Cast: Norma Shearer
This week's Silent Sunday is a good one featuring Norma Shearer as a con artist.
PLOT: Dolly 'Angel Face' Morgan (Norma Shearer) is a phone operator in a ritzy hotel. Her character is hard-hitting from the start, telling a man who asks her if she's ever met a gentleman, "I never met one."
When two rival con artists, Gwen and Brad (I highly doubt parents were naming their kids Bradley in the 20s, or in this case, the 1880's or 90's, at least), spot her working, she runs away. Brad sends two phony cops that "wise" Angel Face thinks are real. Brad convinces her to join forces with him and Gwen, who are plotting to steal money from Old Man Hammond, a rich old gentleman. She gives in and convinces Hammond to call on her. The next morning, Hammond reports ten grand missing to the police. While he says that he gave away ten grand because of his wife being suspicious, he says he begins to feel irregular.
Brad and Gwen try to trick Angel Face that there's no money to be split, but Angel Face looks under Gwen's pillow and finds the money. Brad vows to get her back, saying that she has made "the greatest mistake of her life."
In Atlantic City, Angel Face meets All-American boy Steve Crandall, who is literally Jimmy Stewart before there even was a Jimmy Stewart, and unknowingly pays for his telegram. They begin to date. Angel Face makes up a BS excuse that her ankle is sprained to get Steve to come to her apartment with her. They kiss and he asks her to marry him. She consents. Here's to the happy couple.
Brad, meanwhile, wants his money back, so he confronts Angel Face. He reluctantly agrees to be a part of Angel Face's plan to con Steve. Poor kid doesn't know what's gonna hit him. Luckily, Angel Face uses her wits to get away again.
Steve and Angel Face head south for the wedding and Dolly is shocked to see that Steve isn't as rich as he said he was, being the owner of a cement company. His parents live in a ramshackle old house next to a plantation. Thinking she's impressed by stupidity, he shows her Enduro cement ("takes five minutes to settle but lasts five hundred years"). "Steve's factory" turns out to be a hole-in-the-wall cement barn.
One night, Dolly confesses that she doesn't really love Steve and decides to leave. However, Steve finds Dolly in his room and rejoices because she really does love him. Brad catches up to her, though, and yet again demands his money. Brad and Gwen plot to get a line on Dolly and a line on Steve.
Steve has sold his formula for a hundred grand and his family is now rich. At dinner, Dolly pulls Gwen away to try and convince her that she really does love Steve, but Gwen doesn't buy it and still plans to tell Steve all about her past.
Steve informs Dolly that "Cousin" Brad has invited the couple to stay at his place. Steve lavishes gifts on Dolly, gifts that she doesn't want. Dolly has an idea to call the police to turn herself in and stops Steve from signing up with Brad to tell him that the deal is crooked and that she herself is a crook and wanted by the police. She tells Steve that she married him to cheat him out of his money. Steve doesn't want the marriage to end (and they say women are the clingy ones), but the film ends with Dolly being hauled away by the cops and being questioned by the Warden. However, there is a happy ending, as Dolly's parole is granted by Steve and she gets to spend her life with him.
REVIEW: One thinks that this film will be a suspense, but really, it is a comedy. A comedy that encompasses the '20s lifestyle perfectly, through slang, dress, slight racism and other things. It's a great early gangster film even though it doesn't have any gunfights or car chases. It's a nice pre-code film. 4 out of 5 stars.
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