Red Dust (1932)

“Don't you think I could be happy?”

“Would you mind if I made it my job to see that you are?”

            Any film that takes place in warm locations such as Africa or South America, make my skin crawl. It has nothing to do with the cultures and most of the time the stories are good. What makes my skin crawl is seeing the characters sweat like crazy from the heat and being in areas of the world that are so remote you would have to be insane to chose to go there let alone there. I despise the heat with so much passion. I love to say that in the cold you can pile on the clothes but in the heat you cannot strip down to your underwear if you are in public. I hate feeling like I am going to combust from the inside out when I am hot.

            Anyway, there is somewhat of a point to my rambling… maybe. The 1932 film Red Dust takes place in a remote part of Asia where the sun is constantly high and there is no relief from the heat. And all the characters are sweating their asses off.

            Dennis Carson (Clark Gable) is the owner and manager of a rubber plantation in the middle of the jungle in China. A prostitute named Vantine (Jean Harlow) is on the run from the law in Saigon and came across his place to stay. At first he wants her out but then he lets her stay the night after they have a “talk”.

            The following day Dennis wants Vantine out of the house and away from his plantation because he has a new worker, Gary Willis (Gene Raymond) and his wife Barbara (Mary Astor) coming in by boat that afternoon. When Gary and Barbara come in, Dennis boards the boat to help them with their things. Gary is on the bed not looking too well. Barbara first gets a load of Dennis through a mirror and stops right in the middle of what she is doing to stare at him. As soon as they get back to Dennis’ place he can see that Gary is ill with some kind of jungle virus. He gives Gary some pills and tells him to stay in bed until his sickness passes.

            Vantine comes back that night much to Dennis’ dismay. The boat broke down and will not be fixed for a few weeks. Dennis is now worried about giving off the wrong impression to Barbara by having Vantine around.

            While Gary was sick, Dennis and Barbara become close. After he carried her home during a rainstorm they kissed and from then on carried on an affair. Things get serious between them and they want to tell Gary that they are together. Dennis had sent Gary out to the plantation to do some work. He goes out there to help kill a tiger. Dennis had planned on telling Gary about he and Barbara going away together but after Gary tells him about his plans for the future with his wife he cannot go on with his plan. Dennis heads back to camp during a downpour to be with Barbara. One of Dennis’ workers drunkenly slips about Dennis and Barbara. Gary gets into a fury and heads back during the downpour as well.

            Back at the house Dennis tells Barbara he cannot go off with her anymore and that their relationship was all a lie. She had heard Dennis crashing around the table with Vantine while she was in bed and grabbed her gun in case it was an intruder making noise. When Barbara sees Vantine with Dennis she gets upset and shoots Dennis in the side. Gary comes home just after the shot went off. Barbara tells her husband that Dennis tried to make a move on her and she shot him. Vantine backs her up by saying Dennis is in love with Barbara and has been trying to get with her all the time he was away.

            There should be hopefully no shock that Vantine and Dennis end up together totally in love at the end.

            I am not usually a Jean Harlow fan but I loved her as Vantine. I think I can finally say I have seen a film where I can understand how and why Harlow was considered a sex symbol. She was definitely sexy in Red Dust and her smart, sarcastic, quick attitude was perfect. There is a scene where Vantine gets mad at Dennis and she sits down hard on a chair and put her feet on the desk. Her dress falls down around her thighs and she picks it up. I was in awe of Harlow in that scene. That is the scene where I finally understood her appeal. And damn woman had a great pair of legs on her! Clark Gable is Clark Gable. He never does anything for me. He does not have sex appeal that is believable and it always baffles me how his characters get the girl (or a girl). Mary Astor was perfect. I have loved every performance I have seen her in. Gene Raymond like Gable really does nothing for me.

            Red Dust is a good film. I think all the heat and the sweating that at least the male characters did added to the tension and drama of the story. I for one would never stand living in the jungle. If I ever had a husband who told me he was going to work in the jungle in China or anywhere else in the world and wanted me to come with him I would tell him go to hell I am staying in civilization! Red Dust is a fantastic example of a Pre-Code film with seduction, Jean Harlow barely dressed half time and swimming naked around in a barrel of water, and Harlow and Gable making out on a table. Red Dust is definitely worth a watch for any Old Hollywood fan. 

Dinner at Eight (1933)

“Listen to me old-timer. I'm drunk, and I know I'm drunk but I know what I'm talking about.”

            One of my favorite ways stories are told in either films or TV shows is where there are a bunch of different characters with different stories in different places and either during or at the end of the film or TV show all those different people with their different stories come together. For some reason that way of telling a story never gets old to me. I just really enjoy it. Plenty of films in Old Hollywood used that way of storytelling including Dinner at Eight from 1933.

            The story begins with the Jordan family. The family is wealthy due to Oliver’s (Lionel Barrymore) shipping business. Millicent (Billie Burke), like many high society women during the early 20^th century and before then, is concerned about mingling with all the well known upper class sets from America and Europe. She has finally gotten a British lord and his wife to come to dinner while they are in America. She sets the dinner date for the following Friday at eight o’clock. Oliver and their daughter Paula (Madge Evans) could care less about a dinner date for the following week. Olivier is only looking forward to it because Millicent has invited an old friend of his an old actress named Carlotta Vance (Marie Dressler). Oliver is worried about his shipping business and Paula is a bunch of nerves over her fiancé coming back but not in a good way.

            At the office Oliver announces that one of their ships is not going to be able to leave on time because there is not enough cargo. It would be the first time in sixty years since his grandfather started the business that one of the company’s ships is not leaving on time. There is nothing Oliver can do someone else is taking away their business. Carlotta comes to see Oliver at the office. She tells him she is broke but she does not want to give anything up she is from the old set with traveling and knowing people and a certain lifestyle and she does not want to give that up and live permanently in America. The two reminisce about when they were younger. Oliver had proposed to her when he was twenty-one and she broke his heart. She explains that she was so much older than him but it broke her own heart as well. As Carlotta is leaving a man named Dan Packard (Wallace Beery) comes in for a meeting. Dan is wealthy business man that Oliver is looking to sell some stocks to. Dan does not want to take the stocks because Oliver’s company is old and on its way out. Secretly Dan wants to buy out the business. Oliver calls Millicent to say to invite Dan and his wife to their dinner party the following week. Millicent does not really like Dan but she obliges and gives the wife a call.

            Dan has a young wife named Kitty (Jean Harlow). It is obvious right from her first scene that Kitty only married Dan for his money. She claims to be sick and needs to stay in bed all day while waiting for the doctor to come. As she waits she eats a lot of boxes of chocolate, puts on makeup, and tries on a new hat. When Dr. Wayne Talbot comes to the house Kitty puts an act of sickness on but as soon as her maid walks out of her room she gets mad at him for not having come by to see her in days. She says she loves him and that he is the only one who loves her and that she is bored when he does not come around.

            When Dan comes home Kitty tells him that they have been invited to the dinner party. Dan refuses to go especially because he wants to buy Oliver out. They have a huge blow up which comes to an end when Kitty tells him that the British lord will be there. Dan has been trying to get in touch with the lord for two years about some business ventures.

            The following week comes along. Millicent’s perfect party begins to fall apart. The British lord and his wife have decided to head down to Florida to fish. The dinner the cook had made after she dropped it on the floor when she had to break up a vicious fight between the butler and the driver. One of her fill in guests calls her telling her he is very sick and cannot make the party. Millicent’s sister suggests inviting another old actor named Larry Renault (John Barrymore) so he can keep Carlotta company. When Millicent calls Larry he is entertaining, of the people in the world, Paula. Larry is the one that has been causing Paula some confusion and nerves. She loves him more than she loves her fiancé and would rather be with him. He tries telling her that he is all washed up, he is a drunk who cannot get any work, and all three of his wives had severe issues. Paula does not care about any of that no matter how much he tries to make her. She leave when Larry’s manager comes to the room. He is trying to get Larry a part in a new play but no one really wants him since his reputation is not what it used to be. Later on Larry completely ruins his career by yelling at a theater manager who was willing to give him a second rate part. Larry’s manager has it out with him and says that he was never a good actor and no one will want him now that he is a total drunk. Unable to handle the truths and where his life has come to Larry kills himself.

            Oliver meanwhile is not feeling well. He goes to Wayne’s office. He tells Wayne he had had a weak moment at his office after Dan had left. The prognosis is not good Oliver is dying from a thrombosis. Before the party starts that night Oliver stays in his room leaving Millicent to welcome the guests. Wayne and Millicent go up to Oliver to check on him. He lest Millicent know the truth about her husband and how he does not have much time left. Millicent is obviously upset but she makes the best of it. When Oliver tells her they are broke she immediately starts downsizing and being supportive. They walk down to the dinner party together arm in arm.

            There was so much going on in this film that I cannot possibly write because it would confuse you reading it since I am not good with getting points across in a coherent way and also not to give too much away. Now you have to go and watch Dinner at Eight!

            Dinner at Eight was a very good film. I enjoyed how all the characters were connected and what brought them to the party. I think I can officially say that I now see what so many film historians and film critics really like Jean Harlow. I am not a fan of Harlow’s but I really liked her character in this. Kitty was very funny and very tough and Harlow did a great job with being both. The story was written by Frances Marion along with a few others. I like Marion as a storyteller she wrote some of my favorite Mary Pickford films. George Cukor directed and his direction is always flawless he always knew how to get the best out his actors.

            I am very happy I finally watched Dinner at Eight. I usually see it on lists for Pre-Codes or best films of the 1930s. Dinner at Eight is absolutely worth taking the time to watch.