George Brent

  • The Go-Getter (1937)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On Cable TV, December 2022) There’s a refreshing undercurrent of can-do optimism at play in The Go-Getter, a romantic comedy featuring an indefatigable veteran whose positive attitude is ready to take on disability, an unfavourable hiring environment, an eccentric millionaire and the heart of the millionaire’s daughter. George Brent plays the ever-sunny protagonist, while Anita Louise is the romantic interest and Charles Winninger apparently has a lot of fun as a retiree so rich he’s become benevolently capricious. Various obstacles are thrown in the protagonist’s way, but they don’t matter: he still finds a way to triumph over them all. Directed by Busby Berkeley, The Go-Getter is not a musical—anyone looking for his signature lavish choreography will be disappointed. But as a light-weight romantic comedy, it breezes along smoothly. What may not be so successful is the film’s refusal to go all-out on the comedy: Despite the kind of protagonist and idle rich character designed for laughs, this film remains comfortably within the realm of the plausible—although the blue vase episode gets close to outright comic mayhem. Maybe the film could have benefited from a more farcical rewrite, or maybe it would have destroyed the delicate balance at play here. (Or maybe Berkeley wouldn’t have known what to do with a more slapstick project.)  Still, it’s watchable enough: neither Brent nor Louise strike me as the best possible choices in their roles, but they are competent, and that’s probably all we could ask for a B-movie of the time.

  • Snowed Under (1936)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On Cable TV, March 2022) I don’t care how many movies they’ve made about writers trying to shake off writer’s block by isolating themselves in a remote cabin and then being deluged by visitors—I will watch them all. While Snowed Under is too short (at 63 minutes!) to make as big of an impression as the numerous Seven Keys to Baldpate remakes, it’s a serviceable take on the premise. Here, the added wrinkle is that the writer’s editor doesn’t think he’ll get a complete play out of his isolated scribe, so he sends the playwright’s first ex-wife to expedite the process. She won’t be the only one there, though, as numerous characters also converge on an isolated (but expansive) cabin in the middle of a Midwestern winter. George Brent is bland in the lead role, but Genevieve Tobin does steal the show as his much smarter first ex-wife. There’s quite a cast of characters for such a short film, and while the duration prevents the film from building itself up, it also means that it’s over so soon that we can only hunger for just a bit more. Snowed Under is pleasant—well worth viewing on a cold winter night even if the film’s snow effects (or overall conception of winter) are laughably fake.

  • Honeymoon for Three (1941)

    Honeymoon for Three (1941)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On Cable TV, December 2021) I’ll watch just about any movie that features a novelist as a protagonist, even when Hollywood’s understanding of a novelist’s psyche has more to do with fantasy than reality. We’re certainly in comfortable myth in Honeymoon for Three, as George Brent plays a celebrity novelist who has such known issues with womanizing that his friends and colleagues try to protect him when a crazed fan focuses her attention on him during a book tour. As romantic comedies go, it’s watchable without being particularly memorable — although Ann Sheridan looks exceptionally good here with a semi-severe braided hairstyle. The rest of the film (a remake of the 1933 feature Goodbye Again) has ups and downs — some of the dialogue is interesting, while the rest is merely serviceable, and it doesn’t take any cinema literacy to know how it’s going to end. Still, Honeymoon for Three breezes by at a scant 75 minutes despite a comic style that stays perhaps more restrained than it should have been. Anyone with a good understanding of the gruelling nature of book tours will probably appreciate even more the film’s almost fantasy-like portrayal of them.

  • Experiment Perilous (1944)

    Experiment Perilous (1944)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On Cable TV, April 2021) With Jacques Tourneur at the helm and Hedy Lamarr in the lead, you can go confidently in Experiment Perilous knowing two things: it’s going to be a thrilling ride and she’s going to look great. The film does fulfill its initial promises on both counts: As a psychologist drawn to the dysfunctional lifestyle of a reclusive couple, George Brent plays the role of an amateur investigator uncovering the troubling truth in a way expertly drawn out by Tourneur and the script he’s working from. Ever-beautiful Lamarr shows up quite late in the film, but remains an object of fascination throughout. The result is very much a domestic thriller à la Gaslight (released almost at the same time), with strong touches of gothic romance and even a whiff of noir. Experiment Perilous eventually escalates into a spectacular aquarium-shattering drapes-burning action-packed confrontation in a Manhattan brownstone for a result that should leave anyone at least moderately entertained. (Amazingly enough, there’s even a title drop of “Experiment Perilous” midway through the film.)