Man of the World

About the only thing that this pre-Code drama is significant for is that William Powell and Carole Lombard met on the set of Man Of The World and were married shortly thereafter. They did another film while both were at Paramount, Ladies Man and then were divorced with Powell leaving Paramount for Warner Brothers and a short stint there. Neither of these films is anything close to that third film they did, My Man Godfrey.

Powell along with Wynne Gibson and George Chandler has a nice little racket going in Paris. A former reporter he prints a newspaper if you can call it that of gossip distributed among visiting Americans. But for a consideration he'll make sure the item never gets printed. We have a political blogger in my area who actually does the same thing, so this racket I know well.

But problems ensue when he actually falls for visiting American tourist Carole Lombard who is a niece of Guy Kibbee whom Powell has already put the bite on.

Bill Powell was at a crossroads in his career, during the silent era he mostly played villains, that clipped mustache of his was guarantor of those kind of parts. Here he is a rat, but a rat with a conscience. How that plays out you have to watch the film for.

Powell and Lombard are good, but Wynne Gibson as a woman who knows the score in life gets all the acting kudos in Man Of The World. She should have done a film called Women Of The World.

Man Of The World is not a classic like My Man Godfrey, but Powell and Lombard do have good chemistry. Of course they had better chemistry once they were divorced.

This 1931 film with a screenplay by Herman Mankiewicz, co-writer of Citizen Kane, is credited in the books if not in the film to two directors, one of whom, Edward Goodman, must have been replaced somewhere during the production by Hollywood veteran Richard Wallace who receives sole screen credit. The sluggishness of the film is probably due to Goodman, one of the many successful Broadway theater directors lured to the west coast in the early days of sound pictures. He staged dialogue scenes in a conventional manner as he might have done a play. (Oddly enough, no film editor is listed in the credits, possibly because no one at Paramount wanted their name associated with what must have been perceived then as a talky failure.) Nevertheless, the fiIm is worth watching because it brings together two future stars, William Powell and Carole Lombard, soon to marry. She, a very popular ingenue of the early1930s, does her best as she always did with the thankless role of the rich American girl abroad. He has a few scenes in which he displays his suave charm. It would take a few more years before Hollywood learned how to use sound and how to pace sophisticated stories such as this, but even this failure has its moments. Guy Kibbee is particularly effective. Five years later, Powell and Lombard, three years divorced, would be reunited at Universal to make the comedy classic My Man Godfrey, directed by someone who really knew how to make movies move-the great Gregory LaCava. LaCava insisted on Powell who insisted on Lombard. Wise choice.

The pre-code where William Powell meets Carole Lombard. story by Herman Mankiewicz. Harry Taylor (Guy Kibbee) is in Paris, and doing things he doesn't want known back in the states. Powell is Trevor.. he pretends to help these americans get out of a jam, but is really blackmailing them. but he falls for Mary (Lombard). and his co-conspirator Irene sees it (Wynne Gibson), and the irony when she says "you've fallen in love with that kid." since Powell really did fall for Lombard. and they got hitched. Some speed bumps in Trevor and Mary's plan for a wedding. Irene throws wrenches into the works, so things aren't what they were just a short time ago. lessons learned. or are they?? It's good. and kind of exotic, since it takes place in a "foreign country." Directed by Dick Wallace. died quite young of a heart attack. was a founding member fo the Directors Guild. probably his best known works are the Girl, the Guy, and the Gob and Bombardier. and Carole Lombard was tragically killed quite young as well.

The oldest and least entry in the Lombard Collection is this would-be sophisticated melodrama, about ex-journalist con-man William Powell who appears to look out for wealthy Americans vacationing in Paris being blackmailed after having been caught in compromising situations – when he’s really the one behind the whole scheme (with a couple of associates in tow).

Lombard (who subsequently married her co-star) plays the young niece of one such victim (Guy Kibbee); this is the earliest of her films that I’ve watched and, frankly, if it weren’t for her voice she’d be unrecognizable from her later zanier output. Here, she’s given a very plain look indistinguishable from many an early 1930s leading lady; in fact, it was only with her performance as a temperamental theatrical star to John Barrymore’s madcap impresario in Howard Hawks’ magnificent screwball comedy TWENTIETH CENTURY (1934) that she acquired her distinctive – and captivating – personality.

Anyway, the film makes for a mildly interesting artifact due to its unusual plot and setting (though obviously shot on the Paramount back-lot); Powell’s is actually a thoughtful characterization – but Lombard is merely decorous (needless to say, I’ve always preferred her in comedy roles as opposed to drama). Also in the cast is Wynne Gibson as The (vindictive and somewhat pathetic) Other Woman, a role that would practically be replicated wholesale in NIGHT AFTER NIGHT (1932) which, coincidentally, is included on Universal’s “Mae West Glamour Collection” set!

All in all, however, director Wallace fared much better in his more sympathetic depiction of another band of crooks years later in the winsome comedy THE YOUNG IN HEART (1938).

Man Of The World is an 80-year old curio found in an economically priced Universal album with five other Carol Lombard pictures likewise valued primarily as antiques. The gorgeous Miss Lombard bore not a little resemblance to Greta Garbo in the looks department, though even more beautiful. Unfortunately there was little resemblance in the acting department. She was best at comedy, but Man Of The World is a melodrama. Never mind, William Powell was on hand to take care of that department with solid support from the delightfully eccentric Guy Kibbee and perennial strumpet Wynne Gibson.

This picture is very much the creaking early talkie. You know it is from the moment you start the DVD by the 1.20:1 screen aspect ratio. The sound strip on the edge of the film cut the 35 mm film frame's original 1.33:1 (same as an old standard TV screen) down to a claustrophobic, square-looking screen. By 1933 all the studios would adopt the "Accademy Standard" 1.37:1 screen by the simple expedient of a camera aperture mask. Early street scenes in Man Of The World are obviously stock footage from silent movies. But there was little other stock footage available then! When the movies started talking, there were three kinds of actors available -- those who had acted only in silents, stage actors, and actors who had experience in both media. But they and their directors soon learned that the talking picture was a whole new game. The melodramatic gestures needed to convey emotion in silent movies looked ridiculous with actual spoken dialog. Yet the stage style of acting would seem wooden in talking pictures. With microphones actors did not need to shout to be heard, and the motion picture camera could record subtle facial expressions and body movements which would have been lost on the third row of a live theater audience.

Both Powell and Lombard had stage as well as silent movie experience, though much more of the latter in her case. Powell, who would eventually develop a talking picture style of top caliber, was still working on it in Man Of The World. He seems a little stiff at times, and so does Wynne Gibson, but both are nevertheless very effective. Contrary to what some other reviewers have felt, I found Gibson's performance and asset, even though there were times when she was projecting to the back row seats. Carole Lombard's sound acting style with her sexy voice and fluid movement seems more natural, but then her part in the picture is not a particularly demanding one. Guy Kibbee, surprisingly, is the player who had the most secure handle on the new sound movie style. Perhaps it was his early experience as an entertainer in the intimate confines of a Mississippi riverboat.

The oft-used plot has slick con man Powell trying to work a blackmail scheme on naive American lass Lombard and her rich but dimwitted uncle Kibbee. With jealous ex-moll and confederate Gibson egging on the reluctant Powell. Predictably Powell falls in love with the sweet and beautiful Carole. However, all is very well done, things do not necessarily go according to formula, and the ending is something of a surprise.

Though I was about to give up on the Carole Lombard movies after watching two from the set, The Princess Comes Through, and We're Not Dressing (see my review), I was pleasantly surprised by Man Of The World. But then it was really a William Powell movie. Carole didn't have to do much except look good, and she did that very well indeed.

Man Of The World is rough around the edges but rewarding if you stick with it. At an hour and fourteen minutes, a good filler movie.

--------- Post Script (Jan 2014): Since writing this creaky old review, viewings of several other Carol Lombard Lombard pictures, including Love Before Breakfast (1936) (see my review) and the wonderful Twentieth Century (1934) have considerably raised my regard for the beautiful lady's acting ability.