Devotion

I have always thought that it was a shame that Leslie Howard is remembered today (if at all) for one of his weakest roles, that of Ashley Wilkes in GONE WITH THE WIND. He was so much better than that! An actor, director, playwright, you name it, he did it all. He was also a helpful mentor to other actors such as Humphrey Bogart (they became such close friends that Bogart named his daughter "Leslie") and William Gargan (who named his son Leslie Howard Gargan). In DEVOTION, Leslie Howard is a lawyer who is loved by Ann Harding from afar. Yes, the plot plays out a little like a Mills and Boon novel, but in such a charming manner that the viewer can just sit back and enjoy!

Will true love conquer all?

"Devotion" is a film which lost money at the box office. Despite this, it's still a decent film and is worth your time.

Shirley (Ann Harding) spends her life taking care of her elderly parents and leading a very predictable life. However, she wants more and when she learns that handsome David Trent (Leslie Howard) is in need of a governess to watch his son. There is no wife in the picture and I wasn't sure if she was dead or what as I watched the film. But Shirley also knows that David wants some matronly middleaged woman for the job...so she dons a wig, uses a bit of makeup and uses a different accent*...and changes her name. However, over time, David is able to tell that she is in disguise and he finds himself drawn to her. What's next? Well, a few surprises, that's for sure!

While Ann Harding was generally good in the film (especially when she was the governess), I found it odd that as Shirley she had no British accent whatsoever...and the story is about Brits living in Britain! Also, the film kept calling David a 'lawyer' but I thought that the correct British term was 'barrister' or 'solicitor' (depending which type of lawyer). I'm not British...and I could easily be wrong.

So how about the film itself? Well, it's an enjoyable story though I agree with the review that said the film was slow. Regardless, it is a decent pre-code romance...pre-code because of some content I won't say more about because it might spoil the surprise.

This is a charming, sweet, sometimes clever love story of a barrister and the lovely, dutiful daughter of a well-to-do family in London. Ann Harding wants to get from the grip of "family" (she's sort of a Cinderella here) -- leaves while they are on a holiday and disguises herself as a nanny named Mrs. Halifax. She is hired by Howard who has a small boy (likeable child actor) to look after the boy. Howard almost recognizes Harding beneath her "wig" but it takes a few days before he puts "two and two" together. There's all sorts of great old character actors (Alison Skipworth) who brighten the film with some earthiness before it floats away with ethereal Ann's delicate manner and beauty. One of the charms of a Harding film is looking at her shimmering blonde coiff. Here it's hidden half the time -- but she is quite wonderful in her part and the emotional charge of the story-line is sweet, heartfelt and reminds us of a lost innocence that used to be in early cinema -- that was really lovely.

No one suffers more in movie after movie than Ann Harding. The suffering is gloriously acute, intense and wonderfully relentless.

Ann Harding, wallflower daughter of O.P. Heggie and Louise Closser Hale, for a lark takes a job as the governess to barrister Leslie Howard's son. She's got a thing for Howard, but she's too shy to come out with it.

Harding makes herself up with a wig and glasses to look way older than she is and it's as 'Mrs. Halifax' she takes the job. She fools Howard for a while, but she doesn't fool artist Robert Williams who is Howard's client as well. It's Williams's job to know faces and he spots her right away, but allows her little deception any way.

The best two in the film have to be Howard's two married servants, Dudley Digges and Alison Skipworth. Digges plays the butler quite a lot like his most famous role, Mr. Bacchus in Mutiny on the Bounty. Of course without quite the alcoholic craving that Bacchus has. He refers to Skipworth as the 'commander-in-chief' and when you see them together you'll know why.

Robert Williams whose career got cut so tragically short does a nice turn as the artist and rival of Howard. Appendicitis and accompanying peritonitis did him in like Rudolph Valentino. Williams was a good light comedian, might have had a long career in Fred MacMurray type parts had he lived.

It's a nice film, but I can't see why it was titled Devotion.