Lilly Turner
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | Lilly Turner |
| Country of production | United States |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1933 |
| length | 65 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director | William A. Wellman |
| script | Gene Markey , Kathryn Scola |
| production | Warner Brothers |
| camera | James Van Trees |
| occupation | |
| |
Lilly Turner is an American drama starring Ruth Chatterton and directed by William A. Wellman .
action
As a naive young girl, Lilly Turner marries the seducer Rex Durkee, who works as an illusionist for a traveling circus. After a few months, Lilly sees through her husband, who is cheating on her and treating her with contempt in every respect. In the end it even turns out that Rex is a bigamist. He leaves the pregnant Lilly, who, out of desperation, accepts the marriage proposal from the friendly Dave Dixon. The couple lives in great poverty and earns their living in Tingeltangel and cheap vaudevilles. While Rex is becoming more and more addicted to alcohol, Lilly, who has meanwhile become a hardened woman, constantly takes new lovers. One day she meets Bob Chandler, an unemployed engineer who makes a living as a taxi driver. Just as the couple is about to flee across the border to Mexico for a better future, an incident occurs in the circus in which Dave is injured so badly that he has to sit in a wheelchair. He asks Lilly to stay with him. In recognition of the kindnesses he has shown her earlier, Lilly promises to take care of him. Bob assures Lilly that he will love her forever.
background
After a series of failures, Ruth Chatterton , who was under contract with Paramount Pictures , decided in mid-1931 to accept the offer of competition from Warner Brothers and, together with her colleagues Kay Francis and William Powell, switched to significantly higher fees. The collaboration with Warners, however, did not go as either side had imagined. Chatterton was increasingly dissatisfied with the roles offered, which she mostly showed as a calculating woman from the lower class milieu, and more and more often she refused to accept the scripts offered. Most of the parts went to Kay Francis, according to The House on 56th Street , Dr. Monica and Mandalay .
Author Mick LaSalle explains Chatterton's success with audiences in his book Complicated Women: Sex and Power in Pre-Code Hollywood as follows:
“[She is] the ideal of a self-determined woman in the 1930s. Even in tearful melodramas, it remains demanding. Small and with more feminine forms, Chatterton was absolutely convinced that she was beautiful and accordingly she made those around her believe that too. [...] She was a diva. "
At the beginning of the 1930s, director William A. Wellman was under contract with Warner Brothers , where he mostly made films with a socially critical background. His work in Safe in Hell as well as the films with Barbara Stanwyck such as Night Nurse and So Big showed the desperation and material hardships that the Great Depression had triggered using the example of the dramatic fate of women. He had previously worked with Chatterton at Frisco Jenny . Ruth Chatterton and George Brent were married at the time of filming. Brent was her film partner four times.
criticism
In the New York Times , critic Mordaunt Hall wrote little nice things about the leading actress:
“[Chatterton] is out of her element in stories like this. She is much better off in urbane subjects. "
Variety was a little friendlier to the star :
"Miss Chatterton is basically the whole story and the star really does anything to make up for the shortcomings in story and direction."
Web links
- Lilly Turner in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Background information and original trailers at Turner Movie Classics
Sources and further literature on pre-code films
- Frank T. Thompson: William A. Wellman, ISBN 978-0-8108-1594-0
- Mark A. Viera: Sin in Soft Focus: Pre-Code Hollywood, ISBN 978-0-8109-4475-6
- Mick LaSalle: Complicated Women: Sex and Power in Pre-Code Hollywood, ISBN 978-0-312-28431-2
- Thomas Doherty: Pre-Code Hollywood, ISBN 978-0-231-11095-2
- Lea Jacobs: The Wages of Sin: Censorship and the Fallen Woman Film, 1928–1942, ISBN 978-0-520-20790-5
Footnotes
- ↑ [She is] a vision of total female authority, circa 1930. Even in weepies, she was commanding. Short and slightly plump, Chatterton was convinced she was beautiful, and she convinced everybody else, too. [...] She was a diva.
- ↑ [Chatterton] is not in her element in such a narrative, for she is obviously far better suited to a more sophisticated subject.
- ↑ Picture is Miss Chatterton's all the way, star making every effort to give what the story lacks and what is missing in the direction.