Lovesusti The Worst Film Ever

Mjeteconer Just perfect...

Platicsco Good story, Not enough for a whole film

Deanna There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

dukeakasmudge Here's the way I see things..... Norma Shearer's character Jan falls in love with a gangster played by you know who even though she's going out with a nice guy.The gangster is something exciting while the nice guy is quickly forgotten.What girl wouldn't want to be in constant danger of being shot at instead of horseback rides on the beach? Daddy, who's a lawyer & alcoholic, was OK with the gangster (Hey he's bringing in business, right?) until he found out the gangster is going out with his daughter.Now there's a problem & this causes a rift in the once tight bond between father & daughter, her family as well.Eventually the daughter realizes her & the gangster's relationship is going nowhere & he realizes that she's never going to publicly acknowledge their relationship (She always sneaking in the backdoor to see him) She sees what a mistake shes made & that she was actually better off with the nice guy.The gangster let's her know he's never, NEVER going anywhere & in steps the nice guy to save her from the gangster.BOOM.Now they go & find her father who was doing well but slipped & fell off the wagon a little ways back & hopped a train to ??? to bring him back to try & help the nice guy beat the case.THE END.I wasn't into this movie as much I hoped or thought I would be.It was just something to sit back & watch.I think I might have dozed off once or twice & had to rewind it back.Go ahead & give A Free Soul a shot.You'll probably enjoy it more than I did

sol **SPOILERS** It's when San Francisco defense attorney Stephen Ash, Lionel Barrymore, had his free spirited daughter Jan, Norma Shearer, come with him to the courthouse where he was in the process of arguing a murder case that things turned sour for him Jan as well as her fiancée the cultured genteel and sensitive Dwight Winthrop, Leslie Howard.Pulling a rabbit out of his hat Ash, in the O. J Simpson style it don't fit you must acquit, proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that his client notorious SF gangster Ace Wilfong, Clark Gable, is innocent of gunning down a man in front of some half dozen witnesses! It was the handsome and sure of himself Wilfong who stole Ash's daughter's heart and in no time at all she broke off her engagement with a heart-broken Dwight to become Wilfong's personal squeeze and gun moll.This affair between his daughter Jan and the sneering and murderous Wilfong drives Ash, who had earlier saved Wilfong's neck from the San Quentin gallows, to hit the bottle to the point where he becomes too drunk to do his job as a defense attorney! It also has both him and Jan disowned by their family the wealthy and socially registered, the cream California's elite, Ash's who want nothing to do with them. Seeing what her affair had done to both her and her now helplessly drunk father Jan makes a deal with him that if he stops boozing she'll cut Ace Wilfong out of her life forever! Taking a three month vacation in the Northern California mountains both Jan and her dad stick to their commitments until the booze, or lack of it, get to old man Ash's dried out, in lacking the stuff, brain. Hitting the bottle harder then ever Ash drops out of sight until the last 15 or so minutes of the film. And what a amazing turnaround Ash makes with what little time that he still had left! ***SPOILERS*** Jan now destroyed over her father's non stop drinking binges goes back to Wilfong who treats her like a doormat for daring to leave him. Dwight who was out of the picture all that time comes back into Jan's life trying to get her away from Wilfong who's in the process of manhandling her into marrying him. In a final effort to prevent the marriage between Jan and Wilfong from taking place Dwight make the ultimate sacrifice by putting his life on San Quentin's death row by blasting a surprised Wilfong in the San Francisco office of the illegal casino that he runs! With Ash's good friend Eddie, James Gleason,tracking him down in a skid row flophouse on he San Francisco waterfront he's sobers himself up to take the case, without him knowing about it, of the indited for first degree murder Dwight Winthrop. That despite Dwight being more then willing to die, by being hanged, for freely doing what he believed in: Killing Ace Wilfong to prevent him from marrying Jan!In what has to be one of the most electrifying courtroom performance in movie history a barley sober and on the brink of death, from what the booze did to his heart liver and kidneys, Stephen Ash in his noble attempt to save Dwight's life bares his troubled and tortured soul to a shocked jury and a packed and standing room only courtroom in how he and only he was responsible for Wilfong's death in not being the father he should have been to his daughter Jan! It took everything out of him but in the end Ash's heart-felt and tearful summation did in fact save Dwight from the gallows but the poor man, with his weak heart finally giving out from the abused of his boozing, wasn't around to see it!

Neil Doyle At some point in a courtroom scene, someone says, "This is too theatrical." His comment fits a description of this Clarence Brown movie that features NORMA SHEARER, LESLIE HOWARD and LIONEL BARRYMORE in leading roles.But the actor who commands the most attention whenever he appears is CLARK GABLE, then being groomed for stardom by MGM. He was given another "dangerous guy" role as a gangster who had once been a client of Shearer's father (Barrymore) and set free. Complications ensue when Shearer falls in love with the man she treats as a "boy toy" and the melodrama gets steamier when Leslie Howard has to protect her by shooting Gable.Remade in the '50s for an Elizabeth Taylor film called "The Girl Who Had Everything," it's hampered by the '31 conventions of early talkies, all of them featuring performers who were still using silent film technique for their acting styles. Thus, you can expect a lot of overacting, especially from Lionel Barrymore who uses all of his mannerisms to the nth degree in the final courtroom confrontation. Yet, he won a Best Actor Oscar for his very theatrical performance.Summing up: It's a matter of taste--and whether or not you can tolerate all the talky dialogue played out in stage-like fashion by a cast of talented players trying to make the transition to sound films. Of the cast members, it's Clark Gable who actually gives the most natural performance in the film--and whom one can easily spot as a candidate for stardom.

ccthemovieman-1 Norma Shearer slinks and giggles her way through another melodrama, this one noted for not only her but the presence of Lionel Barrymore, Clark Gable and Leslie Howard. Not a bad cast, eh?The story has a lot to it, too - too much to go into here. It's basically a father-daughter story with the daughter having a good guy and a bad guy both after her, and her taking in all the attention she can get. I've only seen two Norma Shearer films but she played a similar character in both. She's likes to giggle, show off her body and flirt but doesn't want commitments. (The Divorcée was the other film in which I saw her.) For much of this film, this is a gender-reversal with the woman being the "heel."Barrymore plays her dad, an alcoholic defense attorney. If, for nothing else in this movie, he's remembered for his impassioned speech at the end of the trial. It WILL get your attention! Clark Gable plays the toughie and Howard plays the suave nice-guy both vying for Shearer's love.There is truth to a number of things in this film such as "Jan Ashe" (Shearer) finding the not-so-nice guy more "exciting" over a genuine gentleman. Why many women are like that - preferring the grubby-looking thug - who knows, but Shearer is good at playing that role. Shearer's Harlow-like attire and no-bra look got my (and Gable's) attention, too.The movie should be enjoyed by most who like this kind of a melodrama and/or appreciate good acting and a bit of star-gazing.