Movies

Lilly Turner (1933) Surprisingly unsentimental downbeat melodrama of a woman trying to grab a bit of happiness between tough breaks, wandering through life in a cheap magic act and a crummy traveling Health Lecture show. Star Ruth Chatterton (best known for her role in Dodsworth) temporarily left the stage for the movies in the 1930s and I was startled to find that she was 41 when she made this - she looks a decade younger at least. She was an outstanding actress. Frank McHugh goes beyond his usual comedy relief role to become a genuinely sympathetic yet flawed character, Guy Kibbee is borderline repulsive as the perpetually ailing quack pamphlet-peddler, and unfamiliar face Robert Barrat as the deranged and obsessed strongman is both frightening and pathetic. I was victimized by my lifelong exposure to Hollywood cliches and so was startled by the unusually grim events of this fascinating story, which would have been heavily sanitized only a few years later. Donna and I both enjoyed it quite a bit. 9/10