Good start, but then it gets ruined

Clever and entertaining enough to recommend even to members of the 1%

Blending excellent reporting and strong storytelling, this is a disturbing film truly stranger than fiction

If you like to be scared, if you like to laugh, and if you like to learn a thing or two at the movies, this absolutely cannot be missed.

Copyright 17 December 1934 by Metro Goldwyn Mayer Corporation. New York opening at the Capitol: 20 December 1934. U.S. release: 25 September 1934. Australian release: 15 May 1935. 84 minutes.SYNOPSIS: Jeff Williams (Clark Gable) returns from abroad just in time to act as Best Man at the wedding of his friends, Mary Clay (Joan Crawford) and Dill Todd (Robert Montgomery). To everyone's surprise, Dill leaves Mary at the altar. He marries his mistress, Connie (Frances Drake) instead. As it happens, Jeff has always loved Mary himself. Mary, however, has never taken Jeff seriously. Her heart has always been set on Dill. Even his marriage to Connie does not deter her. Dill asks Connie for a divorce and makes a fresh proposal to Mary. She accepts him. This development leaves Jeff out in the cold. He tries to convince Mary she is making a mistake. NOTES: The stage play opened on Broadway at the Times Square on 1st March 1933, and ran 101 performances. This was insufficient to put the play into the black. Its star and principal backer, Tallulah Bankhead, ended up with a $40,000 loss. The play was directed by Thomas Mitchell (yes, our Thomas Mitchell). Supporting Miss Bankhead in the cast were Ilka Chase, Barbara O'Neil, Anderson Lawler, Cora Witherspoon, Harlan Briggs, Donald MacDonald, Roger Sterns, Nancy Ryan and Millicent Hanley. The film went before the cameras on 25th September 1934, winding up on 22md October 1934. COMMENT: The play didn't exactly pull in the crowds on Broadway, so it seems to have been a good idea to assign the screenplay to witty Joe Mankiewicz. Unfortunately, Mankiewicz is not equal to the task. True, he begins promisingly enough with our returning hero, Gable, loading Butterworth down with balloons and peanuts; but Mankiewicz's notion of humor degenerates later on into a lot of irritating gibberish from Butterworth and a frilly nightgown for Montgomery. Director Van Dyke does his level best to keep the movie moving, but eventually Mankiewicz's tired and tiresome script defeats him. Forsaking All Others actually ends up as little more than an Adrian fashion show led by exquisitely photographed Joan Crawford. Fortunately, Joan can do no wrong in my book, even in an inferior vehicle like Forsaking All Others.OTHER VIEWS: Here's an old-fashioned new-fashioned play. Or is it the other way around? About fifty years ago, you could say with justification they don't make movies like this any more. But not to-day! Steamy, risqué Forsaking All Others is firmly back in fashion, a favorite on local TV. I'll take bets, however, that no-one is game to revive the original stage play by Frank Morgan Cavett and Edward Barry Roberts. For a starter, we have no-one in the Tallulah Bankhead class to play the main role. Or do we?

throughout the film, all the big names are laughing, joking, playing, having a grand ol time, until every now and then some real life adult situations get in the way. liberal use of backdrop scenery. also a lot of getting dressed and undressed. Miss Joan Crawford (Mary) getting spanked. naughty naughty. Billie Burke with the hair curler contraption on her head. all right at the beginning of enforcement of the film production code, with the official card at the beginning of the movie to prove it. Clark Gable (Jeff) and Robert Montgomery (Dill) keep stepping out of the shower. Montgomery in a dress. Fun stuff! Rosalind Russell and Charles Butterworth ("Shemp"... not to be confused with one of the Stooges... has nothing to do with that) thrown in for more wisecracking. Even the butler gets a couple funny lines. Why isn't this shown more often? and why is it rated so low? Catch this one and see Joanie in a glamorous but not over-done over-bearing role.... before she turned to the dark side...

And yet another of the film pairings of Crawford and Gable, this time in one of the romantic triangles which became the norm for most of Crawford's films from the 1930s as Robert Montgomery is added to the mix of her suitors. Essentially a will they-won't they situation, for a swift 84 minutes one is put to the task to see how long will it take before Gable and Crawford wind up in each others' arms.This one actually fares pretty good as a farce, mainly because the players make the story work in a light yet believable way even when the story per se becomes somewhat silly and even predictable. Also of note is an early appearance by Rosalind Russell in a short role later in the movie.

The sort of old movie that makes old movies seem, well, OLD. The dialogue creaks and heaves towards the punch lines, the plot twists can be seen coming a mile away, and the characters behavior is totally subservient to the need to keep the hero and heroine from recognizing their obvious love for one another until the last possible moment. That Joan Crawford, Clark Gable, and Robert Montgomery bring something even RESEMBLING emotional truth to this remainder-bin exercise is a tribute to their talent. As for poor Crawford, she has to do this heavy lifting in a closet full of really ugly costumes, full of frills and doo-dads (in one scene, she wears an evening gown covered with what looks like looped extension cords--was the designer smoking dope when they dreamed this one up?). Anyone who says they don't make movies like they used to is right--and that isn't necessarily a bad thing . . .