Private Lives (1931)

 

Cast:

Norma Shearer ... Amanda Prynne
Robert Montgomery ... Elyot Chase
Reginald Denny ... Victor Prynne
Una Merkel ... Sibyl Chase
Jean Hersholt ... Oscar
George Davis ... Bell Hop

Directed by Sidney Franklin.
Produced by Irving Thalberg.
Based on the play by Noel Coward.
Original Music by William Axt.
Cinematography by Ray Binger.
Film Editing by Conrad A. Nervig.
Art Direction by Cedric Gibbons.
Costume Design by Adrian.
Sound Recording by Douglas Shearer.

Released December 12, 1931.
A Metro Goldwyn Mayer Picture.

Box Office Information:
Cost of Production: $500,000
Domestic Gross: $814,000
Forgein Gross: $311,000
Total Gross: $1,125,000
Profit: $256,000

Background:

Concluding yet another highly successful and profitable year, Norma Shearer appeared in the first film adaptation of Noel Coward’s now-legendary Private Lives (1931).

Irving Thalberg first acquired the rights to the property in January, 1931 before the play even opened. When it emerged as one of the most successful of the season, Thalberg went on with his idea of a polished film starring Norma and frequent costar Robert Montgomery as the neurotic Amanda and brutish Elyot.

For the choice of director, it was clear that not anyone could be assigned to the task. Two years earlier, Sidney Franklin had done well directing Norma in The Last of Mrs. Cheyney (1929), a film adaptation of the comedic stage play by Frederick Lonsdale. The film not only proved Norma could do comedy, but that she was also believable as a sophisticated upper-class woman. Finally she had found another niche for herself outside of the silly ingénue roles which plagued the majority of her silent film career.

The stage version of Private Lives opened on January 27, 1931 at the Times Square Theatre in New York. Noel Coward played Elyot, while Gertrude Lawrence played Amanda, and Laurence Oliver and Jill Esmond played the roles of Victor and Sybil, respectively.

However Coward went about directing, everyone agreed that it worked. In fact, it worked so well that the actors played it out in front of MGM cameras with the idea of inspiring director Sidney Franklin to keep as much as the Coward spark as possible. The film provided a neatly-detailed guideline for Metro‘s film adaptation, and would become a standard practice for bringing stage dramas to the screen later on.

Because of this, Private Lives is unlike the majority of the early-filmed theatre, particularly comedies such as The Last of Mrs. Cheyney and Charming Sinners (1929). It’s brisk, to the point, and only some static points to the fact that this was filmed only three years after sound pictures emerged.

The attention to detail helped make Private Lives a must-see film.

Below: Aside from sleek gowns, Norma also was favorably photographed in fine suits in her movies, such as this one, which she wears in Private Lives.



Webmaster's Review:

In a traditional ceremony, Elyot and Sybil are getting married. In an office, Amanda is getting eloped with Victor. Arriving on their separate honeymoons, Sybil asks Elyot if his is as happy as when he married Amanda. Victor says he will never treat Amanda as badly as Elyot did. Both Amanda and Elyot insist to their new spouses that the subject of their former relationships isn’t the best topic to discuss on a honeymoon.

They don’t get it.

What makes this situation more bizarre is that Amanda and Victor and Elyot and Sybil are at the same hotel, right next door to one another. Both Victor and Elyot go to the balconies to make cocktails, and are introduced to one another. Victor returns inside to tell Amanda, where we see her primping in practically nothing. It’s a shot to show audiences what the modern woman of 1931 should look like when alone with her husband.

Later in the evening, Elyot and Amanda step out onto their terraces, clearly thinking of one another. Amanda recognizes a familiar noise, and turns to realize it’s Elyot humming and whistling a familiar song. She turns around to run, but decides to shut the door and remain on the balcony instead and sing the lyrics.


A dumbfounded Elyot jumps, realizing his neurotic ex-wife is right next door.

“What are you doing here?” He asks.

“I’m enjoying my honeymoon.”

“What a coincidence. So am I.”

They fake lies of happiness to one another in stern tones, only to return to their new spouses and insist on leaving immediately. Elyot goes overboard insulting Sybil when she refuses to go to Paris. Victor also refuses to leave. Ironic, isn’t it, that both Elyot and Amanda would choose Paris as a hideout from one another?

Amanda and Elyot escape to their balconies, and ponder the solutions to their problems. They share cigarettes and cocktails, and begin to laugh and reminisce over old times while throwing out some insults to each other between the two.

While their song, “I’ll Always Love You,” is repeatedly played by the orchestra, they confess that they still love one another. “I want you back again, please” Elyot pleads to her. They embrace for a kiss and decide to run away. To avoid future fights, they agree that all previous quarrels will be silenced with “Solon and Isaacs.”

They take off to Switzerland.

Sharing probably the largest bed you will ever see with total strangers in a cabin, host Oscar shows them around the Swiss mountain side, providing them with breakfast and a rock climbing experience. Between their passionate reunion, there still are some signs of hostility, especially when they discuss certain aspects of their past, such as their loyalty to one another.

“Sollochs” becomes the new phrase to end quarrels between themselves. In a lift riding along the mountain, Amanda goes on about Victor’s love for her, trying to get Elyot insane with jealousy. “I’m sick to death of you yap, yap, yapping about Victor,” he shouts. Their argument continues, in public as they board a train, to which Elyot shouts “Sollochs” to end it.

Alone together in a cabin, Amanda and Elyot have made up once more. They cuddle, kiss, and go on with one another. He tells her about how much he missed her when he traveled the world to forget her. She insists they make up for lost time, and decide to make another trip together.

He tries to make love to her, but she tells him “it’s too soon after dinner.” He’s ticked, and they begin making hostile remarks to one another.

“You really can be more irritating than anyone in the whole world,” Elyot says. Talking about Peter, a former admirer of Amanda’s, really sets the two off into insanity. She rushes over to throw a record in. Elyot shouts at her to turn it off. She turns it up. He runs over and scratches the record. She picks it up and smacks it over his head, “Sollochs yourself!”

She runs over to the couch, and screams “I’m tired of listening to you, you big sadistic bully!” smacking him across the face. He gets up and they begin wrestling, breaking furniture and lamps. Victor and Sybil enter the room as the fight ends in screams, and both Elyot and Amanda run to their rooms.

Dawn arrives, with the room in shambles, the four have breakfast together. There Elyot and Amanda exchange insults, and Victor and Sybil get into a surprising argument. Amanda and Elyot become amused, and run off to be together again.

Comedy is so scarcely associated with Norma Shearer, but here she proves herself to be on the level with Rosalind Russell or Lucille Ball. She’s hysterical, and great with her physical comedy as well as delivering her excellent lines. For me, her funniest moment is when she exaggerates the use of lipstick to Montgomery right before they brawl. She’s beautifully photographed and gowned, being complimented by memorable hats and attractive coiffures.

She’s so affectionate with Montgomery, wrapping her arms all over him and kissing every bit of his face and neck. She shows us the sexual side of the relationship with Montgomery throughout the movie, with scarcely having to mention it in word.

Montgomery makes no attempt for sympathy. He’s rude to everyone, has a bad attitude, and thinks he is better than everyone, announcing that “certain woman should be struck regularly.” All of this is needed, however, to showcase the brutality of his character, and Amanda’s sexual reaction towards it.

A similar relationship of a more dramatic core would take place between Stanley and Stella in A Streetcar Named Desire (1951).

Reginald Denny and Una Merkel are good in their roles, though Merkel does go over the top and get annoying after few bats with Montgomery. This is worsened by her high-pitched voice and off-beat face.

Director Sidney Franklin does a good job of bringing this one to life. While at times it does feel like a filmed stage play, the camera follows the actors around the sets, which was something new for the time. This gives incredible reaction shots, especially for Norma, and there are several great close-ups of her thinking about what to do next.

The sets are beautiful, especially the rock-climbing scene, which is realistically done. But be prepared for the fight scene, there is no holding back from either Montgomery or Shearer, and there is extensive, believable damage done.

Keep an eye out for when Norma flips through the magazine, enraged at Montgomery. The magazine is upside-down.

Below: There was no holding back from the Shearer/Montgomery battle in Private Lives.



Vintage Reviews:

Sidney Franklin has followed the Noel Coward play closely with the addition of a number of interpolated scenes and the changing of the final locale from a Paris apartment to a Swiss chalet. Both Norma Shearer and Robert Montgomery capably handle themselves as the divorced couple who again run away together the night of their honeymoons with their newly-acquired better halves. Both having tempestuous natures, their love making and quarreling is equally violent and the warfare is apt to start any time.

As the somewhat neurotic man in the case, Montgomery plays deftly and well. So does Shearer, but the medium of the screen has lost many of the laugh lines which did much to sustain the play. However, Franklin establishes and maintains a good pace after a rather slow start.
Published in Variety, January, 1932.

Noel Coward's stage comedy, "Private Lives," has blossomed into a motion picture which yesterday afternoon met with high favor from a Capitol audience. It has been changed in a few respects, chiefly a matter of geography, but most of the clever lines and the hectic incidents have survived the studio operation. Like the play, the film begins on the Riviera, but instead of ending in Paris the closing sequence is in an Alpine chalet.

Sidney Franklin's direction is excellent and Norma Shearer as Amanda Prynne gives an alert, sharp portrayal. She appears to have been inspired by the scintillating dialogue, and, taking all things into consideration, it is her outstanding performance in talking pictures. Robert Montgomery struggles with matters at the outset, but he soon succeeds in doing well enough with his rôle, that of Elyot Chase. The other couple are portrayed by Una Merkel and Reginald Denny, who both deserve a great deal of credit for their work.

Although some of the scenes are rambunctious, particularly those in the Alpine chalet, there is always the bright talk. If any one wants to know whether Amanda breaks a phonograph record over Elyot's head, let it be known that she does. He tells her that she has no sense of glamour and she retorts that one can't be expected to have a sense of glamour with a crick in the neck. That priceless line "intemperate tots" comes in for its full worth, when Elyot is dilating upon the three small drinks of brandy he has consumed. Amanda and Elyot have a high old cat-and-dog time in the chalet, breaking furniture and vases and slapping each other's faces.

It will be remembered that Amanda and Elyot, after having been divorced, find themselves with new partners in adjacent quarters of a Riviera hotel. Elyot has a spat with his new wife, Sibyl, and Amanda quarrels with her new husband, Victor. The result is that Amanda and Elyot decide to run away together to the Alpine retreat, leaving Sibyl and Victor to sympathize with each other.

Amanda and Elyot are beheld cooing one moment and then some reference is made about Sibyl or Victor and they flare into tempers. This sort of thing lasts during most of the picture, and even in the early stages one is entertained by the kissing and hissing between Amanda and Victor and Elyot and the quibbling Sibyl.

The bickering between Amanda and Elyot has its moments of truce, when one or the other ejaculates, "Solomon Isaacs," which because it is found to be too long is eventually abbreviated to "Sollocks," which in the film chances to be the name of the nearest railroad station to the Swiss chalet.

After the steam of a final quarrel between Victor and Sibyl, things calm down for a few moments and a fresh outburst from Elyot and Amanda is halted by the conductor on the train which they have just boarded, announcing "Sollocks."

This is a swift and witty picture and, even though it cannot boast of the effective presence of the author in the part of Elyot, it is one of the most intelligent comedies that has come to the screen.

At the same theatre is a short film called "Jackie Cooper's Christmas Party," which shows such film luminaries as Miss Shearer, Clark Gable, Wallace Beery, Lionel Barrymore, in fact, all the top-notch Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer players, serving as hosts to children at a Yuletide dinner. It is quite an amusing sketch.
Published in the New York Times, December 19, 1931.