User Reviews

Those We Love, one of K.B.S.'s top productions, is a sentimental story of family love, one of the very few occasions when director Robert Florey was called upon to depict a domestic milieu. Unfortunately, the property it was adapted from was rather poor and lacking in originality, although F. Hugh Herbert's screenplay contributed many improvements. While well-handled by the filmmakers in nearly all respects, Those We Love is very old-fashioned in the treatment of the theme, based upon a tired mixture of the romantic triangle, the "vamped" husband, and alas, "the tie that binds."

Despite the movie's having its origins on the stage, Florey manages to create a smoothly cinematic motion picture which has nothing in common with the stilted, unimaginative techniques often applied to such projects during the early years of sound. Those We Love is a well-mounted presentation, fast yet evenly paced, and cleverly photographed to minimize the script's reliance on dialogue rather than visuals to create the plot. There is basically a two-act narrative structure, beginning with the meeting of the couple on Armistice Day, their courtship and the early months of their marriage. It then skips ahead a dozen years, by which time they have a teen-age son and their union will be tried by temptation. Despite having the most minimal resources and only a few sets, the mood of both these different eras is effectively captured, especially in the opening scenes of post-World War I celebration.

The picture has the advantage throughout of an excellent performance by Mary Astor as the wife who must decide, uncertain of her husband's fidelity, whether to try and continue their marriage. She is well supported, especially by Lilyan Tashman (in a sprightly role as the temptress, although she was gravely ill and had only a few months to live), Hale Hamilton and many of the others in smaller roles and bits. Regrettably, it is true that the scenes with Astor are far superior to the ones in which she does not appear. The primary disadvantage of the movie is the periodic overplaying of Kenneth MacKenna, only sometimes credible in his role as Astor's husband, although he does improve considerably toward the end. Child actor Tommy Conlon, while sincere, seems almost caricatured by today's standards--despite the universal praise his acting received from critics at the time.

Even with these drawbacks, Those We Love is a generally better-acted film than most produced on a similar budget at K.B.S. or studios of its level. The primary distinguishing asset of the movie is the tension-filled, and rather more honest than usual climax, as the female rivals, Astor and Tashman, confront one another. Tashman turns out not to be the stereotypical "home-wrecker" or libertine, but the victim of an unhappy marriage and a cruel and philandering husband, waiting for an indiscretion on her part as an excuse for divorce; she is under constant surveillance and MacKenna is to be used as co-respondent. Although Astor still condemns Tashman, the viewer's reaction is one of considerably more understanding if hardly moral acquittal. This sympathetic treatment of a woman victimizing others as she has been herself adds an extra level of depth and complexity to the characters and emotional drama of Those We Love. Thus, while following the general expectations of the genre, the picture offers a few original touches (along with some satirical injections of humor) that maintain interest throughout and allow for a more universal audience appeal.

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.

I've given this little movie (and I emphasize the word "little") a generous 3/10, mainly because the lovely Mary Astor is in it. She does not have the largest part, unfortunately. It's the rather dull and not particularly charismatic Kenneth MacKenna who has the major role. MacKenna had wisely switched from acting to directing at this stage of his career, so why he accepted the lead role in this little "B" is a mystery. The script is nothing special. It's one of those plots where nothing happens except in the hapless and totally unwarranted conclusions of one of the participants. Alas, it's the lovely Mary Astor's character who is so light of brain and so lacking in trust, self-confidence and plain ordinary common sense that she makes an issue of a nothing. Yet up to this point, she has seemed quite sensible. Ineeed, reasonably engaging. No hint of stupidity at all! If the script had painted her as an idiot in the opening scenes, we would have been prepared for her false conclusions. But this isn't the way her character is put across! Not only is the script and Miss Astor at fault here, but director Robert Florey should have made a decision to stick to his initial ploy to play the movie as a comedy. That how he wisely starts, but halfway through, he suddenly switches to soap opera and plays the script's nonsense as dull-as-dishwater drama. And what happened to the editor's shears? Even at 60 minutes, "Those Who Love" would be drearily dull, yawnful slogging. But at 82? 82 minutes? Someone has got to be just plain incompetent! Writer? Producer? Director? Editor? Take your pick! Or maybe all four?

Robert Florey tried his hand at everything - experimental ("The Loves of Zero"(1927)), musical ("The Cocoanuts"(1929)) but he was at his best giving a touch of class and distinction to the many programmers on his list of credits. "Those We Love" was adapted by F. Hugh Herbert from the play by George Abbott and with cinematography by Arthur Edeson - with these credentials as well as the beauteous Mary Astor and the snappy Lilyan Tashman in the cast it couldn't miss and was a programmer in name only!! Beautiful Mary Astor had scored the year before with "Smart Woman" and "Other Men's Women", leaving the ingénue twenties behind and becoming identified as a smart, young married woman.

This film is highly effective and starred Mary as May, yet another young matron, loving wife of Fred Williston (Kenneth MacKenna, at the time Kay Francis' husband), a struggling writer. They meet during an Armistice Day parade - he claims she is "his public", meaning one of the only people to have purchased his book but in a novel twist when he rings her she appears to be a bored housewife. Things are not what they seem and in reality she is a governess to a pretty stuffy society lady's children. They marry and dutiful May insists on returning to work as a music teacher while Fred can work on his next novel. The years go blissfully by - but with Lilyan Tashman on the horizon there are rocky roads ahead. Trouble happens when they move to a country house and Tashman plays Valerie Parker, a neighbour who has a husband who "doesn't understand her" - in reality he is a vindictive, philandering brute (Earl Fox) who has hired private detectives to put her on the spot.

It's the old, old story - May makes a surprise visit, finds Valerie's clothes scattered about and suspects infidelity. It hadn't happened then but when May decides to return (encouraged by Hale Hamilton, a family friend) she steps right into the middle of a sticky scandal as Fred has been unfaithful and it is left to Junior to decide his parent's fate. It does sound syrupy and maudlin but in Mary Astor's capable hands it is anything but - she makes you believe and it is no wonder she had such a long and varied career. And, yes, this is a World Wide Picture whose logo featured a lady holding two globes balanced precariously in front of her.

I tend to rate early talkies far higher than the average IMDb rater does because i love pre-code films and i make an effort to view them from within the mindset of their own era. Thus it is not uncommon for me to rate a pre-code drama at 8, 9, or even 10, while the averaged IMDb rating is only a 6 or 7. Not so with this stinker.

First, Mary Astor: Great performance, covering about 16 years of elapsed time, expressive gestures, beautiful line readings. Just a gem, as always.

Second, Kenneth MacKenna: His teeth are grotesque, his character is disgusting, and his line readings are filled with his teeth.

Third, Lilyan Tashman: Please. No. She is a terrible ham actress. As IMDb reports: "Tashman is alleged to have been romantically involved with Joan Crawford, Greta Garbo and Kay Francis, and to have gotten into physical altercations with Lupe Velez, Constance Bennett and Alona Marlowe, during her time as an actress in Hollywood." It shows. Also, per IMDb: She was "charged with assault in 1931, when she beat actress Alona Marlowe after catching her in husband Edmund Lowe's dressing room." And THAT, my friends, makes her performance in this role, one year later, bizarre.

Fourth, Tommy Conlon: A young actor who is charismatic and sincere. He works very well with Mary Astor, less so with the teeth-faced MacKenna.

Fifth: Everyone else: A small cast, filled out with a lovely assortment of character actors, all doing their usual fine turns.

Sixth: Mary Astor co-authoring a book on American folk songs ... that was a delightful surprise.

I hated this movie. I wanted Mary Astor to rise up and shoot Kenneth MacKenna in the teeth with a pearl-handled derringer. The fact that i am telling you that she did not do so constitutes a spoiler. So be it.