Susan Lenox (Her Fall and Rise) (1931)

Yawn. Poorly Filmed Snooze Fest.

Brilliant and touching

Absolutely Fantastic

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

This was an interesting story. It was also very hard to swallow, almost as though it was edited beyond intelligibility. They fall in love too quickly, then later in the picture she tracks him down without any clue as to his whereabouts. She falls in with a circus troupe and writes him to meet her despite becoming the mistress of the circus owner - and she's shocked when Gable drops her on the spot. How could she not anticipate rejection in this circumstance? Though it borders on fantasy it works due to the efforts of the two stars. There was good chemistry between Garbo and Gable, and she is chiefly responsible for it. I am in a minority here, but I always fail to see Garbo's 'indescribable charm and allure'. I guess I am too young. Nevertheless, it is she who makes the film work, and raises a poorly written and ultimately inferior movie to my rating of six.

I Loved this film but I enjoy mostly all Garbo movies The finest actress of all time No one has or ever will compare with or to her. She has a Mystical magic that no one seems to carry. She worked very well with Gable and they should have had many more films. Anyone know why they never did? I know of course Joan Crawford and Clark Gable had loads of chemistry as well and Joan is my second all time favorite actress. If you enjoy Both performers you won't wanna miss this film. Of course I've have yet to read more Greta Garbo Bio's and they may contain the reason why these two never crossed paths again. Joan mentioned Gable often in her Interviews but never mentioned this pairing.

In an era when iconic stars meant more than at any other time, two of the brightest were Greta Garbo and Clark Gable. Although there was some considerable overlap between their periods of stardom, this fairly standard 1931 melodrama was their only movie together. This is not as surprising as it seems, since repeated star pairings were always carefully formed through apparent compatibility. Garbo and Gable however were players of remarkably different style and temperament.Garbo had already been an established – and massively popular – actress in the silent era, and despite the considerable hype around her early talkies, in retrospect her silent features remain her best period. It's not her accent; it's just that her mellifluous, almost operatic manner did not really work when out loud. By contrast, without sound her mesmerising presence remains pure and captivating. She would later adapt for speaking roles, and by the late 30s producers would be actively casting her in parts that suited her ethereal style, notable highlights being Camille (1937) and Ninotchka (1939). As it is, her performance in Susan Lenox is already an improvement upon her at-the-time-celebrated but now very clunky talkie debut in Anna Christie (1930).Gable on the other hand was an up-and-comer at this point. In fact, though he was gaining familiarity as a supporting player in movies such as Night Nurse and A Free Soul (both released earlier the same year) he was thus far getting typecast as a thuggish gangster. The reason his potential as a desirable lead man hadn't fully been realised yet was a simple case of presentation. All it would take was a thin moustache and a few locks of hair drooping over his forehead, but appearing as he does here clean-shaven and hair slicked back, all you see is an ordinary man with a somewhat odd-shaped face. When he makes a few appearances towards the end of Susan Lenox with a few days' stubble, mussed-up hair and rolled-up sleeves, the effect is incredible. I feel it was a big failing on the part of the filmmakers to not make more of this rugged Gable in his earlier appearances and the final scenes.To be fair though, director Robert Z. Leonard is really more interested in favouring Garbo, who was then the better-known and more bankable star. Although this was some time past the period when movies were often shot in both sound and silent versions to cater for places that hadn't yet made the switch, Leonard still sticks to a primarily visual form of storytelling. There are numerous close-ups of hands and feet in action, often used to open a scene and give it context. He allows many of the ideas and feelings of the characters to come through in wordless glances, often relegating the dialogue to the status of embellishment. With such purity he is responsible for staging some haunting and powerful moments, such as the sideshow proprietor's coercing Garbo into bed, the two of them moving closer to the screen without uttering a sound.The differences between Garbo and Gable were not confined to their approaches to the craft; apparently they despised each other offscreen too. Still, it's a testament to the considerable talents of the both of them that there seems to be a decent rapport between them as a fictional couple. Both were after all great screen lovers, at their best when dizzy with passion or locked in an embrace, and a movie like Susan Lenox is bread and butter to them both. They meet here in passing, Garbo (although younger) already past her peak, Gable just rising towards his. And while neither of them is at their ideal, star quality is supreme, and it turns out this is not a bad little movie.

I had to watch SUSAN LENOX - HER FALL AND RISE several times because I just couldn't wrap my mind around it. It's such an odd film, mostly because it was obviously cut here and there, down to a paltry 75 minutes long film, and because what occurs in the movie is such a smorgasborg of melodramatic situations squeezed in in such a brief amount of time, that the film becomes truly surreal.The film starts broodingly enough, with the illegitimate birth of Helga (soon to be Susan Lenox, of Lenoxville) seen in shadows. We see her grow in her miserable life in shadows and the next thing we see is Helga is sent to live/marry a man she doesn't know. She runs away from the creepy ugly man and ends up with Rodney (Clark Gable) and the two fall in love overnight(!). When Rodney leaves for a business trip, Helga comes across her evil family and runs away from town, only to end up in circus, where Helga becomes known as Susan Lenox, is forced to work as a performer (a belly dancer of sorts) and is under the control of the circus boss Burlingham. After an ill-fated meeting with Rodney at the circus, Holga runs away (yes, again) and becomes a socialite in New York. After another ill-fated meeting with Rodney at a party, the two fight and separate again. Holga still goes after him, all the way down to South America(!) where she works in a seedy bar (keeping men company)and where she waits for him.Got that? Anyway, the movie is like one of those action packed serials, but instead of showing a hero going from one pitfall to another, SUSAN LENOX is a melodramatic serial, where our heroine goes from one melodramatic pitfall to another, with very little time to digest one situation from the next.The fast pace and wonky style is actually endearing, keeping the sometimes questionable subject matter light and airy. Notice the scene when Garbo undresses at the circus when she meets Rodney again, with the kooky music, giving a cartoony feel to the whole moment.If there was a theme in SUSAN LENOX, it's how women are constantly used and abused in society. But the film never becomes too depressing because Garbo gives weight and importance to a character that's not easy to play, a character forced to do unpleasant things. Susan is hopelessly naive yet determined, all this beautifully played by Garbo.Gable is good too but his character is a little too dense to be likable. I don't hate Rodney but he should have been a bit more understanding about Susan's circumstances or her background.There are some great bits of dialogue in SUSAN LENOX. My favorite line (and one of my favorite lines in any movie)is uttered by Garbo: "This hurt we have inflicted upon each other. It's become a bound. Nothing can break it. We're just like two cripples. Twisted. Only together can we ever become straight." Brilliant. That lines basically surmises the whole movie: two beautiful losers, miserable in the company of others and only happy with each other, yet they can't seem to be able to live together because of wonky circumstances.And to think that the two only met each other for one night. Arf! Is SUSAN LENOX a great movie? No, it's not. But in its odd way (sorta like Susan and Rodney), it's infinitely watchable and endearing.I'm usually against remakes but I believe they should remake SUSAN LENOX. Obviously, no one can top Garbo as Susan Lenox of Lenoxville, but this odd story, in the hands of a director like David Lynch, would be amazing.(update: I recently read the Taschen book Icon series on Garbo and according to it, this film had 21 writers! No wonder it's so wonky!)