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Awesome Movie

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

Copyright 17 December 1934 by Metro Goldwyn Mayer Corporation. New York opening at the Capitol: 20 December 1934. U.S. release: 25 September 1934. Australian release: 15 May 1935. 84 minutes.SYNOPSIS: Jeff Williams (Clark Gable) returns from abroad just in time to act as Best Man at the wedding of his friends, Mary Clay (Joan Crawford) and Dill Todd (Robert Montgomery). To everyone's surprise, Dill leaves Mary at the altar. He marries his mistress, Connie (Frances Drake) instead. As it happens, Jeff has always loved Mary himself. Mary, however, has never taken Jeff seriously. Her heart has always been set on Dill. Even his marriage to Connie does not deter her. Dill asks Connie for a divorce and makes a fresh proposal to Mary. She accepts him. This development leaves Jeff out in the cold. He tries to convince Mary she is making a mistake. NOTES: The stage play opened on Broadway at the Times Square on 1st March 1933, and ran 101 performances. This was insufficient to put the play into the black. Its star and principal backer, Tallulah Bankhead, ended up with a $40,000 loss. The play was directed by Thomas Mitchell (yes, our Thomas Mitchell). Supporting Miss Bankhead in the cast were Ilka Chase, Barbara O'Neil, Anderson Lawler, Cora Witherspoon, Harlan Briggs, Donald MacDonald, Roger Sterns, Nancy Ryan and Millicent Hanley. The film went before the cameras on 25th September 1934, winding up on 22md October 1934. COMMENT: The play didn't exactly pull in the crowds on Broadway, so it seems to have been a good idea to assign the screenplay to witty Joe Mankiewicz. Unfortunately, Mankiewicz is not equal to the task. True, he begins promisingly enough with our returning hero, Gable, loading Butterworth down with balloons and peanuts; but Mankiewicz's notion of humor degenerates later on into a lot of irritating gibberish from Butterworth and a frilly nightgown for Montgomery. Director Van Dyke does his level best to keep the movie moving, but eventually Mankiewicz's tired and tiresome script defeats him. Forsaking All Others actually ends up as little more than an Adrian fashion show led by exquisitely photographed Joan Crawford. Fortunately, Joan can do no wrong in my book, even in an inferior vehicle like Forsaking All Others.OTHER VIEWS: Here's an old-fashioned new-fashioned play. Or is it the other way around? About fifty years ago, you could say with justification they don't make movies like this any more. But not to-day! Steamy, risqué Forsaking All Others is firmly back in fashion, a favorite on local TV. I'll take bets, however, that no-one is game to revive the original stage play by Frank Morgan Cavett and Edward Barry Roberts. For a starter, we have no-one in the Tallulah Bankhead class to play the main role. Or do we?

This love triangle comedy is worth tracking down for its great script, which is filled to the brim with humorous wit and colorful dialogue that keeps viewers on their toes. (Joseph L. Mankiewicz wrote the screenplay, based on a stage play.) And it certainly helps to have these lines read by the likes of Billie Burke and Charles Butterworth, whose inimitable comedic talents boost the so-so story.Robert Montgomery's and Joan Crawford's characters grow tiresome after a while, but the film is saved by the performances of Butterworth and Burke in their sidekick roles. Billie Burke is at her fluttery best. Clark Gable is Clark Gable: solid the whole way through. His character is the most likable of the three leads, but he drops out from the middle of the film.The plot takes some tedious turns, but the ending is satisfying. I like how the scenes at the end of the film mirror the scenes at the start of the film. While I felt the production overall was uneven, I must say that the script really sparkles in places, setting this overlooked comedy apart from the pack.

This is one of the several movies that Joan Crawford made with Clark Gable, and fortunately quite a few of them (maybe all) have made it to at least DVD-R via the Warner Archive. This is one of the best the two did together. It's a romantic comedy in which Joan plays socialite Mary Clay, who is about to marry lifelong acquaintance Dillon Todd (Robert Montgomery). Clark Gable plays another of Mary's lifelong friends, Jeff Williams. Jeff has been long away from home and decides to come back just to ask Mary to marry him, unaware that Mary is about to marry Dillon. When he learns about their upcoming marriage he decides to keep his feelings to himself, although the look he has as if having been punched in the stomach when he hears the news says it all. Robert Montgomery is playing the usual harmless playboy character here that he did so much of in the early 1930's. It looks like Mary and Dillon's marriage is about to go off without a hitch until one of Dillon's old girlfriends appears on the scene.This film was released about six months after the precode era ended, so there is nothing really racey going on here. About the most extreme thing you will see is Robert Montgomery in a dress. However, W.S. Van Dyke is the director of this film, and he knew how to combine sexual tension and comedy in an age of aggressive censorship, and this is a fine example of his work. I highly recommend it to fans of films of the 1930's.

An ideal vehicle for Joan Crawford, and a role to which she applies herself consummately! The chemistry between Ms. Crawford and Clark Gable is palpable and registers like a blister. The ever-clever and witty Robert Montgomery is in fine form as the character of "Dill", and an apt foil for the combine of Ms. Crawford and Mr. Gable. I particularly enjoyed Frances Drake's portrayal of Connie, as her elegant piquancy in this characterization is right on the nose.