For the most part, I don't like movies from the early-30's, but I watch them incessantly. They are so odd, so strange, and so different. Society was so different back then, and at the same time it wasn't. Like they say: "the more things change, the more they stay the same."
In this poorly acted and poorly thought out movie we have a girl named Elnora Comstock (Marian Marsh) who was the daughter of a mean woman. Her mother, Katherine (Louise Dresser), blamed Elnora for the death of her husband, Robert. Her husband drowned while coming home late at night from another woman's place and for some strange reason she took it out on her daughter. It didn't add up at all.
Luckily for Elnora she had neighbors that really loved her: Wesley and Margaret Stinton (Ralph Morgan and Helen Jerome Eddy). They showed her the love her mother didn't. And when she decided to go to high school against her mother's wishes, they encouraged her and tried to make it as easy as possible for her.
No movie with a nubile, young woman is complete without a love interest; and that's where this movie collapsed. The movie was good enough showing the hardships Elnora had to face with limited resources and an unloving mother in rural Indiana circa 1910. Even though a romance was inevitable, it certainly didn't need the romance we got.
A doctor and his nephew, Phillip Ammon (Edward Nugent), were in Elnora's isolated part of the country to visit Wesley Stinton (Elnora's neighbor). Phillip was in college, but the moment I saw his face I knew that he and Elnora would hook up somehow. He was the only young, halfway decent-looking man in the whole movie. Plus, it was early 20th century Indiana, and I'm sure Elnora was of breeding age.
There was a connection between them right away, but Phillip was engaged (as if that's ever been a problem before). I think that if Elnora hadn't just began high school there would've been nothing to stop the big city boy from macking on the small town girl. He did the right thing and didn't romantically engage with Elnora, but he promised to stay in contact--so he could help her get to college of course.
He stayed in constant contact with Elnora, sending her money whenever she could send him "Indian" (Native American) artifacts. After three years Phillip was back in town to visit with his uncle. This time he had his fiance, Edith (Gigi Parrish), with him. Apparently, they still hadn't gotten married. Personally, I thought he'd be divorced, thereby making him available for Elnora, but what happened was far more distasteful.
Immediately, you could tell that Edith was going to be a disagreeable woman. When Phillip was raving about the Stintons and the need to invite them to their engagement party, she gave some excuses as to why it would be a bad idea to invite them (read: they don't fit in).
She was your typical, rich, classist woman who prejudged the Stintons based upon where they lived. Being devil's advocate, I could say that she was only worried about how they'd be dressed at the swanky affair, which is a legitimate concern.
The Stintons and the Comstocks (i.e. Elnora and her mother) showed up to the party even though Elnora was bitterly jealous. While Phillip was dancing with his fiance he told Elnora to save a dance for him. He was all smiles. Edith was not.
"Phillip, do you realize you've been talking about her (Elnora) all evening?" Edith complained to Phillip.
"Oh, my girl's jealous," he jokingly quipped.
I don't think he could've been more daft. What person, man or woman, wants to hear their fiance raving about someone else--especially when that someone else could be a direct rival?
Phillip wasn't done being stupid and inconsiderate.
When Elnora found a moth flittering away she ran after it to perhaps catch it and add it to her moth collection. Phillip ran with her.
Can you see things taking shape now?
They lost the moth and decided to take a breather. As they were talking all too closely Phillip kissed her (who could've seen that coming?!?).
"I hope you didn't mind my doing that," he guiltily stated almost as a question, even though he was asking the wrong damn person. He should've asked his fiance, who was only a few hundred feet away being neglected, if SHE minded.
"No I didn't mind, it's just friendship," Elnora reassured him, knowing that the kiss was more than "friendship," but also knowing their relationship couldn't go anywhere.
At this time, Edith was looking all over for Phillip. When he arrived back to the party hand-in-hand with Elnora, she was not pleased.
"Phillip what does this mean?" Edith asked bluntly.
Phillip, ever the idiot, smilingly answered, "Why nothing. We almost caught a Yellow Emperor for Elnora's moth collection."
"Do you expect me to believe that?" Edith responded. She was more than a little suspicious, as she should've been. Given the opportunity Phillip may have ended up rolling in the hay with Elnora.
"Really, It's true," Elnora said.
"Oh come now. You may as well admit it. Chasing moths is a flimsy pretext," Edith chided.
"Wait, what do you mean?" Phillip asked angrily.
"You know what I mean. Now I understand why you want a summer place here," she clapped back.
"Edith!" he snapped, then turned to Elnora to apologize. He continued to Edith, "Now you apologize to Elnora!" he fumed.
"I'll do nothing of the sort," Edith calmly said.
The whole charade was infuriating to watch. Phillip was being a complete d-bag and didn't even realize it. He'd been engaged to Edith for over three years, he didn't know that she would be upset with him running off to frolic with some other girl DURING THEIR ENGAGEMENT PARTY!!! And her suspicions were correct anyway. This fool was all in Elnora's grill the moment they got out of eyesight. Yet they made Edith look like the bad guy. As if she was a paranoid jealous psycho looking for something that wasn't there.
Oh, it was there.
This was all a flimsy pretext (to use Edith's words) to set up Phillip leaving his fiance and professing his love to Elnora. It was trite, distasteful, lame, unimaginative, and cringey with a capital C. Couldn't they come up with a better scenario. At least if he was already divorced they wouldn't have to make Edith some kind of witch who wasn't good enough for the pure-hearted Phillip.
The following day we got what was being plainly foreshadowed: Phillip went to Elnora's place to tell her that he'd broken the engagement off with Edith because he's in love with her. How long had he been in love with Elnora? Since the moment he met her. When she was sixteen (and they call R. Kelly twisted).
It was a stomach-turning scene trying to pass itself off as romance. Phillip quite literally dropped his fiance of three+ years for the high school farm girl he fell in love with when she was an early-teen. Someone please tell me where's the romance in that.
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