Helen Twelvetrees

(On Cable TV, May 2021) There isn’t much to Her Man in terms of narrative — it’s about a Havana prostitute who gets a shot at escape when a kind sailor walks into her bar, but first she’ll have to dispose of her knife-wielding “protector” with a penchant for casual murder. Largely taking place in a rough-and-tough bar where fatal stabbings are common enough, Her Man is clearly a Pre-Code film — half the cast plays prostitutes, a third plays would-be clients and the rest are the usual denizens of low-rent bars. There’s a bit of a tonal mismatch between the film’s drama and its comic relief, but the real highlight of the film is Tay Garnett’s direction — from evocative opening credits etched in sand and washed away by waves, to evocative tracking shots to establish the atmosphere, to a very credible portrayal of people in desperate circumstances, in punches above its weight in terms of early-sound era cinematography. Helen Twelvetrees alone is remarkable for her portrayal of an aging prostitute who may or may not be able to get away from it all. While Her Man isn’t quite a classic, it’s a better-than-expected drama with some thriller-like moments and a harsher attitude than the following decades of Hays-neutered films.