OVP: Emma (1932)

Film: Emma (1932)
Stars: Marie Dressler, Richard Cromwell, Jean Hersholt, Myrna Loy
Director: Clarence Brown
Oscar History: 1 nomination (Best Actress-Marie Dressler)
Snap Judgment Ranking: 2/5 stars

I swear I didn't plan this, but we're going to take time to combine the last two films reviewed here and take the director of Romance and one of the stars of The Hollywood Revue, and combine them into this short, sweet (or saccharine, depending on the scene) movie from 1932.

Emma tells the tale of a housekeeper who looks after four children for the bulk of their entire lives.  Being as this is Marie Dressler, the housekeeper is an "all bark, no bite" sort of character who may scold and scold the children but the second their backs are are turned, she's praising and forgiving them to high heavens.  The film unfolds in three parts, the first establishing the death of the children's mother, the second with Emma going on a vacation and (SPOILER ALERT) being proposed to and married to the children's father, played by Jean Hersholt.  The last third is about Emma, who has inherited the entire state of Hersholt's suddenly dead father, fighting for her life as she is accused of murdering him by the three older ungrateful children (including a woefully underused Myrna Loy).  Only Richard Cromwell's youngest child Ronnie believes her, and tragically dies in a plane crash trying to save her.  Dressler of course gives the inheritance then to the three remaining children (but not before being fully exonerated) and joins a new family with five young children.

If it sounds like your typical melodrama, it is, but you can't help but love Dressler even if her performance is a bit "paint-by-numbers."  Dressler, who is largely unknown to today's audiences, was an enormous star of the early Sound Era.  Even though she was in her late 50's and was overweight, she still won the exhibitor's poll three years in a row (the sign of the "most popular" actress in Hollywood) over the likes of Joan Crawford, Greta Garbo, Norma Shearer, and Jean Harlow.  Dressler was known for her comic mannerisms, and they are on full display here.  It's hard not to be charmed by her, even when you're cringing occasionally at the "broad-as-a-barn" comic and sentimental tropes she relies upon (an actress of the stage for many, many years, it's evident that she's relying on some vaudeville tricks for the film's most famous flight simulator sequence).  It's a tough call between her and ultimate Oscar-winner Helen Hayes in the same year, though I think I'd give the tip of my hat toward Hayes just because her character has more emotional range.  I'm looking most forward to the remaining nominee, Lynn Fontanne, the great, great stage star (though probably not quite as great as Helen Hayes-you can debate that one), whom I've heard is the best of the three.

Like he did with Garbo in Romance, Brown fixates his camera on his leading lady (she's in all but two of the scenes in the movie), and has little time for the remaining players.  Even so, the rest of the cast is serviceable.  I believe this may be my first introduction to Jean Hersholt as an actor, though his charitable work is far more well-known today.  He is indeed the man that the annual Academy Award for do-gooders is named after, and here he is a sweet if bumbling inventor who struck it big and now wants to retire with the woman who has raised his children.  Myrna Loy is probably the most well-known member of the cast, but clearly wasn't at the time, as she is relegated to the role of snooty villainous instead of being able to exercise her considerable comic chops alongside Dressler.  Rounding out the cast is Richard Cromwell, who plays the typical youngest child with a strong sense of fun and aw-shucks appeal.  Not much is there to be said of his acting ability, though he was a ridiculously beautiful man, particularly in this film, and would go on to briefly be married to Angela Lansbury and (allegedly) become a favorite lover of Howard Hughes.

What about you?  Are you a fan of Marie Dressler and her hambone antics, or do you lean more toward the Crawford/Garbo end of the Sound Era?  Do you have a favorite in Clarence Brown's filmography? And do you also find yourself developing crushes on movie stars from the Thirties?