Manslaughter (1930)

Powerful

Don't listen to the negative reviews

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

Claudette Colbert is so adorable! I know Clara Bow was called the "It Girl," but Claudette Colbert was easily the prettiest, cutest, classiest, most charming actress of the 1930s. And she always wore such beautiful clothes!In Manslaughter, Claudette plays a spoiled, callous rich girl who enjoys getting her way as often as she does. At a party, she meets and falls in love with Fredric March, the district attorney. Although they are very attracted to each other, their moral outlooks are quite different. Freddie chastises her for bribing a police officer, and she encourages him to skip work in order to party all night long. Then, when Claudette's reckless behavior lands her in court, their love is tested.It's always so fun to watch pre-code films, and flirtations run off Claudette's tongue effortlessly. The very end is a little silly, but the rest of the movie is a very entertaining drama. If you like early talkies that still carry the feel of silent films, like using title cards and no background music, check this out and get ready to fall in love with Claudette Colbert!

Fredric March and Claudette Colbert were two new and upcoming players that Paramount studios signed with the coming of sound. Both would do much better work individually and collectively in the future. But for now they were doing films like Manslaughter.Which is what Claudette committed when she was speeding and a young motorcycle cop was chasing her and plowed into her vehicle. Colbert is a spoiled young heiress who likes to party like there's no tomorrow and loves that snappy roadster of her's. Not helping her case is the fact that she's got a history of speeding.March is a promising young prosecutor with a bright future. He's falling in love with Colbert, but when she kills that traffic cop who is a friend of his, March's duty is clear. He has a slam dunk case for vehicular homicide and he prosecutes with vigor and then resigns in remorse.Now in real life no way do people like these get together, but believe it or not in Manslaughter they do. It's clear what stars March and Colbert would become and they do their best to make this somewhat palatable. But there best isn't good enough, no one's best would be.

Lydia (Claudette Colbert) is wealthy and selfish. She has no time for others as is illustrated when her maid Evans (Hilda Vaughn) is sent to prison for theft. Lydia's evidence could prevent Evans from going to jail but she forgets to turn up. She meets with O'Bannon (Fredric March), a lawyer who is committed to equal rights for rich and poor and although they fall in love, his principles do not sit comfortably with her behaviour. After a car accident in which a policeman dies, he takes the case for prosecution against her and she is sent to prison. How does she cope and what will O'Bannon do next?....The film is OK to begin with but every scene is just a little too long and so the film starts to drag. The cast are good but the story could have been told at a better pace and with a little more excitement. The way the film resolves itself is rather sudden and convenient for all involved.

MANSLAUGHTER is a highly engrossing early talkie melodrama with very early film performances of two of the great players from Hollywood's golden era, Claudette Colbert and Fredric March. Claudette Colbert stars as a spoiled heiress who believes there are two sets of laws, one for the rich and one for the poor. Young district attorney Fredric March believes quite the opposite - equal justice and punishment for everyone. They meet at a dinner party and romantic sparks fly and both are infatuated.But trouble is around the corner. March learns Claudette has attempted to bribe a young cop after being caught speeding by dropping her diamond bracelet on the ground and driving away which leads to a scene between them and any romantic possibilities crushed. And then Colbert's faithful maid Hilda Vaughn steals some of her jewels in a weak moment for her boyfriend and confesses. Self-centered Claudette however can't be bothered to remember the date of Vaughn's trial which results in her receiving a sentence of up to 15 years. Horrified to learn of the results, Claudette zooms off to see what she can do belatedly but her speeding this time results in a fatality and her being charged for manslaughter - and with the prosecuting attorney set to be March! This type of melodrama was extremely popular in the early days of talkies - Norma Shearer won much acclaim for THE TRIAL OF MARY DUGAN and a Academy Award nomination for A FREE SOUL, Mary Pickford won an Oscar for COQUETTE. Although I've never seen DUGAN, I can't help but feel Claudette Colbert's sterling performance even at this very early stage in her career topped them all. Her pampered socialite is a fully three dimensional character - selfish yes, but not an obnoxious, unfeeling person even when she is successful at getting things her way. She is matched by the dashing young March as the young man with ideals who cannot compromise his integrity even if it means prosecuting a woman he knows he is in love with, even as it tears at his heart.Emma Dunn is fine in a rare moneyed role as Colbert's loving and supportive aunt, Natalie Moorhead, generally cast as a menace in films, does well with her small part as one of Claudette's best friends but the standout in the supporting cast is the wonderful Hilda Vaughn who latter-day audiences surely know best as Jean Harlow's maid in DINNER AT EIGHT (1933) . Ms. Vaughn has a startlingly similar situation here as the put-upon maid on a spoiled socialite (with a diamond bracelet playing a key role in the proceedings again!!) but this role even gives her more to work with than DINNER and she has two wonderful little scenes in the prison when she and her former boss are finally on equal ground. (There's also a brief bit of unintentional humor for movie buffs with Louise Beavers' bit part as one of the inmates, seeing the two stars of the later IMITATION OF LIFE (1934) in jail side by side makes one wonder if that pancake corporation was on the up and up LOL.) Claudette Colbert and Fredric March were the perfect co-stars for each other, it's regrettable their only work together was so early in their careers and of their four films only DeMille's SIGN OF THE CROSS is easily seen. It's clear from MANSLAUGHTER that these were two stars who were wonderful from day one.