IN NAME ONLY [1939]

Alec Walker (Cary Grant) is a rich guy stuck in a loveless marriage with his wife Maida (the wavishing Kay Francis) who previously dumped the love of her life to marry for money. Julie Eden (Carole Lombard) is a young widow with a daughter Ellen (Peggy Ann Garner). Alec and Julie "meet cute" while she does a spot of hopeless fishing in a fishless stream. They quickly fall in love (wouldn't YOU?!?!?!). At first, Maida seems ready to give Alec a divorce . . . but she's not going to give up her cash cow without a fight. Certainly a 1930's "soap opera/tearjerker", IN NAME ONLY is probably one of the best of it's kind. 

The film was directed by John Cromwell; who helmed everything from the Hedy Lamarr starmaker "ALGIERS" and Bette Davis powerhouse "OF HUMAN BONDAGE" to Katharine Hepburn-as-hillbilly misfire "SPITFIRE" and slightly disappointing Carole Lombard/James Stewart romance "MADE FOR EACH OTHER". While I have not seen very many of Cromwell's films, it seems to me he was a bit hit or miss and depended on really strong material and acting for a great movie. He certainly has that here.

The acting is uniformly top notch with Lombard, Grant and Francis giving powerful performances. Charles Coburn as Alec's father also gives a sensitive performance when called on to do so. Even little Peggy Ann Garner (who would win a Juvenile Academy Award for her work in "A TREE GROWS IN BROOKLYN" manages to be a child actor who is never cloying or saccharine but gives a great performance too. In fact, I struggled with myself over the rating of "IN NAME ONLY" because it's not really my go-to genre of film; however the superb acting alone bumped it from 3 1/2 to 4 stars! 

Also the screenplay is very sensitively written. Sure there are some typical romantic movie cliches but here they are handled delicately without the usual hand-wringing bombast some "tearjerkers" of this era can feature. I'm almost positive this is due to the fact that one of the script's co-writers wrote the original novel. Bessie Breuer wrote the original novel "MEMORY OF LOVE" on which "IN NAME ONLY" was based and she co-writes the screenplay with Richard Sherman (FOR ME AND MY GAL, THE STORY OF VERNON & IRENE CASTLE). This is Breuer's only film credit, unfortunately, as she appears to have been a wonderful writer. Sherman, I have a feeling< was brought on to help an author not experienced with screenwriting to adapt her novel. Interestingly, Sherman also co-wrote THE STORY OF VERNON & IRENE CASTLE with Irene Castle herself, so I suspect I'm right in this. 

I've never read the novel but, from the example of this film's script, Breuer seems to have been both a writer devoid of "purple prose melodramatics" as well as having a very clear eye. The characters stuck in this extremely unfortunate and uncomfortable situation are well-rounded and behave realistically. Breuer seems like she was a fascinating woman: award-winning author of many short stories, a one-time only playwright (her only play "SUNDOWN BEACH" was about PTSD among World War II pilots and was the first production by the Actor's Studio on Broadway), Sunday editor of the New York Tribune and national director of magazine publicity for the American Red Cross during World War I. So, as I said before, the film's expertly-written screenplay and superb acting are probably what makes this film work so well. It appears director Cromwell just stayed out of the way. My reason for believing this is that, during the same year of 1939, Cromwell directed Carole Lombard in another similar romantic film with James Stewart and the results were decidedly lacking. 

If this type of heartbreaking romantic film is your thing, than "IN NAME ONLY" will surely make your day. And if it's NOT your thing, this superbly written and acted film may change your mind . . . at least about the best ones.