Les Hommes ne sont pas des dieux

Fine stage presence from Gertrude Lawrence, who was at the top of her stage career around this time; unfortunately this is a film and screen presence is something entirely different. She makes numerous blunders, looking for her mark and even staring, obviously out of character, at the camera and the microphone... very amatuerish for 1926 let alone 1936. She had a fine voice as we can hear from her song during the performance of Othello, and legend has it she was a competent dancer although of course this part doesn't call for it. She can stand on screen with a major star like Hopkins, who was also at her peak, but Lawrence is clearly overpowered by Miriam's star wattage. Sebastian Shaw (who many decades later was still active with roles like Anakin Skywalker in "Return of the Jedi") has the role of her husband in this movie, and he completely outperforms her.

It is absurd to think of Gertrude Lawrence as a big screen star at any point. Critics who thought Lawrence should have had the lead in 1944's 'Lady in the Dark' - basically the only major push she ever received for a movie - would have been well served to watch her screen performances first. She simply doesn't show any indications of being able to carry a film herself like a Rogers or Hopkins or a Colbert, or like her compatriot Olivia DeHavilland, who in 1936 was taking Hollywood by storm.

Initially and quite ironically called "Triangle," this film was Hopkins' first English production although she had acted on the London stage before this. Making this film was a turning point in Hopkins' life; on her return trip on the 'Normandie' she met her future husband, director Anatole Litvak, with whom she was allegedly to find herself in a love triangle with Bette Davis.