Most viewers associate William Powell with roles that are charming, often humorous, light and debonair. However, in his early Paramount pre-code career period, he occasionally ventured into uncharacteristic parts. This one from Ladies' Man (LM) is certainly in that category. Yes, while he was interesting, suave and stylish as usual, he was also somewhat unsympathetic, weak, self-absorbed and not particularly nice as a human being. That he was such catnip to so many women in LM----including both a mother AND her daughter (Olive Tell and Carole Lombard) is evidence that the suspension of disbelief was definitely required to accept this kind of story as resembling a slice of reality.
What makes LM well worth viewing by a modern audience is the opportunity to see William Powell, Kay Francis and Carole Lombard at the dawn of the sound era, when all were relatively young, fresh and not yet type cast in roles that later would make them more celebrated and famous. It should also be noted that Powell and Lombard were married within six weeks of LM's official release. No doubt their off-screen relationship helped Lombard to become a better actress, and critics also commented on her delightful performance in LM as well as her growing confidence and glamour. While Powell and Francis would conclude their six film partnership with a celebrated pairing one year later in the classic One Way Passage, they made their romantic roles in LM touching, appealing and believable.
It is difficult to like watching the repetitious adventures of a professional gigolo, but Powell obviously put a great deal of his personal charm into the part. It may also be hard to view the idle rich as a particularly interesting group of people upon whom to invest your time. This is especially true when adultery is treated with such remarkable pre-code indifference, and where a mother and daughter are both knowingly being bedded down by the same man! But Powell, Francis and Lombard were all so personally appealing in LM that we can and should be forgiven for enjoying the movie---with its warts and all.
Lothar Mendes by this time was something of an expert in directing such cinematic stories. And particular mention should be made of the screenplay contribution of Herman J. Mankiewicz, who of course would later gain immortality for his script collaboration with Orson Welles on Citizen Kane.
Powell was only three years away from making his career-changing role of Nick Charles in the The Thin Man at MGM. And in that same year (1934), Lombard scored big in her breakthrough screwball comedy Twentieth Century with John Barrymore for Columbia Studio and directed by Howard Hawks. Finally, Francis made her classic Ernst Lubitsch romantic comedy Trouble in Paradise at Paramount in 1932--just one year after completing this film. LM may not have achieved the success of these later cinematic efforts, but it does have its own rewards!
