Whistling in the Dark (1933)

Whistling in the Dark is a dated little trifle. Don't let me scare you off from it, though; it can be fun if you're in the mood.

Based on a play which ran 265 performances between 1932 and 1933, the comedy/drama about two elopers who end up trapped in a mansion and forced to think up the perfect murder for a group of mobsters can be tedious. It's stage-bound and director Elliot Nugent's directing is static and blah.

The cast is good, though, headed by Una Merkel (playing her typical ditzy role) and Ernest Treux, who also played the lead onstage. His under-played, self-effacing humor reminded me of the comedic performances of Roland Young (especially in Topper). (Claire Trever played the Una Merkel role onstage)

The lead mobster is played by Edward Arnold, reprising his stage role. Also in the cast is John Miljan, who seemed to be in every other MGM film of the time and Nat Pendleton, who excelled in playing goofy, dense gangsters.

The film does have some racy, pre-code humor. Other than the pleasure you'll have in watching some talented performers, though, there's not a lot to recommend in  Whistling in the Dark. 

The story was remade in 1941 with Red Skelton, in a movie so successful that two sequels were made.

A bit of trivia: Ernest Truex was the lifeless body of Harry in Hitchcock's the Trouble With Harry. If you have to be dead onscreen, that's the way to do it.

Whistling in the Dark isn't available on DVD, but has been shown on Turner Classic Movies.

Lovers Courageous (1932)

Based on a play by Frederick Lonsdale (MGM would film his The Last of Mrs. Cheyney at least twice), Lovers Courageous is an oh-so-typical MGM early '30s film. In fact, MGM filmed Faithless, with a similar plot (lower class guy woos and marries rich girl) the same year, with the same lead actor, Robert Montgomery. If you watch a lot of old movies, you'll see this plot over and over and over again.

Faithless wasn't a great movie, but better than this one, which is too reliant on some stagy, formal dialogue which just doesn't ring true. Montgomery is perfect for these sorts of care-free, whatever-may-come characters, but it sometimes seems as if he's having to play two characters: a witty, subtle, funny guy in some scenes (possibly partially improvised), and an earnest, flowery, Victorian-leaning one in the "serious" scenes. He's supposed to be a determined playwright and a good one, but I didn't buy that at all, not least for the reason that the dialogue he supposedly writes is atrocious.

Having said that this film isn't very good, it's also true to say it has an inherent emotion-tugging tragectory which is intrinsically suspenseful, even when you know the ending will be happy. Madge Evans as the rich girl is lovely, as always. In this film she's expected to marry Reginald Owen, who plays a brash Englishman as a broad caricature. How more believable and interesting the movie would have been if the person Evans' betrothed had been a real person, and maybe even somewhat sympathetic. As it stands now, there's no contest between the suitors.

Your spirits will be kept up, though by some other fine character actors: Beryl Mercer, as Montgomery's mother and, especially, Roland Young as Evans' father's aide. Young, in the last film of his MGM contract, effortlessly drifts through this affair as if he had nothing better to do that week and thought he might earn some money and some laughs by being in a movie.

Lovers Courageous is not available on DVD or VHS, but has been broadcast on Turner Classic Movies.