Ladies' Man

I like Francis. I especially like her in the films she made when she was a little star, before she went to Warner Bros and became a big star. And I like Powell. Their film One Way Passage is perfect and they were perfection in it. But not so in this film, primarily because their romance is unbelievable. They meet and over a period of 24 hours one seamy incident after another takes place and Francis reaction is to fall deeper in love. The problem is not in the casting of Powell as a cad, but in the story, which, it seems to me, had the makings of a sophisticated comedy with a happy ending. Unhappily, the movie sinks. Happily, Powell and Francis, and Lombard too, survived this mess and went on their merry way to become Super Stars.

Even critics at the time thought this was rubbish but I loved this absurd, weirdly acted nonsense. There's something magical in its badness. Something charming in the way it really does take itself seriously.

Unlike so many awful very early talkies this is not unwatchable, terribly acted, static nor stagey, nor indeed a very early talkie anyway. This is a high budget feature - big(ish) stars, flashy sets and decent photography. It's still an awful film but somehow an entertaining and enjoyable one!

Paramount acquired the rights to film this popular novel originally intending it to be a Paul Lukas and Kay Francis vehicle. Then, to get their money's worth from their departing star they replaced Lukas with Bill Powell. To spice things up they threw in his then fiancé, Carole Lombard as Francis' love rival.

This is Bill Powell's last film for Paramount before his move to Warners. There, maybe because that studio was renowned for its penny pinching technique of using as little film stock as possible, ensuring every inch of film was crammed with as much dialogue as possible, they'd probably talk at about twice the speed they do in this. If this were a WB picture they'd have done it in about half an hour. It's the strangest style of directing I've ever seen and as the film progresses the talking gets even slower with longer and longer .......dramatic .......pauses.

Although an old film, it's not a really old film, so it shouldn't be like this - it feels like one of those very, very early talkies from the late twenties. A critic at the time explained this by suggesting that Mr Mendes couldn't direct. That's wrong, he just had his own rather unique technique. For example, how he makes his dramatic finale even more dramatic is to make the dramatic pauses even longer. At one point there are long pauses between eve....ry syl......a.......ble. If you can adjust your playback speed, try watching this at x1.5, it honestly seems more natural but still about 60% is pauses!

If you can overlook the atrocious direction, nonsensical plot and absurd script, you might enjoy this. Carol Lombard doesn't do much but William Powell, resplendent in top hat is more urbane than any human could be. Kay Francis takes sexiness to Jessica Rabbit levels - even wearing a dress similar to a Dalek suit I had when I was seven and carrying a giant hand muff which looks like she stole a roller from a car wash. This really is so bad it's good.

This is precode, which I find interesting at the movies moved from silent to talkie/precode and then talkies with ratings/warnings.

I liked this movie, and would watch it once.

Powell always holds his own, and he didn't want to do this movie. Still, it is solid, and when you have these three actors, they will deliver compelling performances. It also approaches tough topics; it is almost a classy soap opera. This film features some pretty sordid choices as to what someone has decided to do with their lives.

The downside is that the love interests some times fall in love within a day, which makes it not so plausible. It weakens the viewer's investment in the characters. It's just not as believable.

I still enjoyed it and Powell commits; Lombard plays a very believable drunk at times; Kay Francis facial expressions and commitment are in depth. I enjoyed seeing these wonderful actors.

Although the acting is very good in "Ladies' Man", the film has one huge strike against it....you don't care very much for the main character. In some stories, this doesn't matter but for a romance, that's a significant problem!

Jamie (William Powell) is a gigolo who is romancing BOTH a woman (Carole Lombard) AND her mother at the same time! Now that really takes nerve! But what takes even more nerve is his beginning to date a third person (Kay Francis) at the same time! The daughter (Lombard) is pretty unstable and you can't help but think bad things will come of all this.

As I already said, the acting is very good and the story isn't bad. But you can't help but not care very much about Jamie or his exploits, as this guy uses women and has no interest in working and having a real job. Enjoying the high life off of women is his only goal in life....though meeting Norma (Francis) shakes his resolve. Watchable and interesting but no more.

William Powell is a ladies' man. He moves through New York upper crust, a regular at the parties of the 400, a resident at a hotel. Where does his money come from? The ladies, whom he charms. They give him the jewelry their husbands buy them, and he sells them to pawnbroker Clarence Williams. One woman who gives him her jewelry is Olive Tell. Another, who want to marry him, is her daughter, Carole Lombard. Then he meets Kay Francis.

Powell gives a performance that is a model of diffidence verging in contempt, not just for the women, for himself. Miss Lombard gives one of her society deb performances, with a drunk scene of the type that she would come to play for comedy. It's not a terribly interesting movie for me, because there's no one to really feel sorry for. Powell's performance is spot on, of course, but he recognizes his own unworthiness, and Miss Francis falls too easily for his charms, setting up an ending that comes as little surprise. There's little of the chemistry in this Paramount movie that would make their work together at Warner Brothers so romantic. Perhaps Herman Mankiewicz lacked the powers to adapt the Rupert Hughes novel it is based on, or perhaps Hughes' novel was too mechanical. Perhaps director Lothar Mendes was simply one of those directors whose strengths lay in the mechanics of film construction. Or perhaps it was all three of them.