Chained (1934)

Directed by Clarence Brown. Written by John Lee Mahin et al. Story, Edgar Selwyn, Photography, George Folsey. Editing, Robert Kern. Art direction, Cedric Gibbons, Music, Herbert Stothart. Cast: Joan Crawford, Clark Gable, Otto Kruger, Stuart Erwin, et al. An MGM film. 76 minutes.

The film is OK, but Crawford and Gable, separately or together, have done better. So has director Clarence Brown. His was a major Hollywood name. He made many good films, even some very good ones, including (before as well as after "Chained") several with Greta Garbo.

Here, Crawford, as an employee and collaborator of shipping magnate Otto Kruger, had been for several years his right hand. Also his lover. Kruger socialite wife is aware of the affair, and her husband knows that she knows. When she returns to New York after a long stay in Europe, he is sure that she'll give him a divorce. Wrong.

Still, faithful Crawford generously says she's willing to go on with the relatonship. But Kruger, also generously, wants her to think this over. He puts her in one of his ships for a cruise that includes faraway Argentina.

The ship is luxurious. This is one of the many aspects of Hollywood catering to the escapism of Depression audiences. On board is Clark Gable, a wealthy Yank who has his own cattle-ranch near Buenos Aires. Gable, acting conceited and smug as usual, goes after the lady. She is so full of her love for Kruger that "en principe" she is also immune to passes by other men. But how could anyone resist Gable? (This must be the key to the movie.)

He picks her up much too easily. She resists his charm up to a point, yet her attraction to him is obvious. In Buenos Aires she stays at the chic Plaza Royal Hotel. Gable courts onŠ He has her visit his ranch. Inevitably we get a romance but a discrete, not at all a blatant one. But her growing feelings for the man leave no doubt.

It is all delicately handled, but also rather dull. I spent some time noticing small but real filming errors. Examples. Crawford was not, contrary to general belief, a tall girl. In fact she was rather small. On the ship, when she and Gable pace the deck, in some shots he is taller by at least one head. In other scenes the new friends are about even in height. This keeps changing. The filmmakers probably and inconsistently must have had her go to different sizes of heels and/or made her stand on orange crates. Crates or stools were not uncommon in Hollywood films. Among other standees Alan Ladd was one of the best-known cases.

Joan's character is named Diane. So the soundtrack includes the song "Dinah" (Dianah, is there anything finah, in the State of Carolinah..) Dumb. Ms. Crawford had a somewhat long nose. Most photographic angles in her films hide this, but here, wrong choices of profile show it as bigger and longer than the ideal shape. Then again the Argentine hotel should have been Plaza Royale, with a final "e" to make the feminine adjective "royale" match the noun "Plaza" which itself is feminine. Those are trivial objections perhaps, but when a movie does not constantly hold your interest, it may magnify some spectators' attention to certain details.

(One oddity. Crawford was a maniacal, pathological cleaner who washed and re-washed everything, including her hands, even if she had touched some innocuous object. Here she touches and caresses a horse. I wonder how the director managed to have her do this.)

Crawford clearly falls in love with the rancher, but then, a message from Kruger reaches her with the news that his alienated spouse has finally consented to a divorce. Joan feels duty-bound to return quickly to the States. There she reveals nothing personal about Gable. Instead, nobly, she marries Kruger and lives a high society life. But we know that she is not happy. Eventually, when a business trip takes Gable to N.Y.C., Joan and Clark meet again. This part is nicely handled. She intends to remains true to her marriage but then(yes, nobly) Kruger "frees" her so that she may marry Gable.

There's a great deal of nobility around, from start to finish. At the same time, the movie shows taboos such as a five-year extramarital affair and two divorces. Yet shortly before "Chained" was made, the Production Code had gained much force. That was Hollywood's self-censoring regulation (the Hays Office and all that.)

For me, the most interesting aspect of the picture is the role and performance of Otto Kruger. He was a splendid supporting /character actor, and an aristocrat of sorts, as a direct descendant of the famous Jan Kruger, the Boer leaders who, among other accomplishments had been President of South Africa.

Otto, because of his roles, was often perceived as a German. In fact he was an Ohio-born American. Generally suave, often sinister, with a self-asserting delivery of his lines, he played several types, mostly villainous, e.g the master spy in Hitchcock's "Saboteur." The movies he was in belonged to many genres. Not many of those films were superior productions, and this is one of the reasons that, if you mentioned his name today the response would be "Who's he?" But for those who specialize in the minutiae of cinema, his face and especially his voice, are immediately recognizable.

So, what is most memorable about "Chained" is the player's unusual casting against type, as decent, warm and generous. This made for me, and might make for others, this movie worth watching.