Cynara (1932)

Yawn. Poorly Filmed Snooze Fest.

Good story, Not enough for a whole film

Ok... Let's be honest. It cannot be the best movie but is quite enjoyable. The movie has the potential to develop a great plot for future movies

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

There's nothing really remarkable about this film - A normally respectable man has an affair when his wife is away and the worst possible outcome for everyone involved occurs. As always, of course, the devil is in the details.I actually felt rather bad for Jim (Ronald Colman), a respectable barrister with a good marriage whose wife (Kay Francis as Clemency) takes off for Venice for weeks on a lark just because her flighty sister needs to be saved from herself - she's in love with a parachute jumper! She leaves Jim in the clutches of someone much more dangerous than another woman. She leaves him in the company of a lecherous older man (Henry Stephenson as John Tring) who is insistent that he drag everyone down to his level of debauchery and cynicism - a level of debauchery which, at his age, and decades before the invention of that little blue pill, he can only enjoy vicariously through the acts of others. When John and Jim go out for dinner John invites two young girls over to join them - amidst much protest from Jim - and practically pushes one of them (Phyllis Barry as Doris) into Jim's arms. Nothing happens that night, but Doris has her cap set for Jim even knowing he's a married man. Once she finally gets Jim inside her flat weeks later, Doris nags the poor guy to the point that I'm sure he's willing to bed her just to shut her up. Doris would have made a great time share condo saleswoman had she lived in modern times.So the two have their affair with the understanding that it will end when Clemency returns. Doris has Jim's body but she'll never have his heart, so to speak. But then Clemency returns and Jim lives up to the agreement they've had all along and ends the relationship, though not without some pain of separation as he has grown to care for the girl. Doris poisons herself rather than live on without Jim. Now Jim should have seen this coming when Doris went all Ophelia on him when they were on one of their weekends in the country, with her crying about how the trees must be so sad when lovers never return to enjoy them??? The inquest goes hard on Jim, although I'm not sure why there even is one since Doris obviously poisoned herself according to the police and Jim was miles away at the time. Apparently, 80 years ago, it would have made a difference in public opinion - all important for a barrister - if Jim was not Doris' "first". Doris told him that he wasn't as part of her initial sales pitch, but he is just too much of a gentleman to say so in court when asked that very personal question. He is thus presumed to be the deflowerer of an innocent young shop girl and, although not criminally responsible, any hope for a career or even social acceptance is over.So this is where we started and this is where we leave off. Jim has been recounting the entire story to Clemency before he leaves for South Africa to start again where he is not known. Will she go with him or start over without him? And since up to now she has decided to leave Jim what or who - if anything - will change her mind? That much I'll leave for you to find out.Before you think me too hard on Doris let me just say that I am a woman, not a man, so I watched this from the sympathetic eye of a woman who was once a girl, been there, done that. Believe me, even young women can tell when a man is just unhappy versus unhappily married. The people to watch out for are the evil people in this world such as John Tring who want to drag everyone down to their level yet see themselves as civilized, the silly people like Clemency who will leave a treasure on the sidewalk and just assume it will be there when they get back, the even sillier people like Clemency's sister who is doomed to marry the wrong man - it's just a matter of time, and finally those who won't level with themselves like Doris. Put all of these people together and even a basically decent man like Jim is bound to succumb to his human weaknesses.

With all the talk of temptation before his strangely named -- but ultimately forgiving -- wife, Clemency, goes on vacation, it is obvious that dapper lawyer Jim is going to stray.For such a smart and accomplished barrister, he falls for every temptation his eager would-be paramour drops in his path. Still, it is entertaining to watch this story unfurl.Ronald Coleman gives a sensitive performance as the elegant yet uninsightful husband. (Why on earth would he accept a job judging a silly beauty pageant?) The casting of his wife and lover is intriguing -- the women could have been dead ringers for each other.Yet Henry Stephenson, playing the wily friend John Tring, is the most interesting character in this drama. In the end he seems like some kind of puppet master, having orchestrated the ultimate test of the Warlocks' marriage and ultimately overseeing their somewhat unlikely reconciliation."Call no woman respectable until she's dead," this cynic intones.It's highly ironic that the seductive character Doris, played ably by Phyllis Barry, commits suicide near the story's end. The Wikipedia listing for this actress notes that she died of a barbiturates overdose some 20 years after the film's production.PS: Does anyone else wonder where this film got its title? PSS: OK, I read the other reviews, and now I get it...

Recently I was finally able to see this early sound classic with Ronald Colman and Kay Francis. I haven't seen many movies with the latter, and her understated beauty suits Colman perfectly.Colman looking elegant in his perfectly tailored suits, plays a conservative and happily married (to Kay, as Clemency) barrister whose life is turned upside down by a chance affair with a shop girl played sensitively by an unknown at the time, Phyllis Barry. King Vidor, the director, took a chance in casting her, but his faith in her ability paid off. She brings just the right touch of pathos and desperation to the role of Doris. (And just happens to resemble Kay more than just a little.) In David Shepard's book on King Vidor several effects within the movie are discussed, such as the movie within a movie scene with Charlie playing the little tramp when they all go to the flickers the night he and Tring (character actor Henry Stephenson in a salty role.) meet the girls, and the fade out scenes of Colman tearing up the paper with the girls address to a scene of Clemency in Venice with her sister and the scraps of paper have dissolved into pigeons in flight.I would say that this was a different type of role for Colman. Yet even though he plays an adulterous husband, his kindness and tenderness toward Doris is always there, and all parties suffer because of the infidelity. Even in a precode, no one gets away from the consequences of their actions! I highly recommend this movie for Colman and Francis fans and as a fine example of an early Vidor sound movie. I enjoyed it more than Street Scene as the sound quality was better by this time, and the story flowed more smoothly.

And I've always been faithful to this film in my fashion. Rather ignored and almost completely forgotten, with such a simple but eternal storyline it remains an excellent watch. The acting and production is slightly stilted as with early talkies, but it's the other-world moralities displayed by both departments most people would find difficult to assimilate.The Fatal Attraction type plot has already been well outlined, this is one where the main characters definitely don't end smelling of roses. Henry Stephenson must have played kindly old gentlemen in dozens of films, here he's a kindly old cynical sleazebag - quite jarring it is! Also Colman for hoping to be impervious to female wiles, and Francis as his wife for childishly encouraging temptation - but she does get to say Divine! Halliwell Hobbes also froths too nastily as an outraged coroner.If you've got the patience it's an absorbing melodrama, one I've seen maybe a dozen times over the years now with no loss of enjoyment, and with a salutary lesson for both sexes that's well worth learning but won't be.