Posted: Wed., Dec. 31, 1930, 11:00pm PT

Bachelor Father

By Variety Staff

M-G-M. Director Robert Z. Leonard; Screenplay Laurence E. Johnson; Camera Oliver T. Marsh; Editor Harry Reynolds

Marion Davies Ralph Forbes C. Aubrey Smith Ray Milland Guinn Williams David Torrence

Marion Davies plays with debonair comedy with just the touch of being rowdy, and relieved at the other extreme with the merest suggestion of under-the-surface sentiment.

Story is pure comedy almost to the end, but late sequences weave in a neatly contrasting note of jaunty sentiment that gives the picture the touch of legit comedy drama.

Picture has a beautiful balance of pattern in the playing. C. Aubrey Smith, who created the part of the crusty British nobleman in the Belasco stage production [by Edward Childs Carpenter], is in the picture with a screen portrait that is a gem, while Ralph Forbes brings a suave gentility to the juvenile lead in admirable contrast to the flamboyant playing of the star.

Picture has a more spirited finish than the play, giving it the advantage of dramatic suspense that lasts right up to the final foot. The out-of-favor Davies has gone to the flying field desperately determined to make a transatlantic plane flight, while her lover speeds to the air field to prevent the gamble with death. Meanwhile the old peer remains at home, listening with anxiety to a radio broadcast of the take-off on the hop. Alternating shots of these three elements in the episode build the climax.

(B&W) Extract of a review from 1931. Running time: 84 MIN.