Konterr Brilliant and touching

Holstra Boring, long, and too preachy.

Lidia Draper Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

Guillelmina The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

mmcgee282 For years I thought this film existed.There was also earlier information claimed that their was a Technicolor sequence and that was lost.Recently I had discovered that the whole movie was lost all along and that it had no technicolor sequence at all.Not to long ago it was found through16mm safety film,as a part of an early home movie distribution,using a 16mm Vitaphone type projector ,This included the sound disc of the film.The problem is that it was only restored in putting back the sound ,that is about it.It did not include cleaning the print through elimination of the scratches ,the jump cuts and the occasional end of the sentence dialog repeat echos and the surface noise of the sound discs. It would of been as good as the original 35mm print .There was an occasional sound drop ,but that was probably the disc ,but it was not enough to interfere in hearing the dialog.Never the less the story was interesting.Fred and Ann play newlyweds.She wants to make it work.She even discuses about him and her not being a monopoly and that he and she should still be allowed to see other men and women,This pre code movie discuss the pro's and cons of open marriage.It turned out that parent,played by George Irving and Charlotte Walker,of Fred got a divorce when when Charlotte discoverer that Irving had a causal affair with another women and so Charlotte got a divorce.HE jumps on her that she should of excepted him o an open level and continued the marriage.That what he did had nothing to do with them.Well Ann and Fred have to ex girl friends and boy friends,played by Carmelita Geraghty and Leslie Fenton.Carmel loves Fred still and Leslie loves Ann.Ann just wants to be friends with Leslie and will allow him to come visit her and use her piano to create a ballet and just be friends.Well Fred had to go to Paris for publishing business,but he goes their too frequently and she is alon.then she find out from Ilka that he been sing him in Paris with as if she ,Ann was with him.This is when Ann principle of open marriage falls into the garbage.Yes Fred had been having an affair with Carmen.Ann can't take it and now wants a divorce .Her father an law tries to pursuade her not to do an that some time the other half needs someone else too some times.The hays code was enforce back then but not totally,ts subtle ,but your dealing with early swingers. Now Leslie begs her that they have an affair too,she give in,but she hears the door knock in,She has told Leslie to take a walk around the block.While she tell her husband what she is going do.Ask for divorce,but it's her friends.It turns out that she was suppose to organize her wedding anniversary and when is the party going to start tomorrow.but she changes her mind and ilk suggest that she should share her wedding anniversary with friends.Another idea that married couple need to mingle with other too.Frederich show back and no long having an affair with Carmen and just want to be with her only.I don't know if this was in the Philip Barry play or the hays code changed it.In spite of it's lack of Restoration and it's 16mm it's no longer lost and it historically important.I found out about this film at one of the vitaphone newsletter.I forgot how many year ago this news letter was.That when was able to order it from grape vine video.It's worth while. 02/15/18.

JohnHowardReid Thanks to the efforts of Gary Lacher who found and repaired a 16mm print, this is no longer a lost film. Alas, it's no lost masterpiece either. In fact, as we might expect from an early talkie, it's all talk, talk, talk and little, little action. But Ann Harding gives a competent performance and the other players, with one exception, are also up to scratch. The exception, oddly enough, is Fredric March, here making his eighth movie appearance, and his third sound film. His is a vital character, but March seems to be playing the role as if he were just discovering movies for the first time in his career. His performance is hesitant, to say the least. Admittedly, director Edward H. Griffith is of no help. He certainly gives Ann Harding the best camera angles, but March doesn't fight back. He seems both intimidated and so overawed that he's content to stay in the shadows, as it were. Just look at the posters reproduced on the Grapevine DVD. At first sight, the cover reproduction of the original 1929 poster does not feature March at all. Ann Harding takes up at least half the poster and her name is right up there in big, big letters. But with the aid of a magnifying glass, you can just make out the name of Fredric March, buried under the leg of some sexy chorus cutie!

roslein-674-874556 Slow and stilted, this film is obviously the adaptation of a play--all the action takes place (or could) in one room. The director shows his tin ear (and whatever is the visual equivalent) by starting the movie with Ann Harding and Fredric March going through the wedding service, which goes on and on and on. The two attractive leads, both highly accomplished actors, are the reason for seeing this, as are such distinctly period touches as his saying to her "Take a deep breath" and handing her a cigarette. Ilka Chase also makes two brief, welcome appearances as a fashionable, flippant socialite. But the plot is minuscule and is also well past its use-by date--we're told that a good wife overlooks a husband's affairs if he really loves her and the other women mean nothing to him. And how does she know he feels that way? Because he says so!

boblipton Dated, stagey and suffering from a static camera, this early Philip Barry play still manages to pack a wallop due to Barry's wonderful dialogue and the strengths of the leads, Frederick March and Ann Harding, right at the beginning of their careers, but possessed of a naturalness that carries this movie along. Thanks to the Vitaphone Project for reuniting the rediscovered soundtrack to the moving image.