Strangers May Kiss (1931)

Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

Too much of everything

Just perfect...

An Exercise In Nonsense

Discovering IMDb about a decade ago has sent me off in various directions to derive my movie entertainment, and one of my goals is to sample work from as many of the principal actors and actresses through the ages as possible. This was my first look at Norma Shearer and though I came away satisfied with her performance here, I thought the story was rather incredible; translate that as not credible at all. I just can't get over the idea that the close of the story had her character walking out of the theater with a guy who was such a cad throughout the picture. Not that her morals were any better, but gee, what were the odds things were going to get any better once the lovebirds became a couple? My summary quote offered by Lisbeth's (Shearer) friend Geneva may have been offered in a different context, but the sentiment still holds true.I don't think I'll dwell on the story too much because other reviewers here have done so already, and I found some other interesting elements that caught my attention. Starting out, did anyone notice in the opening scene when Lisbeth and Alan got off the plane together - where was the pilot? There didn't seem to be much room in the compartment when they got out, and there wasn't anyone else visible in the plane! How does that work? And say, how about the crowd at the football stadium for 1931! It matched the view of the arena from last night's Super Bowl game as I write this (Denver 24, Carolina 10), and it just stunned me that so many people would be attending a ball game in the Thirties.And finally, when was the last time anyone has seen a fur coat with the animal's head still on it? I always thought that was rather disgusting from an aesthetic point of view. When Lisbeth shows up at a Paris night club she's wearing one that looked like it might have been a fox. An elderly aunt of mine had one once (decades ago) and it was fashioned so the mouth latched on to one of the legs to snap it in place and it just grossed me out.So just getting back to my original point, it was totally frustrating for this viewer to see how Alan kept giving Lisbeth the brush off and she kept rolling with the punches. Finding out about the wife in Paris would have found most mortal women going through the roof and she simply regarded it with general equanimity. For his part, the long put off and put upon Steve (Robert Montgomery) should have read the tea leaves long ago and moved on, but then I guess we wouldn't have had this troublesome dynamic. Interesting that Alan and Steve never came to blows over their respective relationships with Lisbeth, another plot element that doesn't stand up to scrutiny in the human nature department.

Fresh from her Oscar winning performance in the Divorcée (30) Norma Shearer more or less reprises the same role of the scorned woman in Strangers May Kiss. The glamorous Shearer wears a multitude of gowns, sports a few different hairdos and creakily overacts with a series of tremulous outbursts.In Strangers men behave badly as they drink, carouse, chase skirts and keep wives in the dark. Lisbeth Corbin (Shearer) vows she will not get caught up in such dishonesty, especially after witnessing one such discretion that leads to tragedy. She goes to Mexico with a married archaeologist (Neil Hamilton) and they fall in love but he leaves her for the job. Vowing she won't get fooled again she embarks on a two year spree across Europe seducing men from Paris to Madrid.Strangers gets the full MGM treatment in terms of set design and costuming. Ms. Shearer is exquisitely posed and framed but the bosses wife (Irving Thalberg) comes across shrill and smug most of the time. The films construction is disjointed and so poorly edited it has you wondering if reels are missing.Strangers May Kiss is clearly a star driven vehicle for Shearer but she breaks down often while more dependable supporting jalopies like Marjorie Rambeau and a touching Irene Rich leave her in the dust.

Norma Shearer intrigued and interested me (in an uncanny way) ever since I was kid and my fondness for Classic Hollywood Films began. I first read about her in the late 1970s, but there was not much material available of her. Norma's acting ability and beauty were not much praised, she was permanently "accused" of overacting, but the authors weren't able to deny her immense popularity and star appeal during her heyday. Her charisma was huge.It is true that in certain moments of specific films, especially talking pictures, she tends to overact and dramatize in excess her reactions, using certain mannerisms or posturing unnaturally. A sad example of this is the interesting "Strange Interlude", flawed, in my opinion among other facts, because of Norma's artificial performance in certain pivotal moments. There are other films in which she is uniformly good, like "Private Lives" (the best comedy of her I have seen to date) and "The Barretts of Wimpole Street" and "Smilin' Through" (ditto two of her best dramatic pictures)."Strangers May Kiss" on the other hand, is the most Pre-Code film of Norma I have ever seen (and I have seen "The Divorcée", "A Free Soul" and "Riptide"). I also feel that Norma's performance has been unfairly criticized by some reviewers at IMDb.com, who accuse her of posturing and overacting. Well, I just watched this film yesterday and I was positively impressed by Norma's natural acting, for once, almost devoid of overacting, even in the dramatic moments.Norma plays a modern Bostonian girl who (apparently) neglects marriage as something that kills passion and love. She's absolutely infatuated by the character played by Neil Hamilton. Bob Montgomery knows her since childhood and has always been in love with her. After certain events I won't tell about, Norma gets disillusioned of Hamilton and takes a crack at the wild life in Europe, turning into an outrageously promiscuous woman.This film is one of the most Pre-Code films I have ever seen, specifically in relation to Norma's character. She's simply unashamedly immoral during her European spree (that lasts two years or more); I could not believe that Norma was allowed to play such an openly, in-your-face sexually voracious (for a while at least) lady (she had her reasons though, justified or not). From this film is that oft-quoted line: "I'm in an orgy wallowing and I love it!" Such (unpunished) behavior would have never-ever been allowed during the Code; Unthinkable.Norma, Neil Hamilton and Bob Montgomery are good and believable in their respective roles. There is a first rate supporting cast lead by Marjorie Rambeau, Irene Rich and Hale Hamilton. Conchita Montenegro (who starred opposite Leslie Howard in "Never the Twain Shall Meet") plays a sexy Spanish dancer. Karen Morley, Ray Milland and Edward J. Nugent (aka Eddie Nugent) play bit roles.The print I saw was taped off of TCM USA, but is not very good. I'd like to watch a fine print of this film, but I bet a better one does not exist anymore.In all a fine and interesting precoder that has been unjustly neglected and underrated.

This movie was pure soap opera for 1931 audiences. Today it's rather "talkie" and the moral standards of the film by today's liberal standards are laughable. But the great Norma Shearer is always fun to watch, and Norma never looked better on the screen. Her Adrian designed gowns are breathtaking and she is nothing short of ravishing.