of fresh air compared to current facetious and downright silly trends in rom-coms.

McCrea is one of the great actors who is taken for granted, no cult for him, and not a name bandied about among Hollywood legends. I suppose his sin was being hard-working and rising to the occasion when cast in great roles -at least the '30s through '60s filmmakers knew his talent, ranging from Preston Sturges all the way to Sam Peckinpah.

The revelations here for me were the actresses: Mackaill as his wife and Mary Carr as his mother. The vivacious and rather amazing performance by Dorothy - captivating in the early reels, then downright hissible with her selfishness later on, on;y to bring a tear near the end - that's a style that would be worth bringing back -she really poured her heart into it. And in a sentimental role, I was with Carr 100% as the bedrock underneath all the film's frivolity.

This is surefire Depression Era entertainment (with a solid director of that era, Lloyd Bacon, in charge). One can't help but immediately identify with Joel's all-American boy character and live vicariously in the glamour of the upper class during the Depression, while the script carefully makes clear their shortcomings. Dorothy's bad behaviour and comeuppance are expertly delineated, and the lack of censorship only adds to the power of certain risque scenes, such as their wedding night and her dalliance with a scoundrel at Joel's lowest moment.

Spoiled socialite Dorothy Mackaill (as Dorothea "Dot" Parker) is unimpressed when her wealthy father announces he has invited a young man from his Allentown, NJ steel mill to dinner. The man has saved some co-workers in an industrial accident and proudly turned down a $1,000 reward. When he turns out to be strikingly handsome ex-football player Joel McCrea (as Richard "Dick" Brunton), Ms. Mackaill is smitten beyond words. She hardly notices Mr. McCrea balances peas on his knife. Her father relates to McCrea's humble beginnings, but other friends and family consider him low class...

Mackaill bets father Robert McWade (as Arthur Parker) she will win a marriage proposal by Christmas. Her mother Florence Roberts (as Henrietta) doesn't think Mackaill should marry a working man. His mother Mary Carr blesses the union, while boarder Ned Sparks (as Hughie) comically disagrees. On a high-spending European trip, McCrea sees snobbish Clara Kimball Young treat her spouse like dirt and worries he will soon be wearing the "Kept Husbands" label. Meanwhile, ritzy playboy Bryant Washburn (as Charlie Bates) plans to seduce Mackaill. Typical early talkie, with a cast from different eras.

**** Kept Husbands (2/22/31) Lloyd Bacon ~ Dorothy Mackaill, Joel McCrea, Bryant Washburn, Mary Carr

This has a good cast (MacKaill and an impossibly young Joel McCrea) and the opening scene promises a bright comedy about the silly rich-- like McCrea's later The Palm Beach Story. But five minutes into it, when humble steel worker McCrea is revealed to be "the halfback who beat Yale" and heiress MacKaill announces she's going to marry him-- within four weeks exactly-- it quickly becomes clear that any resemblance between this movie and life on Earth is purely coincidental. Depression audiences may have enjoyed imagining this was how the spoiled rich behaved, but it's just too contrived and heavy-handed in its message. Check out a much more skillfully and amusingly over the top fantasy like Michael Curtiz's Female instead.