Once again, the big thinkers at Turner Classic Movies have provided film buffs with a tremendous cinematic coup, this being the re-release of six films crafted by Merian C. Cooper as executive producer, and tied up in litigation over the screening rights for decades. Among these films is the social satirical gem, "Double Harness," which is available from TCM via those cable TV providers who have TCM On Demand.
The film is, therefore, free for viewing at the convenience of the customer and this one comes highly recommended.
In all honesty, it was not until the very final scenes of this film, that I realized it was set in San Francisco ( and not New York ), and that the entire production was a satire. The beginning and middle sections of this movie -- from a play by Edward Poor Montgomery -- seem to fit nicely in the oh-so-predictable slot of "melodrama." Just about every player in this film is a character carved strictly out of "upper crust" marble, with all the trappings of the idle rich in the '30s.
Not that the idle rich in the Depression years had it so good, of course, as they apparently had to cut back on the caviar before dinner at least once in a while. The alert film buff will realize that this story is strictly from "la la land" in the first scenes, where the two sisters Colby are viewing bridal dresses for the younger one, Valerie, who is about to be married. The bill for her trousseau comes to well over $ 3000 at a time when $ 100 per week was a lot of money for a family of four. And by the way, everybody smokes ... a lot.
Everyone in this movie is fabulously wealthy by the standards of the day, even though their interests are under pressure from the economic turbulence of 1931-1932. Losses from a bank failure are mentioned in passing in one scene, but the audience cannot help but be captivated by the opulence of the lives of these characters. This film also serves to further establish the absolute brilliance of William Powell, who is the lazy playboy named John Fletcher, heir to a shipping line.
Powell seems to play his character with an almost sublime restraint, and a barely concealed exuberance: it is as if he knew in his subconscious mind that this was an "Ann Harding" picture and it was his duty to bolster her performance and her presence. He does so, in the most magnificent fashion, and it adds power to the social satire which is the weave of this cinematic fabric. It all comes together at the end, where a most elaborate private dinner party collapses into a drunken disaster for the younger sister, and a fist-fight for the butler and the cook !! And there's a happy ending, too, of course.
The only thing this film lacked was more ... more of the luminous Ann Harding, more of how she was slowly capturing the real man inside the phony, shallow playboy Fletcher, and more of how William Powell brought that character into reality from a stiff and rather formal screenplay, the kind of "very talkative" cinematic fiction so common in that era.
Nine of ten, and since it can be viewed for free, On Demand, it is highly recommended to any and all film buffs.
