Our Betters (1933)

(On Cable TV, January 2021) I expected just a bit more from Our Betters, a satirical comedy that should logically take the best from the Pre-Code era, George Cukor’s direction and the Somerset Maugham play on which it’s based. There’s certainly plenty of realized potential here about an American heiress upsetting the London social scene, as the characters overtly engage in adultery and poke fun at London high society. (The title is meant to be ironic.)  Still, I had a harder time than I expected in keeping invested in the film. Direction-wise, Cukor specializes in acting here, meaning that for all of the fancy costumes and good dialogue, there isn’t much in terms of cinematic qualities of the film—it’s almost a filmed theatrical play—which, to be fair, was not all that uncommon in the early sound era. At least there’s the Pre-Code portrayal of hypocrisy in the upper classes to fill in the blanks, and some better-than-average dialogue in terms of comedy. Ah well—they can’t all be winners, and maybe I’ll revisit Our Betters later in a more agreeable frame of mind. It’s not any worse than average, which is already not too bad.