Virtue

This one has a prostitute trying to go straight, a tough-talking cab driver whose harsh words hide a heart of gold, and there is even a murder tucked away in the plot.

The story opens on prostitute Mae(Carole Lombard) being escorted to a train that will take her out of New York City - a condition of her not serving jail time for street walking is that she leave town. As soon as the police are gone she gets right off the train. Having no money, she has to ditch Jimmy Doyle (Pat O'Brien), the cabby that takes her back into the city, without paying him. However, Mae is a woman without options, not a woman who is basically dishonest, so as soon as she has the money she pays Jimmy the fare, although at the worst possible time - watch the film to see what I'm talking about.

Jimmy and Mae hit it off and even get married, but they're basically two people looking for love that have two big problems. Mae can't take back her past, and Jimmy can't - with dignity - take back the words he has said about him being all-knowing when it comes to "dames", especially after he learns of his wife's past occupation at a most inopportune time. From that point forward the two have a good relationship on the surface, but underneath Jimmy always has his doubts as to whether Mae's past is really behind her, and Mae feels like she's on probation. Then something comes up that brings all of these feelings to the surface.

Mayo Methot plays Lil Blair, an aging woman of the streets and friend to Mae whose boyfriend Toots is more than happy to have Lil support him and more than unhappy when she can't come up with quite enough money to keep him in race track forms. Lil winds up playing a bigger part in the whole story than her small amount of screen time would make you believe.

This fast moving little precode with heart is everything that the best precodes of the early 30's should be. Many of the precodes that came out of Columbia in the early 30's had a paint-by-numbers feel about them, like they were just going through the motions. This one has very good performances by the entire cast and a storyline that draws you into the everyday lives of these not so everyday people.

Screenwriter Robert Riskin may be best known for his collaborations with director Frank Capra, but this well written, character driven melodrama will make you want to check out his other credits. The always terrific Carole Lombard is the tough but sweet woman with a past, and Pat O'Brien is her man, a soft-hearted blowhard. Mayo Methot is Lombard's world weary best pal, and Jack LaRue is her good looking but dumb as a box of hammers gangster boyfriend. Walking cliches, one would expect, but the script is careful with details, and the characters act logically and believably, even in the most unbelievable situations. The good writing clearly energizes the actors, with O'Brien and Methot, in particular, rising to the occasion. You might come away suspecting that Robert Riskin just may be more interesting than Frank Capra.

I liked this little movie quite a lot. It has a substance and quality that some of Lombard's other early movies lack. It is obvious that some care was taken with this screenplay. I would say that the key word for this film is "misunderstanding". It explores the question of whether someone can escape their past and whether love conquers all. This is the first of five pictures that Lombard would make for Columbia Pictures.

The chemistry is good between Pat O'Brien who plays "Jimmy" the cabdriver and Carole Lombard who plays "Mae" the street-girl. Mae's sentence has been suspended by the Judge on the condition that she leave New York City. Of course she refuses. On her way home she takes a cab, but has no money to pay. She stiffs the cabdriver. Later she goes back to square things and a relationship develops between the two. We watch these two grow closer and more dependent on each other, we root for Jimmy as he struggles to fulfill his dream to become a business man, and we cry as a financial crisis and murder come between them.

Ever put a film on you've never heard about but have been really surprised how good it was? This is one of those movies.

Some people might watch this because they're Carole Lombard fans. Although this might sound sacrilegious to them, I'm not a fan of her comedy but in this she's fantastic. This is a Columbia picture, it's shabby and grimy and Carole Lombard perfectly fits into this unsavoury world as a slightly shop soiled street walker. Unlike in some other films of the period, the star is not a victim, she's not struggling. She's thriving and is part of that environment, she's as much a part of that dirty city as the Brooklyn Bridge.

It's written by Robert Riskin, who would go on to write most of Frank Capra's classic films so you know that however uncertain things get for our heroes, you're probably going to get a happy ending....or do you?

Although the plot is essentially about a prostitute who falls in love with a taxi driver, Riskin's brilliant script weaves it into a lovely story arc where we see characters evolve before our eyes. It's underlying theme however is perception. In the eyes of the others, however much she changes, Mae was and always will be just an untrustworthy prostitute. Maybe on a deeper level it's about how we see ourselves and how we see each other. It's how we see others as reflections of our own preconceptions and indeed of ourselves. Although not quite Frank Capra, director Edward Buzzell does a great job and reinforces the reflection motifs with some clever use of mirrors and reflections.

Overall, definitely worth watching for a great, uplifting story with some of the best fast-talking, wisecracking dialogue ever giving us a real taste of life for the underdogs of New York during the darkest days of the depression.

Carole Lombard and Pat O'Brien star in "Virtue," a 1932 pre-code film featuring Ward Bond, Mayo Methot and Jack LaRue. Robert Riskin wrote the script and Lombard is a prostitute who's thrown out of New York - escorted onto the train, in fact, by a policeman - but she gets off at another city stop and stays in town. She meets and eventually marries a cab driver (O'Brien) who has no idea of her past. When he finds out, he's upset, but he's really in love with her, and they stay together. Then she's implicated in a murder.

"Virtue" moves at a fast pace, has very good dialogue, and Lombard gives an excellent performance as a street smart woman who falls in love unexpectedly. She's very beautiful and quite sophisticated in appearance, though her comrades in the streetwalker trade seem a lot lower class. Pat O'Brien, who worked into his eighties and usually played the best friend to someone like Jimmy Cagney, does a good job in a rare leading role for him.

Since the film is precode, it contains a lot of innuendo, my favorite being O'Brien's advice to Ward Bond, who wants to get married. "It's your doughnut," O'Brien says. "Dunk it."