Luise Rainer passed away in late December 2014, about two weeks before her 105th birthday. There is a speech her character recites in THE TOY WIFE, praying to St. Catherine inside a church, where she asks the saint to help her live a long life. The scene occurs after she is stricken with pneumonia.
I am not saying that something filmed in 1938 has a direct connection to the actress' own death decades later, but I do think art and life imitate each other to a certain extent.
Miss Rainer made this film at MGM after completing two Oscar-winning roles. The first award was for her interpretation of Anna Held in THE GREAT ZIEGFELD. In an interview, she said she had been influenced by theatrical director Max Reinhardt back in Europe, and how in the much-lauded telephone scene of the movie, she used techniques developed with Reinhardt and other directors, from various plays she had done on stage.
Rainer's second Oscar was for her memorable work in THE GOOD EARTH, which Metro had adapted from Pearl S. Buck's novel. She gives a very moving portrayal of a long-suffering Chinese woman, spanning many years and a myriad of complex emotions. While the part of O-lan in THE GOOD EARTH required great precision and delicacy, I think she practices even more finesse in THE TOY WIFE.
With this particular assignment, she demonstrates an ability to layer multiple styles within the same performance. She combines drama, comedy and romance, then superimposes it on to the character. As in the prayer to St. Catherine, she seems to step outside what is in the original script in order to take us to another level.
THE TOY WIFE is a somewhat overlooked costume drama that MGM produced while Warner Brothers was making JEZEBEL and David Selznick was making GONE WITH THE WIND. Miss Rainer is cast alongside studio heartthrobs Melvyn Douglas and Robert Young.
She plays the flighty daughter of a Louisiana plantation owner (H. B. Warner). Though the character's given name is Gilberte, she is nicknamed Frou Frou, because of the delicate fabric of her favorite type of dress. Frou Frou is without a mother, and she is often looked after by an older sister (Barbara O'Neil). In early scenes, she flirts with a playboy (Young) but ends up snagging her sister's intended beau (Douglas) and marries him. As the narrative continues, she proceeds to charm others in her orbit.
While she is initially happy with Douglas and learns to love him, her childlike personality makes it nearly impossible for her to assume a wife's usual duties or the responsibilities of running a household and maintaining servants. She and Douglas have had a child, but she is more a playmate to the boy instead of a real mother.
If you watch Luise Rainer very carefully in this movie you will notice a few things. First, she takes an unsympathetic role that someone like Bette Davis or Miriam Hopkins would have turned into an out and out witch, and makes her pitiable-- a character that cannot really be hated or reviled though she probably should be!
Specifically, Rainer takes the wretched melodrama that screenwriter Zoe Akins has churned out and redirects it as a witty, biting satire. That takes a great deal of skill. Though Douglas and Young, her leading men, seem to play it straight, she plays it decidedly light. As a result, Frou Frou's foibles cannot really be taken seriously. But the men, in all their vainglorious efforts to tame her, seem utterly ridiculous.
It has been said that Miss Rainer had many disagreements with studio boss Louis B. Mayer over the quality of the material she was asked to perform, and I do not doubt it. It is my sincere belief that she took lackluster scripts and did all that she could to elevate them. She felt the audience deserved more...and because of this, toy wife (trophy wife) Frou Frou is worth watching. The scene where she is dying and asks to be buried in her favorite dress is a real tearjerker.
I am not saying that something filmed in 1938 has a direct connection to the actress' own death decades later, but I do think art and life imitate each other to a certain extent.
Miss Rainer made this film at MGM after completing two Oscar-winning roles. The first award was for her interpretation of Anna Held in THE GREAT ZIEGFELD. In an interview, she said she had been influenced by theatrical director Max Reinhardt back in Europe, and how in the much-lauded telephone scene of the movie, she used techniques developed with Reinhardt and other directors, from various plays she had done on stage.
Rainer's second Oscar was for her memorable work in THE GOOD EARTH, which Metro had adapted from Pearl S. Buck's novel. She gives a very moving portrayal of a long-suffering Chinese woman, spanning many years and a myriad of complex emotions. While the part of O-lan in THE GOOD EARTH required great precision and delicacy, I think she practices even more finesse in THE TOY WIFE.
With this particular assignment, she demonstrates an ability to layer multiple styles within the same performance. She combines drama, comedy and romance, then superimposes it on to the character. As in the prayer to St. Catherine, she seems to step outside what is in the original script in order to take us to another level.
THE TOY WIFE is a somewhat overlooked costume drama that MGM produced while Warner Brothers was making JEZEBEL and David Selznick was making GONE WITH THE WIND. Miss Rainer is cast alongside studio heartthrobs Melvyn Douglas and Robert Young.
She plays the flighty daughter of a Louisiana plantation owner (H. B. Warner). Though the character's given name is Gilberte, she is nicknamed Frou Frou, because of the delicate fabric of her favorite type of dress. Frou Frou is without a mother, and she is often looked after by an older sister (Barbara O'Neil). In early scenes, she flirts with a playboy (Young) but ends up snagging her sister's intended beau (Douglas) and marries him. As the narrative continues, she proceeds to charm others in her orbit.
While she is initially happy with Douglas and learns to love him, her childlike personality makes it nearly impossible for her to assume a wife's usual duties or the responsibilities of running a household and maintaining servants. She and Douglas have had a child, but she is more a playmate to the boy instead of a real mother.
If you watch Luise Rainer very carefully in this movie you will notice a few things. First, she takes an unsympathetic role that someone like Bette Davis or Miriam Hopkins would have turned into an out and out witch, and makes her pitiable-- a character that cannot really be hated or reviled though she probably should be!
Specifically, Rainer takes the wretched melodrama that screenwriter Zoe Akins has churned out and redirects it as a witty, biting satire. That takes a great deal of skill. Though Douglas and Young, her leading men, seem to play it straight, she plays it decidedly light. As a result, Frou Frou's foibles cannot really be taken seriously. But the men, in all their vainglorious efforts to tame her, seem utterly ridiculous.
It has been said that Miss Rainer had many disagreements with studio boss Louis B. Mayer over the quality of the material she was asked to perform, and I do not doubt it. It is my sincere belief that she took lackluster scripts and did all that she could to elevate them. She felt the audience deserved more...and because of this, toy wife (trophy wife) Frou Frou is worth watching. The scene where she is dying and asks to be buried in her favorite dress is a real tearjerker.