A Missing One Few Have Missed

Rathbone Romances Negri in Vertical Mode ..

... Then Tries Horizontal.

Negri Pola-rizes Public In First Talkie

For those who care (how many do?), this was Pola Negri's first talkie. She waited till late, maybe too late, for Garbo and Dietrich were by then giving us all of accents we could use, and Negri's registered harsh besides. She sang what would become a standard, Paradise, though others benefited more by association with it. Negri clicked in silents for same reason Garbo later would: both made love European style, which we saw and took to be reckless abandon. Garbo had softer features even if dour much of the time, while Negri, closing on 40 when she did A Woman Commands, was past enslavement of men stage. Still, RKO Pathe spent heavy for her speech debut, $415K, and result, laden with tall sets and many extras, looks it. Males in support come off better, Roland Young making sly fun where lesser talent would have played it straight, Basil Rathbone giving intense all for sake of modern watchers seeking fun.

To that last comes precious little, for A Woman Commands is gone, as in utterly --- not lost, but may as well be, for non-appearance at TCM (the only outlet that would have it) and access only on boot-disc for most part barely watchable, this the risk of swapping ten spots for pig-in-poke DVD at dealer tables. There must be legal embargo on A Woman Commands --- story rights? --- though most who saw it say it smells (including then-reviews and patronage that kept clear, a $265K loss for RKO). I was fortunate (or not) to get a just-OK copy, and enjoyed A Woman Commands, my curiosity sated re Negri vs. dialogue (she lost) and ravage of time (whatever Pola swains Chaplin and Rudy saw eludes me, though she admittedly had more "It" earlier on). 'Twas largely Basil that lured me, him stiff-backed as piqued lover and still learning screen as opposed to stage craft. Fact is, Roland Young acts rings around both Baz and Pola, a performance hep to times that would be changing. If audiences laughed at A Woman Commands, which apparently some did, then it was with Young, as opposed to at Negri and Rathbone. I just checked You Tube. There's video of Negri singing "Paradise," but no feature, and the song looks/sounds like one of Edison's 1912 tries at talk. Guess we'll have to live largely without this one.