Soak the Rich (1936) User Reviews

Disappointing - expected something better from these two.

[1930s_Time_Machine · 5/10 · 2 May 2023]

This was the last of the pictures written by, directed by and produced by Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur which they made at Paramount's old Astoria Studio in New York. Doing everything themselves - without any criticism or input from anyone else, they could become absurdly self/indulgent like in their THE SCOUNDREL or sometimes brilliant like the wonderful CRIMES WITHOUT PASSION. This one is surprisingly ordinary, it's a straight, almost formulaic typical mid-1930s comedy. The writing is as you'd expect, top notch but there are no particular artistic traits which stand out. There's nothing which distinguishes this, it's reasonably entertaining but feels just like B movie anyone could have made.

You couldn't imagine this story being filmed ten years later. Senator McCarthy would have been frothing at the mouth! It's about a bored heiress becoming fascinated with a group of student communists (particularly one of them.) The young communists are presented as innocent naive idealists, pompous but well-meaning. There's some long altruistic speeches, some emotional polemics against corruption and a peculiarly gushing amount of praise for Stalin's utopian paradise. Clearly the horrors of Stalin's regime were still unknown back in 1936. Knowing what we know now however, the students' unopposed sympathetic views, even though they're clearly meant to be seen as childishly naive, feels a little uncomfortable.

Hecht and MacArthur didn't generally use established Hollywood A listers to star in their films. Being based in New York gave actors from the theatre scene there the opportunity to become movie stars. Because Hecht + MacArthur were not experienced directors, the ingrained theatrically trained style of acting of some of these young actors creeps in. Naturalism and authentic characterisation are not plaudits this picture can claim.

There's got to have been a story to explain how Mary 'Mimsy' Taylor got a lead role in this. She was both a very famous socialite from a very high society background and also a very famous model. One thing she evidently was not was an actress. Although Mindy plays a character which is essentially herself, called Bindy, a fabulously rich heiress looking for a purpose in life, she just can't make herself seem natural. Her awkward performance isn't plagued with over-theatricalism, it's just not very good. Her style of acting isn't too dissimilar to those who play dead bodies in medical dramas. No, I am being over critical, she's not that bad - she's just a bit 'daytime soap' grade.

This picture is quite fun but overall it's a mediocre movie. These guys were amongst the top writers Hollywood has ever seen but from watching this "just ok" film, you'd never know. Maybe running a studio, producing, directing and writing over-stretched them? After this they went back to 'just' writing.

Comes the revolution, comrade...

[F Gwynplaine MacIntyre · 2/10 · 4 October 2003]

In the mid-1930s, Paramount Pictures sponsored an early experiment in auteurism when Adolph Zukor permitted Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur to write, direct and produce several films at Paramount's east coast studio in Astoria, New York. I'm a front-row fan of Hecht and MacArthur, but their scripts need the discipline of a tight-fisted producer and an experienced director. (The Hecht-MacArthur stage play 'The Front Page' is justifiably a classic ... but it owes much of its success to George S Kaufman, who directed the original Broadway production and supervised the final version of the script.)

Of all the Hecht-MacArthur 'auteur' films, their best is probably 'Crime Without Passion' (for its bravura opening sequence and its twist ending), while their worst is definitely 'Once in a Blue Moon'. 'Soak the Rich' falls just below midway between these two points. This film has glimmerings of interest, but overall I must consider it a failed opportunity.

Walter Connolly plays Humphrey Craig, an apoplectic tycoon who has endowed a university. His idealistic daughter Belinda enrols there, hoping to get some idea of the 'real world' (good luck). When Professor Popper lectures his students on the merits of a 'soak-the-rich' tax bill, Craig (who opposes the bill) gets Popper fired. Meanwhile, Joe Muglia is the leader of a band of radicals on campus. When the radicals protest the dismissal of Popper, Belinda falls in love with Buzz Jones, a radical who is also a clear-eyed, handsome idealist (aren't they all?).

This movie stinks. It wants credit for being politically aware, but it can't sort out its own politics. The dialogue defends radical protest, but it also indicates that young radicals are radical because their hormones are acting up, as opposed to any political agenda. 'Soak the Rich' is clearly meant to be a 'serious' comedy, but it isn't funny enough to be a comedy ... and not deep enough to be serious. Here's the one good line in the movie: "I'm a firm believer in democracy, provided it lets me alone."

Walter Connolly has never impressed me, in any of his roles. His voice is too high-pitched, his manner indecisive. Watch Edward Arnold in the title role of 'Meet Nero Wolfe', and then compare his performance to Walter Connolly attempting the same role in the sequel, 'The League of Frightened Men': Arnold is brilliant, while Connolly is awful. As the head radical in 'Soak the Rich', Lionel Stander is brilliant and hilarious, as always. In real life, Stander was eventually blacklisted for alleged communist sympathies: I wonder if his role in this film was a factor in that event.

John Howard (no relation to Australia's former prime minister) is dull and insipid as the juvenile lead, but so handsome he nearly makes up for his lack of talent. (Ben Hecht later chose Howard to play the male lead -- the Fredric March role -- in the Broadway musical 'Hazel Flagg', based on Hecht's 'Nothing Sacred'.) When I interviewed John Howard shortly before his death, he described the bizarre method that Hecht and MacArthur employed for co-directing this movie: they took it in turns, with Hecht directing for two days while MacArthur heckled him from the sidelines ... then they switched places, with MacArthur directing while Hecht heckled MacArthur.

Ilka Chase is wonderfully acerbic here in a small role. In a supporting role, Alice Miller shows no dramatic talent but does display the interesting facial bone structure she inherited from her mother, the novelist Alice Duer Miller. In a small role here is John Call: years later and several stone heavier, he played Santa Claus in 'Santa Claus Conquers the Martians' ... which is arguably a better movie than 'Soak the Rich'. I'll rate this movie 2 points out of 10.