Basil Dazzles In Early Talkie

The Lady Of Scandal (1930) Translates Stage To Screen

Early talk gravitated to properties where maximum chat was so much the better. That meant plays with confined setting, actors stood round furniture and often indistinguishable from it. The Lady Of Scandal and ilk would in hindsight give talkies a bad name, but were critic darlings then because of stage origin and respectability flowed from that. Mordaunt Hall was N.Y. Times defender of legit prerogative and gave but grudging nod to "shadow stories" done from plays. He made exception for The Lady Of Scandal, formerly "The High Road" of Broadway origin, and written by Frederick Lonsdale, whose The Last Of Mrs. Cheyney lent class to a pic industry always on lookout for that intangible. These were teacup marathons that sold inflated tickets at urban opens, but died hard in the hinters, where we knew from nothing, or cared, about Dukes and Earls.

Prestige was second to money as Hollywood-desired commodity. It bought good will of audiences who'd otherwise disdain movies, or call them never so good as theatre. Now that screens spoke, it was legit on the rout. Broadway laid mostly eggs as a public chose bargain that was films, a same now as plays, what with talk, plus bigger names performing than B'way could summon. People liked too the democracy of filmgoing, which had variety within programs, dress code less formal, and eats bought, or at least tolerated, if carried in (nut and sweet vendors street-selling in event venues lacked concession choice). The Lady Of Scandal meanwhile gave glimpse of Upper Crust, in England no less, a ruling class we'd be fascinated with, at least till resenting them after the war and suddenly leveled fields. Now such characters are strictly for period dress, present-day aristocracy likelier to invite laughter, if not scorn. The Lady Of Scandal presents wealth as den of snobbery that would turn out would-be wife Ruth Chatterton, though the longer she, and we, stay, the more humanized they become. Author Lonsdale, who had some creative say, wouldn't let his nobility be mere straw men to feed class grudges.

Reason To Catch A Lady Of Scandal Next Time ---
Basil's Tour-De-Force Telephone Scene

Chatterton stood in for common clay, except she has flawless diction, which others of lower birth presumably lack, but who else of cast to fasten interest on or identify with? Chatterton had been a hit the previous year as a talking Madame X, then with Sarah and Son (popular then, unwatchable now). Chatterton shone in some Warner precodes, had film-started mature (her mid-thirties), then got dowdy and quit Hollywood to stage-work exclusive. Notable, of course, is Basil Rathbone, busy himself at Broadway toil and still with one foot firmly on the stage so far as technique and declamation. He'd adjust to the change, get more comfortable with cameras, but what fun to see him enter-exit as if transition from boards to screen was none at all, the erect carriage, clipped speech, and that high, almost prissy giggle that characterized young Rathbone (young? --- he was 38 here). Athleticism that would express itself later via swordplay gets a look-in, Basil swatting ably at lawn tennis in one of precious few exteriors The Lady Of Scandal affords. There isn't a DVD yet, but TCM runs The Lady Of Scandal, usually on Rathbone natal days, a fitting and most enjoyable tribute, even if followed by Hillbillys in a Haunted House.