NO ONE MAN is a 1932 comedy-drama from Paramount starring Carole Lombard. It is not to be confused with NO MAN OF HER OWN, a much more famous 1932 Paramount-Lombard entry that co-starred Clark Gable. It is one of the many movies that Lombard appeared in during the early 1930s that did not take full advantage of her talents.
Carole plays Penelope Newbold, the fun-loving daughter of a rich businessman. The young Penelope has already been through one marriage, and she has her sights set on playboy Bill Hanaway (Ricardo Cortez). Bill also desires Penelope, but he still enjoys having fun with maneater Sue (Juliette Compton). Penelope becomes fascinated with Karl Bemis (Paul Lukas), an older, decent, hard-working doctor, and agrees to marry him....but she literally ditches Karl at the last minute to wed Bill. Penelope realizes that picking the irresponsible Bill was a mistake, while Dr. Bemis still has feelings for her, despite what happened between them.
NO ONE MAN is a talky tale, with plenty of soap-opera aspects to it. The big problem is that most of the main characters belong to the idle rich, and it's hard to be all that concerned over their relationship problems. Carole Lombard is stuck with a thankless role of a woman who doesn't know what she wants, and doesn't have to face any real consequences when she makes a mistake. Lombard is gorgeous as always, getting to wear dozens of outfits (although I have to say at this point in her acting career she was wearing way too much eye makeup and lipstick). All her character Penelope has, however, is beauty and money--there doesn't seem to be much to her other than that.
Ricardo Cortez gets to do one of his many untrustworthy bad boy roles, while Paul Lukas provides the counterpoint as the honest and caring doctor. One wishes that Lukas' character had more passion to him--there needed to be a scene where Karl loudly tells all the smarmy rich folk where to go and how to get there, but the good doctor has too much manners to do that. George Barbier steals plenty of scenes as Penelope's sarcastic father.
One very Pre-code element concerning NO ONE MAN is a subplot involving Penelope's maid, who has a baby out of wedlock. The maid, with Penelope's backing, goes to a sanitarium run by Dr. Bemis, who "takes care" of women who have such problems. The subplot is tastefully handled, but the message implied seems to be that it's okay for a rich girl like Penelope to live a free lifestyle, but women who actually work for a living should know their limits.
What ultimately makes NO ONE MAN disappointing is a very late plot contrivance that unexpectedly comes out of left field, and also allows Penelope to have a happy ending (which she really doesn't deserve). It's the type of climax that gives Hollywood movies made during this period a bad reputation among those who are not familiar with them.
NO ONE MAN allowed me to cross off another movie starring my favorite actress that I had not seen, but other than Carole Lombard, there's nothing else to recommend about it.
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