The Animal Kingdom

One of the great pleasures of being able to see these talky pre-Code films so many years after the fact is that they offer us a photographic record of what the stylized Broadway theater of the Twenties and Thirties was like--lots of witty and heart-felt dialogue as beautiful people move from chair to sofa, drink champagne and cocktails, and occasionally lean against a mantel piece to say something profound or moving. No one back in the Thirties seemed to find it odd then that two of the principle characters, father and son, upper-class American inhabitants of Connecticut, were played by Englishmen-- Henry Stephenson and Leslie Howard. It was an accepted convention that all people with money sounded English. In this story, Howard, the charming but weak idealist he was to play again and again, is torn between his love of two stronger women: Ann Harding, the bohemian painter, and Myrna Loy, the ambitious society bride. Harding chooses to plays the role correctly (in my opinion) as more of a Vassar girl dilettante, the sort that Mary McCarthy was to satirize, than a starving Greenwich Village bohemian, and Myrna Loy is the beautiful but manipulative rich girl out to trap her man into living a secure and comfortable life. The vastly underrated Phillip Barry, whose play this film adapted, was an excellent chronicler of upper middle-class American life as in was once lived in the Depression. He has a great deal of empathy for his characters and enormous skill as a dramatist. His greatest triumph was to be a vehicle Kate Hepburn commissioned a few years later, The Philadelphia Story, but this earlier play introduces many of the social themes he was to write about in all his plays. As always, Barry wrote demanding parts for women. Myrna Loy (who was soon to be Nora in the Thin Man series) never again had a role that demanded so much of her. She is absolutely perfect. The film produced by David Selznick was an enormous flop in its day, but it's wonderful to have it around now.

A film examining character and intelligence, motives and integrity, the artist's life versus the conventional life. It is a love story which depicts love and friendship on many levels. This film is one of those interesting ones where the viewer has to be able to listen to dialogue and interpret meaning. There are subtle interactions between the characters and a civilized, low-key ambiance.

That was a line from another Philip Barry play which had a bit more screen popularity than The Animal Kingdom. Philip Barry as a playwright was able to find an audience in two distinct eras of American history, the carefree Roaring Twenties and the poorer socially significant Thirties. He did with a clever mixture of social commentary while writing about the privileged classes enjoying their privileges.

The Animal Kingdom had a 183 performance run on Broadway the previous year and its star Leslie Howard was a movie name already on two continents. So Howard, Bill Gargan, and Ilka Chase repeat their Broadway roles here. Good thing for Howard, he got to do this screen version of one of his Broadway triumphs. Probably in a few more years Cary Grant might have gotten the call.

Howard is a rich young man rather bored with his life and living without benefit of clergy with bohemian artist Ann Harding. But family pressures force him to marry society girl Myrna Loy. Guess who in the end he winds up with or watch the film to find out.

A lot of similarities here with Holiday, a Barry play that got a more well known screen adaption. An overbearing parent, snobbish friends/ relatives and two women to choose from, and some down to earth friends for the hero.

The players do well here and a special note should be made of Bill Gargan who plays Howard's butler who is a washed up former prizefighter. The Animal Kingdom was Gargan's feature film debut and I wouldn't be surprised if Leslie Howard did the same service for him as he did for Humphrey Bogart in The Petrified Forest.

The Animal Kingdom despite good notices failed to find an audience in Herbert Hoover America. Howard's problems do seem trivial in the face of what a lot of people were dealing with. Still it's a good and faithful adaption of a good play.

The Animal Kingdom has Leslie Howard, Ann Harding & Myrna Loy which is enough reason to watch this film. Ann Harding was a big star at that time and got top billing. I have enjoyed watching several of her films. This is pre"Thin Man" Myrna Loy so her character is a departure from the likable fun loving spouse of William Powell. I have grown to like Leslie Howard after initially only knowing him from his "Gone with the Wind" role. This is a pre-code film and the subject manner reflects that. None of the later restrictions of moral codes. Others describe the plot so won't go into that. It is listed as a comedy and drama but don't expect any comedy from the lead actors. The only source of comedy is the butler of Leslie Howard. The story is really a drama about relationships with just a small amount of comedy relief. After viewing the film my impression is that it was a curiosity of the time period but had enough interest to recommend it to others.

very good movie that the censors couldn't destroy. amazing for it's blatantly adult themes in 1932. the story hasn't aged one bit. lesile howard is brilliant in his role. i saw this on tv one night and searched for half a year to figure out what it was called. fantastic.