In golden chains

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Movie
German title In golden chains
Original title Chained
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1934
length 77 minutes
Rod
Director Clarence Brown
script John Lee Mahin
production Hunt Stromberg for MGM
music Herbert Stothart
camera George J. Folsey
cut Robert Kern
occupation

In golden chains (OT: Chained ) is an American film with the popular screen couple Joan Crawford and Clark Gable . The film is a good example of the excellent production values ​​that MGM had available.

action

At the beginning of the intricate plot, Diane Levering rejects the marriage proposal of the much older ship magnate Richard Field, who is ready to leave his wife for her. Diana is unsure of her feelings and decides to take a luxury cruise to the Caribbean and South America on one of Richard's ships to calmly reflect on further developments. On board, she meets the charming Mike Bradley and immediately falls in love with the handsome man. Both swear eternal love. As soon as she is back in New York, Diane is about to break up with Richard. Before she can raise her statement, Richard proposes again. His wife has meanwhile consented to the divorce. Diane is overwhelmed and spontaneously decides to marry Richard over Mike. A year goes by and suddenly Diana and Mike are facing each other on Park Avenue. Mike's initial bitterness quickly gives way to more romantic feelings. After a number of entanglements, Richard realizes how much Diane is in love with Mike. Quite a gentleman, he agrees to the divorce and returns to his first wife, who forgives him everything.

background

Joan Crawford was still in the silent movie days as the actress of exuberant girls, " Flapper ", achieved fame in a series of light romances. At the beginning of the 1930s she was able to further consolidate her status as a star by changing roles to becoming a heroine of tearful melodramas. Most of the time Crawford was seen as an ambitious woman who copes with the adverse circumstances on her own and thus creates social advancement and / or stubbornly fights for her happiness with a man against all prejudice. After 1933, the actress specialized in portraying wealthy women who experience romantic entanglements between two men and end up finding true happiness, preferably in the arms of Clark Gable . In golden chains is a typical example of these films produced with great effort. Crawford lived through the emotional crises in a never-ending sequence of spectacular costumes by MGM chief designer Gilbert Adrian with constantly changing hairstyles and in front of opulent studio sets, all of which were designed by Cedric Gibbons . The camera work immersed the scenes in a luxurious, softly drawn aura of prosperity and solidity using the soft skylight preferred by MGM.

For the shot on board the luxury liner, when Crawford and Gable confess their love to each other in the romantic moonlight, the cameraman George Folsey constructed a very special lighting system that aimed directly at Crawford's face with a single small spotlight, a “spot”. The soft accentuation brought out the actress' expressive eyes and high cheekbones. For Joan Crawford, the filming brought personal problems. During a break from filming, she received a visit from her biological father, Thomas LeSeur. He had left the family shortly after Crawford was born, and she had never seen him before. The meeting remained the only personal contact between the two.

The cartoonist Milton Caniff took Joan Crawford as the inspiration for the character of the "Dragon Lady" in his successful comic Terry and the Pirates .

“I saw her in a movie where she played a seductive woman. She wore a center parting and a coat with a high collar. And that became "The Dragon Lady". "

Theatrical release

The film came into national distribution on September 1, 1934. A budget of $ 544,000 made In Golden Chains an average expensive MGM production. The film grossed a very substantial sum of 1,330,000 US dollars in the USA, an indication of the continued high popularity of Joan Crawford with her fans. With the foreign income of 687,000 US dollars and a cumulative total result of 1,988,000 US dollars, the studio was able to realize a high profit of 732,000 US dollars in the end.

Reviews

Most of the critics were benevolent of the stars, but criticized the banality of the script.

MH in the New York Times criticized the empty content beneath the beautiful surface:

"" Chained "[..] is a respectable production, with nice views of steamships and life on a South American ranch. Miss Crawford adds to the attractiveness of the [...] scenes by wearing an unusually extensive wardrobe and a variety of hairstyles. However, when it comes to the plot itself, it's just another boring love triangle [...]. "

Richard Watts, Jr., the critic of the New York Herald Tribune , found:

"Although the producers may have invested 1 million dollars in the film, for me it is just a seriously frivolous sequel story from a fancy magazine [...] The two stars, who know their business very well, have wisely chosen to put their charm and personality in the foreground, which will be enough to make the film attractive to the masses. "

literature

  • Roy Newquist (Ed.): Conversations with Joan Crawford . Citadel Press, Secaucus, NJ 1980, ISBN 0-8065-0720-9
  • Lawrence J. Quirk : The Complete Films of Joan Crawford . Citadel Press, Secaucus, NJ 1988, ISBN 0-8065-1078-1
  • Lawrence J. Quirk, William Schoell: Joan Crawford. The Essential Biography . University Press, Lexington, KY. 2002, ISBN 0-8131-2254-6
  • Alexander Walker: Joan Crawford. The Ultimate Star . Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London 1983, ISBN 0-297-78216-9

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ I saw her in some movie in which she played a siren. She had her hair parted in the middle and wore a high-collared cape. And that became The Dragon Lady.
  2. ^ "Chained" [..] is a handsome production, with fine views of steamship travel and others of ranch life in South America. Miss Crawford adds to the general attractiveness of the scenes [...] by an unusually extensive wardrobe and a variety of changes in her coiffure. But when it comes to weighing the merits of the story, it must be said that it is just another suspenseless triangle.
  3. ↑ May I say that although I expect the film to make a million dollars for its producers, it seemed to me just an earnest camera treatment of a snappy serial in one of the dressier sex magazines. [...] The two stars, who certainly know their business, wisely decide to pass their time tossing charm and personality all over the place, which is obviously what the film requires for audience appeal.