Bachelor Apartment

Last updated

Bachelor Apartment
Bachelor-Apartment-1931.jpg
Theatrical film poster
Directed by Lowell Sherman
Screenplay by J. Walter Ruben
Story by John Howard Lawson
Produced by William LeBaron
Starring Lowell Sherman
Irene Dunne
Cinematography Leo Tover
Edited by Marie Halvey
Music by Max Steiner [1]
Production
company
Distributed byRKO Radio Pictures
Release date
  • April 15, 1931 (1931-04-15)(US) [2]
Running time
72-77 minutes [2]
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

Bachelor Apartment is a 1931 American pre-Code romance film directed by and starring Lowell Sherman as a bachelor/playboy, Wayne Carter, who falls in love with Irene Dunne's honest working girl, Helene Andrews. [3] The credits for the film, and all sources from that time show that the film was based on a story by New York playwright John Howard Lawson, the screenplay was adapted by J. Walter Ruben. However, Lawson would later claim that the final screenplay had not been altered from what he had originally written. The cast features Mae Murray (a former silent film star, who was attempting to make a comeback in talkies), Norman Kerry and Ivan Lebedeff. [4]

Contents

Plot

Wayne Carter is a New York bachelor/playboy, who pays no attention to the marital status of his many dalliances. However, there are some women whose attention he attempts to avoid, one such being the married Agatha Carraway.

Helene and Lita Andrews are small town girls who have come to the big city in order to find fame and fortune. Helene is much more sensible than her younger sister, Lita, who is a bit flighty. Eventually, Lita believes she has a millionaire interested in her, Carter. When she goes to have dinner at his apartment, an alarmed Helene goes to track her down to prevent anything untoward from occurring. However, upon her arrival, she discovers that Lita has really attracted the attention of Carter's butler, Rollins, with whom she is having dinner.

Carter is entranced with the sensible, earnest Helene. Discovering she is in need of employment, he offers her a job in his office as an executive secretary. She at first refuses, cautious about his intentions, but in need of work, she eventually relents and accepts the position. Their mutual attraction grows, and Carter is seemingly beginning to give up his libidinous liaisons, until one afternoon when Carter asks her over to his apartment, not on a personal level, but to take some dictation. Again leery, she agrees and meets him at his apartment, and all is going well until the flirtatious Agatha shows up at the apartment. When her husband shows up shortly after, and Agatha hides in the bedroom while the two men have a discussion about marital issues, Helene once again becomes disenchanted with Carter, and resigns her position.

Realizing that he is truly in love with Helene, Carter is relentless in attempting to convince her of his sincerity, and of his deep feelings for her. Eventually, she comes to believe him, and agrees to meet him at his apartment. Unfortunately, Agatha is also relentless, and shows up once again. This time, when her husband shows up slightly later, he is armed and threatens Carter, since he knows his wife is hiding in the bedroom. To save Carter, Helene, who was with Agatha in the bedroom, exits, and swears that she is the only woman in the apartment. Mollified, Caraway leaves. After Agatha also departs, Carter is relieved and thinks everything is all right, but Helene is upset over the entire episode, and leaves deeply upset.

Carter is distraught, thinking he has lost the woman he loves. Helene rebuffs all of his attempts to win her back. Nothing works, until Lita runs off to live in sin with a musical producer, Lee Graham. Carter had introduced the two, in an attempt to further endear himself to Helene, since he found out that Lita dreamed of being a stage performer. Helene is beside herself with worry, since she has no idea on how to find Lita and Graham. She turns to Carter, who tracks them down, and reunites the two sisters. Helene finally understands that Carter is being sincere, and accepts his proposal of marriage.

Cast

Production

Bachelor Apartment was the fifth film directed by Lowell Sherman, who directed his first film, a comedy short called Phipps, in 1929. The combination of actor and director was highly unusual at the time. [1] [ citation needed ]

John Howard Lawson, who wrote the story for Bachelor Apartment was a Broadway playwright [5] who had also written some films for MGM, but was primarily interested in writing plays. Out of financial need, he signed with RKO, for a single screenplay, with an option for three more. Starting simply with the lead cast of Sherman and Murray, Lawson devised the story and screenplay of Bachelor Apartment, but did not think much of the experience, or the film: ""Every day's work on Bachelor Apartment reminded me of my 'almost blunted purpose': instead of bringing new life to the theater, I was perpetrating a stale cinematic joke. In spite of its up-to-date cynicism and zany style, everything about Bachelor Apartment, including its stars, belonged to the Roaring Twenties." Despite the screen credit given to J. Walter Ruben for adaptation and dialogue, Lawson claimed that the script was filmed as he wrote it. Lawson later went on to write Theory and Technique of Playwriting and Screenwriting, to become the head of the Screen Writers Guild, to write films such as 1938's Algiers and Sahara (1943), and to be blacklisted as one of the Hollywood Ten. [1]

Reception

The film received mostly favorable reviews, although several were lukewarm. Photoplay called the film a "... sophisticated story interesting from start to finish", [6] while Motion Picture Magazine said the movie was "sophisticated" and "entertaining", praising both the direction and acting. [7] Silver Screen, however, stating that only Lowell's performance saved the film from "utter triteness". [8] Mordaunt Hall, of The New York Times , gave the film a somewhat positive review, praising both Lowell and Coleman, as well as several other players, but merely calling Dunne's performance "competent". Overall, he stated, "For the most part it is a sophisticated comedy with a Parisian flair. It is equipped with elaborate modernistic settings and effectively photographed. Highly improbable though most of the action is, there is no gainsaying that it accomplished its purpose in arousing waves of merriment from an audience at the first showing." [9]

Notes

Bachelor Apartment was Irene Dunne's third film, after the now-lost Leathernecking (1930) and 1931's Cimarron , for which she would be nominated for her first Academy Award. [1]

Mae Murray was a star of the vaudeville stage who had made the successful transition to silent films. This film was her second talkie, in an attempt to make the transition to this medium. However, it turned out to be her penultimate film, the final film being High Stakes in 1931, as her attempt was unsuccessful. [1]

Related Research Articles

<i>Love Affair</i> (1939 film) 1939 American romance film directed by Leo McCarey

Love Affair is a 1939 American romance film, co-starring Charles Boyer and Irene Dunne, and featuring Maria Ouspenskaya. It was directed by Leo McCarey and written by Delmer Daves and Donald Ogden Stewart, based on a story by McCarey and Mildred Cram. Controversial on concept, the official screenplay was re-tooled and rewritten to appease Hollywood censorship and relied on actor input and improvisation, causing long delays and budget extensions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mae Murray</span> Actress, dancer, film producer, screenwriter (1885–1965)

Mae Murray was an American actress, dancer, film producer, and screenwriter. Murray rose to fame during the silent film era and was known as "The Girl with the Bee-Stung Lips" and "The Gardenia of the Screen".

<i>The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer</i> 1947 film by Dore Schary, Irving Reis

The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer is a 1947 American screwball romantic comedy-drama film directed by Irving Reis and written by Sidney Sheldon. The film stars Cary Grant, Myrna Loy and Shirley Temple in a story about a teenager's crush on an older man.

<i>Waterloo Bridge</i> (1931 film) 1931 film

Waterloo Bridge is a 1931 American pre-Code drama romance war film directed by James Whale and starring Mae Clarke and Kent Douglass. The screenplay by Benn Levy and Tom Reed is based on the 1930 play Waterloo Bridge by Robert E. Sherwood.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lowell Sherman</span> American actor and film director

Lowell Sherman was an American actor and film director. In an unusual practice for the time, he served as both actor and director on several films in the early 1930s. He later turned exclusively to directing. Having scored huge successes directing the films She Done Him Wrong and Morning Glory, he was at the height of his career when he died after a brief illness.

<i>Seed</i> (1931 film) 1931 film

Seed is a 1931 American pre-Code drama film directed by John M. Stahl. The screenplay by Gladys Lehman is based on a novel by Charles G. Norris.

<i>Dynamite</i> (1929 film) 1929 film

Dynamite is a 1929 American pre-Code drama film produced and directed by Cecil B. DeMille and starring Conrad Nagel, Kay Johnson, Charles Bickford, and Julia Faye. Written by Jeanie MacPherson, John Howard Lawson, and Gladys Unger, the film is about a convicted murderer scheduled to be executed, whom a socialite marries simply to satisfy a condition of her grandfather's will. Mitchell Leisen was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Art Direction.

<i>Stingaree</i> (1934 film) 1934 film by William A. Wellman

Stingaree is an American pre-Code romantic drama film directed by William A. Wellman released by RKO Radio Pictures in 1934. The film was based on a 1905 novel by Ernest William Hornung. Set in Australia, it stars Irene Dunne as Hilda Bouverie and Richard Dix as Stingaree. Hollywood had previously filmed the Hornung story as serials in 1915 and 1917, starring True Boardman.

<i>Ladies of Leisure</i> 1930 film

Ladies of Leisure is a 1930 American pre-Code romantic drama film directed by Frank Capra and starring Barbara Stanwyck and Ralph Graves. The screenplay by Jo Swerling is based on the 1924 play Ladies of the Evening by Milton Herbert Gropper, which ran for 159 performances on Broadway.

<i>His Glorious Night</i> 1929 film

His Glorious Night is a 1929 pre-Code American romance film directed by Lionel Barrymore and starring John Gilbert in his first released talkie. The film is based on the 1928 play Olympia by Ferenc Molnár.

<i>Lonely Wives</i> 1931 film

Lonely Wives is a 1931 American comedy film directed by Russell Mack and produced by E.B. Derr for Pathé Exchange, and was distributed by RKO Pictures after the merger of the two studios; it starred Edward Everett Horton, Esther Ralston, Laura La Plante, and Patsy Ruth Miller. The screenplay was written by Walter DeLeon, based upon a successful German vaudeville act entitled Tanzanwaltz, penned by Pordes Milo, Walter Schütt, and Dr. Eric Urban. The German production had been translated for the American stage by DeLeon and Mark Swan and, under the same title as the film.

<i>Everythings Rosie</i> 1931 film

Everything's Rosie is a 1931 American Pre-Code slapstick comedy film directed by Clyde Bruckman, from a screenplay by Ralph Spence, Tim Whelan, and Al Boasberg, based on a story by Boasberg. Although the screenplay was credited as original, it bore a striking resemblance to a 1923 play, Poppy, which had starred W. C. Fields.

<i>The Royal Bed</i> 1931 film

The Royal Bed is a 1931 American pre-Code satirical comedy film produced by William LeBaron and distributed through RKO. The film was directed by and starred Lowell Sherman, along with Mary Astor and Anthony Bushell. The screenplay was adapted by J. Walter Ruben based on the 1928 play by Robert E. Sherwood titled The Queen's Husband. It would be one of a handful of RKO pictures which was produced in both English and French language versions.

<i>Traveling Husbands</i> 1931 film

Traveling Husbands is a 1931 American pre-Code drama film directed by Paul Sloane based on a screenplay by Humphrey Pearson. The film stars Constance Cummings, Frank Albertson, Evelyn Brent, Dorothy Peterson and Hugh Herbert. Hugh Herbert's brother, Tom, made his screen debut with a small role in this film, billed as Tom Francis. Produced and distributed by RKO Radio Pictures, the film premiered in New York City on August 7, 1931, and was released nationwide the following week on August 15. It received mixed reviews from the critics.

<i>Transgression</i> (1931 film) 1931 film

Transgression is a 1931 pre-Code American drama film directed by Herbert Brenon, using a screenplay written by Elizabeth Meehan, adapted from Kate Jordan's 1921 novel, The Next Corner. The film stars Kay Francis, Paul Cavanagh, and Ricardo Cortez, and deals with the romantic entanglements of a wealthy English businessman, his wife and a Spanish nobleman.

<i>He Knew Women</i> 1930 film by Hugh Herbert

He Knew Women is a 1930 American pre-Code comedy film directed by Hugh Herbert, from a screenplay by him and William B. Jutte, which was adapted from S. N. Behrman's 1927 play The Second Man. It starred Lowell Sherman and Alice Joyce, in her second to last film role. The film broke even.

<i>White Shoulders</i> 1931 film

White Shoulders is a lost 1931 American pre-Code comedy-drama film directed by Melville W. Brown and starring Mary Astor and Jack Holt, with major supporting roles by Ricardo Cortez and Sidney Toler. The film was produced and distributed by RKO Pictures. The screenplay by Jane Murfin and J. Walter Ruben was adapted from Rex Beach's short story, The Recoil.

<i>Symphony of Six Million</i> 1932 film

Symphony of Six Million is a 1932 American Pre-Code drama film directed by Gregory La Cava and starring Ricardo Cortez, Irene Dunne and Gregory Ratoff. Based on the story Night Bell by Fannie Hurst, the film concerns the rise of a Jewish physician from humble roots to the top of his profession and the social costs of losing his connection with his community, his family and with the craft of healing.

<i>Laugh and Get Rich</i> 1931 film directed by Gregory La Cava

Laugh and Get Rich is a 1931 pre-Code American comedy film, directed by Gregory La Cava, from a screenplay he also wrote with contributions from Douglas MacLean, who also was the associate producer, and Ralph Spence. The film stars Dorothy Lee, Edna May Oliver, Hugh Herbert, and Russell Gleason, and revolves around the antics in a boarding house in the early 1930s, run by Oliver, and the complications caused by her husband.

<i>Professional Sweetheart</i> 1933 film directed by William A. Seiter

Professional Sweetheart is a 1933 American pre-Code romantic comedy directed by William A. Seiter from a screenplay by Maurine Watkins. It stars Ginger Rogers in her first film for RKO Radio Pictures, with Norman Foster, ZaSu Pitts and Frank McHugh. The film is a satire of the radio industry; since it is pre-code, Rogers spends some of her time in high heels, stockings, and a slip.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 "Bachelor Apartment, Articles". Turner Classic Movies. Archived from the original on February 3, 2014. Retrieved August 29, 2016.
  2. 1 2 "Bachelor Apartment: Detail View". American Film Institute. Archived from the original on March 29, 2014. Retrieved August 29, 2016.
  3. The American Film Institute Catalog Feature Films: 1931-40 by The American Film Institute, c. 1993
  4. The AFI Catalog of Feature Films: Bachelor Apartment
  5. "John Howard Lawson" at the Internet Broadway Database
  6. "Bachelor Apartment". Photoplay. June 1931. p. 8.
  7. "The Picture Parade". Motion Picture Magazine. May 1931. p. 60.
  8. "Talkies in Tabloid". Silver Screen. June 1931. p. 10.
  9. Hall, Mordaunt (May 16, 1931). "Bachelor Apartment: An Engaging Philanderer". New York Times. Archived from the original on August 11, 2014. Retrieved August 29, 2016.