H.M. Pulham, Esq. (1941)

the audience applauded

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

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.

This terrific little gem of a drama puts forth the idea that we all "settle" in life, for a life (or person) more "stable" or, at least, more comfortable (e.g. per our upbringing). Though we may passionately believe we want that something (or someone) else, for practical reasons (or other circumstances) we'll accept "less". We may even hold onto an old dream, which we've romanticized about to the point that all the negatives are gone and only the positives remain in our memories, such that we believe it can still be made to work ... only to find that the moment has passed, we've changed, and/or the "air is out of the balloon":Such was the relationship portrayed between the staid title character, played by Robert Young, and a businesswoman, whose character was intentionally given the male name of Marvin, but is played by the decidedly unmasculine Hedy Lamarr. Though Pulham was raised to marry a woman like Kay (Ruth Hussey), whom he eventually does, he spends his early years in the advertising business pursuing co-worker (and artist?) Marvin, who's a bit too "modern" for his conservative family's values.The story is told in flashback, with Pulham examining his life while writing his Harvard class biography. Coincidentally, he's just gotten a call from Marvin, who's also married and just wants to meet for drinks after all these years.Produced and directed by King Vidor (who co-wrote the screenplay, based on the John Marquand novel with his wife Elizabeth Hill), the cast is excellent and includes Charles Coburn as Young's father, Van Heflin as his longtime friend, classmate and business associate, Fay Holden as his mother, Bonita Granville as his sister, Douglas Wood as his boss, and Sara Haden as his secretary. Charles Halton plays a client of the ad agency, Leif Erickson a football playing friend of Pulham's, and Anne Revere (uncredited) his father's secretary. Frank Faylen, Byron Foulger, Ava Gardner (her second film), Connie Gilchrist, and Grant Withers also appear uncredited.

So faces the reflective Robert Young, a wealthy Bostonian heir who is asked by old college chums to write out biographies of some of the most influential class men. The film does not concentrate on the reunion at all, only the life of the seemingly stuffy Young who counts each step he takes to get to his office, shares two peanuts with the squirrels and has a cigar waiting for him as he arrives at the office building. Sitting back for a minute and relaxing, he begins to remember everything from day one, including his internship at an advertising firm in New York where he met the beautiful Hedy Lamarr. But family responsibilities took him back to Boston, and that re-paired him with an old flame (Ruth Hussey) who twenty years later makes him feel as if he's in need of something new. Will his reunion with the still lovely Lamarr threaten the staidness of the marriage he's seemingly stuck in, or will it light a fire under his belt to try to make things a little better?Every glamorous trick in the MGM book was pulled out for this initially dull version of the John P. Marquand novel that somehow springs to life in the second half. The film is cinematically beautiful to look at, but certain aspects of it leave uncomfortable feelings, particularly Young's frequent hearing of the voices of his past within his own imagination, the sounds of these voices seemingly coming out of nowhere and rather piercingly recorded. Lamarr is a spitfire from the minute we meet her, and she lights up his stuffy world, especially when they go on a public relations trip to push the greatness of a soap detergent they are promoting. Washing socks leads to romance between the two and when Lamarr tries to fit into Young's world outside of New York, it is clear that the two could never be happy.The wonderful Charles Coburn is only briefly seen as Young's tycoon father, but even in his few scenes, he is completely touching. "Ma Hardy", Fay Holden, takes a different turn as Young's stuffy mother, and it is ironic that "Aunt Millie" (Sara Haden") has a small role as Young's secretary. When first seen, Ruth Hussey's character of Young's matron wife seems lifeless, like one of those cold society women of old who have no passion for anything but shopping, country clubs and fake good breeding. But there's something different in her as the second half of the film reveals, and it is apparent that she realizes that in order to get her man back, she has to practically loose him. The finale reunion between Young and Lamarr is heart-breaking, and for one of the few times (other than as Tondelao), Lamarr is quite alive, perhaps better directed for a change, here by King Vidor, not the usual beautiful "Ice Princess" of most of her MGM films. Van Heflin and Leif Erickson offer interesting characterizations as two of Young's pals. There's a great snow sledding sequence which sped up the film quite a bit, and a subtle underlying message when Lamarr briefly meets Ma Pulham. The problem is that the film just takes too long to get going, even though the three stars are trying their best to sparkle things up. It's like a ballet with too many slow dances and not enough up-beat music to keep the attention going, or a play where the second act is much better than the first and makes you say, "Now that was worth waiting for!".

To the manor born Henry Pulham has his life mapped out for him by an overbearing father (Charles Coburn). Garnering experience in his early years he meets and falls in love with Marvin Ransome (Hedy Lamar) an ambitious and vivacious woman who exposes the staid Pulham to a wider world. Still, family responsiblities remain a priority and HM is prodded by dad to get his life in order which entails losing Marvin and marrying someone else. Assuming his fathers role in the business Pulham becomes the well respected man but with regrets. Years later he once again crosses paths with Marvin and is forced to confront feelings he stifled over the years.Pulham's staid style never builds much of a fever pitch in spite of the alluring Lamar. Young's Pulham spends most of the film in a dull funk being casually pushed around by his father and called on it by Marvin. He's just not that much fun or interesting to follow around, his station in life just doesn't allow it. Van Heflin and Ruth Hussey as his wife lend fine supporting performances while Coburn takes the acting honors as the forever lecturing old man.Silent film director King Vidor made the move to sound as smoothly as anyone but it was usually with downtrodden characters (The Crowd, Street Scene, Halaluah ,The Champ, our Daily Bread ) and situations that he could build on the desperate pitch of. In Pulham we have a poor little rich kid who never shows much backbone or confronts much high drama. Vidor is ultimately hamstrung by his title character's incertitude and timidity and the film slides to it's conclusion without much life.

Hedy Lamarr and Robert Young are well-paired in this movie. She plays the mature independent woman. He plays the good-natured homespun man. The movie is slow and touching, in the genre of movies where modern life conflicts with old and established life. I was reminded of "The Magnificent Ambersons." I agree that this was one of Hedy's best performances, and interestingly another in which her character has a male name (perhaps to balance her beguiling femininity.) In this and a few other movies, her face conveys a variety of emotions, often breaking the placidity of her porcelain beauty. Robert sets the tone of this movie. It would have been very different if another actor had been cast. He was an excellent choice for this role. Passion and prudence clash in this story, and as was often the case in Hays' Hollywood, the result is bittersweet. One of my favorite lines is when Marvin says to Harry on the sled, "Now don't be like Ethan Frome. I want to live."