FERNANDO’s CORNER: Posted on February 14th, 2015
I have just watched the RKO Radio 1932 release “Rockabye” directed by George Cukor, a primarily amusing sophisticated comedy-drama starring the wonderful Constance Bennett, as a stage actress who rose from poverty and, with the help of her manager, ably impersonated by Paul Lukas, who is in love with her, has turned her into a sophisticated and famous actress. Underneath all the glamour is basically a good and simple woman; a “roughneck” as she calls herself.
The film contains a splendid performance and is quite absorbing and well acted, but in spite of Ms. Bennett’s charms and talent, towards the end it turns quite melodramatic. The ending is perhaps not satisfactory, but considering the time when it was filmed it is perhaps plausible.
Joel McCrea is Bennett’s love interest; a playwright and an agreeable, on-the-level guy, and one can appreciate that he and Bennett had a lot of chemistry ( both actors had an affair around that time ). The scenes in which they fool around and share some intimate moments are very well achieved and ring true all the way.
Jobyna Howland is a hoot as Bennett’s vulgar and dipsomaniac mother and Walter Pidgeon in a rather small role as Bennett’s ex-lover.
The child who plays the little girl whom Bennett’s tries to adopt is very effective in her pivotal role. It’s not clear, but one tends to believe that she is Bennett’s character’s real daughter, whom she had to give away and then tried to adopt, due to the fact that she had her out of wedlock. Walter Pidgeon’s character, the child’s father ( a shady public officer ) was married, thus this situation could have ruined both their careers. One only has to think of what happened with Gable-Loretta Young & their child Judy Lewis in 1935-36 to realize how truthful this situation was back then. The movie has definitely Pre-Code aspects. Good flick and very worthwhile. The dialogue is very good.
( CineMaven’s Note: I enjoyed the film as well, and Jobyna Howland totally caught my eye. I read a little about her over at IMDB, or you can check it out here. Why is character actor Olin Howland here? He’s her little brother. Below is a five-minute scene from the movie, and cross Constance Bennett and your own risk ).
( HOME )
____________________________________________________________________________
CineMaven's ESSAYS from the COUCH 
I stumbled onto your essay from the couch about a favorite movie I love: “Rockabye.” I also love Constance Bennett and Joel McCrea and it doesn’t hurt that they were both lovely to look at. I fell in love with 1930s & 1940s melo-melo-dramatic movies like “Primrose Path” (1940) McCrea & Ginger Rogers along with “Rockabye” due to channel 7 NYC all night movies starting with ‘The Late Show’ and ending with ‘The Late, Late, Late, Late Show.’ I was always there watching tons of great and not so great movies night after night. Channel 5 (WNEW) also showed some good old movies for decades. I’m 69 now but one of the first cable channels my older sister and I subscribed to was TCM. The second one was the Disney Channel (for my then 6 year old daughter). My baby just turned 41 this past November. I will try to read all of your posts as I move forward and thank you for reminding me of those actual “good old days.”
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hello there Margaret. Forgive my tardiness in replying. Life is just so crazy right about now. First off I hope you didn’t skin your knee “stumbling” onto my essay. ( 😉 ) So glad you’re here. From the little background you give, looks like we led the same life regarding “old movies.” I am 68 years old. And I TOTALLY remember WNEW and WPIX (Channel 11: Chiller Theatre) and WOR (Channel 9: Million Dollar Movie) for I am a native New Yorker. I’ve loved old movies since Channel 4 used to show movies at 4:30 ~ 6:00pm.
I do hope you’ll read through my blog. Clicking on MY POSTS will give you a quick way to peruse my list of films that might resonate with you.
Thank you again for writing and sharing. Hope you’ll return.
LikeLike