Here's Gloria Swanson making her sound debut in a weepie that she puts over so convincingly, she had me crying too! Of course Swanson's is not the only voice in this movie. Chief among the support players put Purnell Pratt, an under-rated actor who never gave a hokey performance in his life, even though he was almost exclusively cast as a lawyer, a manager, an editor or some other stuffed-shirt businessman. Here, his role has some depth and Pratt responds magnificently. Also effective is William Holden, cast here in his usual mold as a tycoon or authority figure – but this is not a sympathetic role in The Trespasser. There may be some dispute about this, but I say he plays the title character. Others may feel that Wally Albright, Jr., was the trespasser. Be this as it may, however, it's actually Swanson's movie from go to whoa. She even gets to sing a song on camera, which she does extremely well – especially considering it was not prerecorded. Director Edmund Goulding also does wonders, considering this was his first sound film and he was hindered by the fact that the camera was enclosed in a sound-proof booth. Goulding's answer to this problem was to put the booth on wheels – at least for the effective opening shot!
Review of The Trespasser
