If married couples on the brink of divorce as a result of one of the partner's obvious infidelity worked as smoothly as Kenneth MacKenna and Mary Astor to try and remain civilized, then the world wouldn't have to put up with such lame T.V. shows as "Divorce Court" and anything "reality". This long married couple has seemed to have a picture perfect marriage, their relationship beginning on the very same day that MacKenna's first book (the movie's title) was published. Ironically, it was also the day armistice was declared in 1918, so his book got pretty much overlooked on the shelves, except by the lovely Astor, a nanny to a wealthy woman's grandchildren. MacKenna advertises to try and find her after signing her copy, and eventually gets her out of her cold-hearted boss's mansion and becomes a successful writer. But when he leaves before Astor and their nice young son do to go on a vacation, he encounters bored married socialite Lilyan Tashman at a cocktail party and temptation takes over. Astor happens to arrive early, discovers the encounter, and being a woman with pride, decides to leave him during which time Tashman makes further attempts to bring MacKenna into her web.
History has shown that broken homes create bitter adults, but even though there is only a touch of that here, the couple want to do what is only best for their adorable teenaged son (Tommy Conlon), a sweet kid who thinks that he has the most perfect parents in the world. It explodes into confrontation when Tashman's husband shows up, naming MacKenna as correspondent. Will Astor, even knowing that MacKenna is pretty much done with Tashman, give in and take him back, even lie to protect him as a larger way of protecting their son? Or will she, like so many other wronged wives, take the vindictive path and go after him for everything he's got? This is a great showcase for the performance of Mary Astor, one of the great unspoken stars of early talkies who could play both noble and evil women with great convincing. She's superb here, and if I was in young Conlon's shoes, I'd think she was perfect, too. Even MacKenna (then married to superstar clothes horse Kay Francis) gets sympathy, pretty much just doing what men do. Like Lucile Watson told Norma Shearer in "The Women", when men feel they need to change their lives, they usually do it with another woman rather than changing their hairstyle or re-decorating the house.
Infidelity isn't all that simple, however, but it does happen even to the nicest of people, and when married couples who have the potential of getting over the bumps in the marital road work together to get past these mistakes, they can do it with dignity and nobility. This 80+ year old movie is certainly not a reflection of today, let alone its own time, as divorce has created a lot of headlines over the years and the desire of the public for dirt is unquenchable. Certainly if the married couple here had grown to hate each other over the years, staying together for the sake of their son would be a grave mistake. But there is still a thing I believe called true love, and no relationship goes without some sort of barrier to keep it from being perfect. There are moments that modern audiences may consider laughable (especially the last line given to young Conlon), but in retrospect when one considers the morality of the situation (based upon a play by the legendary George Abbott), this becomes easier to tolerate and even the guilty husband may win you over as he tries to atone from his horrible mistakes.
History has shown that broken homes create bitter adults, but even though there is only a touch of that here, the couple want to do what is only best for their adorable teenaged son (Tommy Conlon), a sweet kid who thinks that he has the most perfect parents in the world. It explodes into confrontation when Tashman's husband shows up, naming MacKenna as correspondent. Will Astor, even knowing that MacKenna is pretty much done with Tashman, give in and take him back, even lie to protect him as a larger way of protecting their son? Or will she, like so many other wronged wives, take the vindictive path and go after him for everything he's got? This is a great showcase for the performance of Mary Astor, one of the great unspoken stars of early talkies who could play both noble and evil women with great convincing. She's superb here, and if I was in young Conlon's shoes, I'd think she was perfect, too. Even MacKenna (then married to superstar clothes horse Kay Francis) gets sympathy, pretty much just doing what men do. Like Lucile Watson told Norma Shearer in "The Women", when men feel they need to change their lives, they usually do it with another woman rather than changing their hairstyle or re-decorating the house.
Infidelity isn't all that simple, however, but it does happen even to the nicest of people, and when married couples who have the potential of getting over the bumps in the marital road work together to get past these mistakes, they can do it with dignity and nobility. This 80+ year old movie is certainly not a reflection of today, let alone its own time, as divorce has created a lot of headlines over the years and the desire of the public for dirt is unquenchable. Certainly if the married couple here had grown to hate each other over the years, staying together for the sake of their son would be a grave mistake. But there is still a thing I believe called true love, and no relationship goes without some sort of barrier to keep it from being perfect. There are moments that modern audiences may consider laughable (especially the last line given to young Conlon), but in retrospect when one considers the morality of the situation (based upon a play by the legendary George Abbott), this becomes easier to tolerate and even the guilty husband may win you over as he tries to atone from his horrible mistakes.