Devotion

This was one stuffy romance. As a lesson in manners and properness, this movie was great, as a love story it was terrible.

Shirley (Ann Harding), the daughter of aristocrats, posed as a "nursery governess" (nanny) in order to work. She wanted to work to be her own woman, for the adventure--you know the cockeypoop rich people say when they're bored. Truthfully, she was doing it for Trent (Leslie Howard), a man she fancied. I guess this was the only way she could get close to him and make him fall in love.

It worked. It was clumsy, awkward, unromantic, and British, but it worked.

Their love was dealt a blow when Trent's estranged wife came home. Before Trent could even tell Shirley that he had an estranged wife, or before he could say that she just appeared again after four years, Shirley was gone. It was the standard romcom split over miscommunication/misunderstanding/misleading.

The whole thing was so stiff and proper it was hard to like. I have a hard time with romances in any case, so an unromantic unfunny romantic comedy certainly had no shot with me.

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

Ann Harding disguises herself as a dowdy nanny--tough job, and she doesn't quite bring it off here, she's too youthful and pretty--to be near barrister Leslie Howard, likably doing one of his oh-so-British-gentry romantic leads. It's the lightest of trifles, with some lapses of logic, and after the deception is revealed, the movie drags on needlessly for a half an hour or so. But Harding's always a pleasure to watch, even if she doesn't quite convince in either of her British (Mayfair and Cockney) accents. And a plus, as noted by others, is Robert Williams, who's so marvelous in "Platinum Blonde." He had a Spencer Tracy down-to-earth quality that shines here, and he's a natural light comedian (though his character's somewhat off--are we supposed to like him or not?). Nice production values, amiable supporting cast, and was there ever a greater year for clothes than 1931?

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.

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?