The Age of Innocence (1934)

Very well executed

A Masterpiece!

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

The acting in this movie is really good.

This "Age of Innocence" from 1934, of course, cannot even approach the sumptuous beauty.amazing acting, and rich story-telling of the Martin Scorsese "Age of Innocence" from 1993 starring Daniel Day-Lewis, Winona Ryder, and Michelle Pfeiffer.The 1934 movie stars Irene Dunne as Ellen, John Boles as Newland, and Julie Haydon as May.The story is told in flashback by the elderly Newland. As a young attorney in the late 1800s, he was engaged to May when her cousin Ellen came to visit from Europe. She plans to divorce her husband and is a social outcast, as these things were never done. Newland and Ellen fall in love. Do they defy convention and marry? Or does Newland marry May as promised?Irene Dunne is lovely as Ellen. She was an actress who could do comedy and drama. John Boles was a huge star and not a tremendous actor. That kind of look was considered attractive way back when; today it has gone out of style. There are good performances, but there is no way to watch this film after seeing the Scorsese film. It is studio-made, looks dull, and is dull. This is a story with a great deal of depth that seems untouched here -- lots going on underneath all the gentility, the trap of conventions -- here told as an ordinary story.Helen Westley is wonderful as the cousins' grandmother, as is Laura Hope Crews as Dunne's aunt and May's mother. Lionel Atwill is also on hand as a married man who is a friend of Dunne's, an unacceptable situation.The novel was also adapted into a play, on Broadway starring Katherine Cornell as Ellen and Franchot Tone as Newland.If you haven't seen the stunning Scorsese film, see it.

Irene Dunne shines in this fine(one must remember it was the post-code 1930s)adaptation of the Edith Wharton novel, as Countess Ellen Olenska, an american born member of New York's high society, who was raised and married in Europe, far way from that city's strict society conventions, now an outsider in her own family. She returns to New York city because she wants to divorce her polish aristocrat husband, where she falls in love with young lawyer Newland Archer, her cousin's fiancé.John Boles, as usual, is just so-so as Newland Archer, although I must say, that upon watching the movie I felt he was much more effective when impersonating him in his old age. This actor always reminds me of Robert Taylor, because although the latter achieved superstar stardom and had better looks, their acting abilities and inexpressiveness are roughly equivalent. As well, both served as "escorts" in many star vehicles of notable 1930s female stars: Irene Dunne, Barbara Stanwyck, etc.Miss Dunne, an excellent comedienne and dramatic actress, had previously worked with Boles in the 1932 weepie "Back Street", and this film's plot is in the same category. She looks very beautiful indeed in period clothing. Julie Haydon is rightly "controlled" and restrained, as her cousin May.Helen Westley gives the greatest performance among the supporting players, as Old Dowager Mrs. Manson Mingott, both Countess Olenska's and May's understanding and very warm grandmother. Laura Hope Crews is very good as Dunne's stuffy and very concerned aunt (and May's mother), and Lionel Atwill plays an unscrupulous "married man of bad reputation" who befriends Dunne, in spite of the scandal it may cause, in the opinion of her family.Recommended viewing for '30s movie fans.

Adaptation from a novel and play, this 1930s social drama is performed as a flashback into 1870s New York. SPOILER Irene Dunne and John Boles are cast as ill-fated lovers who are unable to marry because of the pressure of family and society to avoid scandal. Irene is beautiful but hard to believe as a woman who has just left her husband and is now deciding whether she will ask for a divorce. She plays neither the injured innocent nor the wanton vixen. SPOILER Boles is almost unbearable and his character cannot build up sufficient courage to abandon his fiance and later his wife. SPOILER In the end he cannot even muster the courage for a late in life reunion and possible happiness. Lionel Atwill is hardly realistic as the other love interest -- was there no one else in Hollywood that could have played this role? Helen Westley does a great job as Granny. Poor editing in places. Recommended for those who need to see all of Irene Dunne's work and anyone interested in societal values in 1870s New York.

Edith Wharton chronicled the romantic tragedies of the 19th century 400, those anointed people who would fit in Lady Astor's Lavish New York Society ballroom. This 1934 film is the story of a young lawyer named Newland Archer who is pledged to a New York girl named May Welland. The marriage is in the offing for most of the film.What stirs things up is the arrival of a mysterious woman, a Polish Countess named Ellen Olenska, who lives at an unfashionable Manhattan address, west 23rd street. Newland is charmed by the Countess and she, likewise. The Countess is in town to get a divorce. Society is as put off by Mrs. Olenska's frankness as they are with her address.Teacups rattle at every social turn. Irene Dunne is younger in this film as Countess Olenska than in any other I've seen her in. She upstages every other actor in the film including John Boles who is inept as Newland. The movie seems a star vehicle for Dunne. At least the 1993 remake of Age of Innocence from Director Martin Scorcese gives some weight to the other characters, while failing finally to tell the story adequately. Julie Haydon, who would eventually play Laura in Tennessee Williams' play The Glass Menagerie, is suitably church-mousey as Newland's fiancee, May.Newland's interest in and defense of the Countess eventually gets him in trouble with the upper-class set who are his peers. When push comes to shove, the question is, what will Archer do, dump the one he promised or run off with the Countess. What actually does happen is a fairly delicate bit of story-telling.The 1934 Age of Innocence tells the story better than the 1993 version. But the older story isn't really that good either. Mrs. Wharton's novel was a sophisticated piece of work. It deserved a better telling on-screen. If you'd like a well-done thirties social drama, have a look at Dodsworth with Walter Huston, Ruth Chatterton and Mary (yes!) Astor. Age of Innocence is strictly for Irene Dunne aficianados.