Lilly Turner

Lilly Turner plays like a distant and more wholesome relative of Tod Browning's Freaks. Ruth Chatterton, excellent as always, stars as a sideshow employee married to a lush (Frank McHugh) but in love with straight arrow George Brent. To complicate matters, an addled strongman (Robert Barrat) is in love with her, and escapes from the State Hospital in order to pursue her. The film is atmospherically shot by James Van Trees, and there's solid support by Guy Kibbee as the charlatan in chief of the shabby road show. Strongly recommended for fans of pre-Code cinema.

Lilly Turner (1933)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Ruth Chatterton plays the title role, a woman who gets married but then loses her husband when it turns out he is already married to another woman. She loses her baby and then joins a traveling medicine show where she meets another man (George Brent) but her pass might catch up with her. Here's another Pre-Code from William A. Wellman but the screenplay doesn't do anyone justice. The performances are all very good with Chatterton really stealing the show as the tough as nails woman. Brent also turns in a fine performance as does Frank McHugh, Robert Barrat and Ruth Donnelly. The screenplay is full of cliché material from the wrong men falling for Lilly up to the ending, which anyone will see coming from a mile away. The bigamy plot twist might have been shocking for the day but it too is pretty watered down even for the era.

This is why I watch old movies. Every once in a while you find a completely neglected, undiscovered gem. That is the case with Lilly Turner, in which Ruth Chatterton gives one of the finest performances of any of the '30s era leading ladies. Her performance is so full of nuance. She was a great actress. The story leaves nothing to be desired. At a brief 65 minutes, it hits all the bases and leaves no aspect of the (moving) story unfinished. Lilly is a woman who is married to a polygamist. She doesn't learn of this until she is already pregnant; she loses the child but receives help from a fellow carnival performer. Together they bravely make their way in a sort of underworld of crazies and carnies. It isn't until she meets a taxi driver (Brent) that she finally finds love, but the question is will he be able to accept her.

This film highlights everything I love so much about classic films: exploration of human emotions and complicated situations. There is also the aspect of being redeemed by love which I find so beautiful in the older films. Although melodramatic, it is not a completely unbelievable story. There is as much truth as fantasy in the story. The fantasy takes us out of our own lives, while momentary grains of wisdom in the dialog keep us tuned in and, in my case, amazed.

The plot involving Brent is most interesting. He has a college degree but can't find a job, so he takes up a job in a carnival. Some might laugh, but only if taken out of the context of the great depression. Interestingly enough, I graduated college a year ago and have not found work in my field. The parallels in this movie peaked my interest and held meaning to me.

I am constantly surprised by the low ratings of pre-1940s films on IMDb. It leads me to believe most people do not appreciate the real classics, or at least the undiscovered ones.

This film deals mainly with a woman named Lilly Turner, (Ruth Chatterton) who is involved with a carnival magician who deserts her because she is pregnant and then marries the carnival barker who is a drunk. Lilly becomes very interested in a young attractive engineer named Bob Chandler, (George Brent) who falls head over his heels in love with Lilly and has no idea just what her secret past has been and in some ways keeps him in the dark. Bob Chandler is hired as a strong man and lifts some 300 pounds as a performer because he has not found his break in his professional career as an engineer. Ruth Chatterton and George Brent gave an outstanding performance in this great William Wellman film, don't miss this film.

Absolutely loved this. It's one of those gritty Depression melodramas where the amount of misery and misfortune piled upon our hero can only happen in Warner-land. Coupled with Forbstein's familiar jaunty score to lighten the mood, this is everything you want.

Leo Forbstein's jolly score is cleverly based on the old tear-jerker 'Till We Meet Again' and 'Spin a Little Web of Dreams' from FASHIONS OF 1934. That's one example of how Warners blended strains of tragedy into an upbeat tone. Despite the unmitigated misery of the story, weirdly the mood of this is positive and optimistic - well, as optimistic a Depression audiences could hope for.

Poor Ruth Chatterton marries an abusive bigamist, gets pregnant, loses her job, loses her husband, loses her home, loses the baby and ends up in poverty working in a carnival side show run by a sexual predator with just one friend who's s hopeless alcoholic. All of that's just the first fifteen minutes! ... then it speeds up! It's astonishing how much story is squeezed into an hour whilst still fully developing the characters. One example of how Wellman condenses superfluous plot to allow him to focus on character is when McHugh helps out his friend Lilly. To save her from the stigma of becoming an unmarried mother he marries her but this whole story is handled in about ten seconds. McHugh says: 'I'll see you alright.' Then we simply see a marriage certificate.

In the best tradition of a Warner early thirties melodrama, just when you think things can't possibly get any worse for poor Lilly...it does. It's like every cliché, every story and plot twist from every pre-code movie ever have been squeezed into one wild and wacky hour. Any pre-code fan must see this - it's like all your Christmas presents rolled into one.

One reason for watching early thirties pictures is because they usually star a sexy young lady like Joan Blondell or Claudette Colbert and I must confess that foolishly I wasn't going to watch this simply because Ruth Chatterton isn't on 'my list.' My shallow stupidity almost made me miss this near classic. Ruth Chatterton is (as I've now learned usually is) fantastic in this. She's just so real. Her naturalness and ordinariness makes her so completely believable - which is a real feat considering the story.

One reason I decided to watch this is because it's directed by William Wellman. He's not someone you'd associate with melodramas, he didn't really enjoy having to do this but his genius turns this absurdly over-the-top story into a totally absorbing grown-up drama. He really captures the seedy, shabby and unstable world these poor victims of The Depression are forced to inhabit. He truly transports you body and soul back to 1933.

And another reason to watch this is because Frank McHugh and Guy Kibbee have both got proper parts. McHugh isn't just the five minute comedy relief drunk, Kibbee isn't befuddled old 'Pop'. No, they're both superb actors here portraying genuinely realistic and believable actual living people.

Can't believe I nearly didn't watch this - it's exactly the sort of movie a pre-code fan like me loves.