Ladies' Man (1931)

7/10

Good solid movie with Powell, Lombard, Francis

phawley-251-1159217 August 2021

This is precode, which I find interesting at the movies moved from silent to talkie/precode and then talkies with ratings/warnings.

I liked this movie, and would watch it once.

Powell always holds his own, and he didn't want to do this movie. Still, it is solid, and when you have these three actors, they will deliver compelling performances. It also approaches tough topics; it is almost a classy soap opera. This film features some pretty sordid choices as to what someone has decided to do with their lives.

The downside is that the love interests some times fall in love within a day, which makes it not so plausible. It weakens the viewer's investment in the characters. It's just not as believable.

I still enjoyed it and Powell commits; Lombard plays a very believable drunk at times; Kay Francis facial expressions and commitment are in depth. I enjoyed seeing these wonderful actors.

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5/10

Just A Gigolo

boblipton27 February 2020

William Powell is a ladies' man. He moves through New York upper crust, a regular at the parties of the 400, a resident at a hotel. Where does his money come from? The ladies, whom he charms. They give him the jewelry their husbands buy them, and he sells them to pawnbroker Clarence Williams. One woman who gives him her jewelry is Olive Tell. Another, who want to marry him, is her daughter, Carole Lombard. Then he meets Kay Francis.

Powell gives a performance that is a model of diffidence verging in contempt, not just for the women, for himself. Miss Lombard gives one of her society deb performances, with a drunk scene of the type that she would come to play for comedy. It's not a terribly interesting movie for me, because there's no one to really feel sorry for. Powell's performance is spot on, of course, but he recognizes his own unworthiness, and Miss Francis falls too easily for his charms, setting up an ending that comes as little surprise. There's little of the chemistry in this Paramount movie that would make their work together at Warner Brothers so romantic. Perhaps Herman Mankiewicz lacked the powers to adapt the Rupert Hughes novel it is based on, or perhaps Hughes' novel was too mechanical. Perhaps director Lothar Mendes was simply one of those directors whose strengths lay in the mechanics of film construction. Or perhaps it was all three of them.

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5/10

precode drama

blanche-212 June 2021

William Powell is a "Ladies' Man" in this 1931 drama, also starring Kay Francis and Carole Lombard.

Powell plays a gigolo who lives off of older women. The daughter of one of them (Lombard) is madly in love with him. When he meets Kay Francis, he falls in love and wants to leave his desolate way of life. Is it too late?

For me, the early talkies have the same problem - rhythm. Directors and actors just weren't used to the flow of dialogue; sometimes there are pauses between lines, and the film comes off as stilted.

Powell was wonderful, as he always was, playing a man who isn't really happy with his lifestyle but used to it. Kay Francis was very glamorous as usual, and her acting is fine until the very end - today her final moments would be considered over the top. And gorgeous Carole Lombard for me was completely over the top. However, that was the style then. It took time to make the adjustment from talkies.

This is certainly not your typical film.

As a little bit of trivia, those familiar with Get Smart and remember Don Adams - he modeled his character's speaking voice after William Powell's.

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6/10

What a Way to Make a Living for William Powell!

malvernp16 March 2022

Most viewers associate William Powell with roles that are charming, often humorous, light and debonair. However, in his early Paramount pre-code career period, he occasionally ventured into uncharacteristic parts. This one from Ladies' Man (LM) is certainly in that category. Yes, while he was interesting, suave and stylish as usual, he was also somewhat unsympathetic, weak, self-absorbed and not particularly nice as a human being. That he was such catnip to so many women in LM----including both a mother AND her daughter (Olive Tell and Carole Lombard) is evidence that the suspension of disbelief was definitely required to accept this kind of story as resembling a slice of reality.

What makes LM well worth viewing by a modern audience is the opportunity to see William Powell, Kay Francis and Carole Lombard at the dawn of the sound era, when all were relatively young, fresh and not yet type cast in roles that later would make them more celebrated and famous. It should also be noted that Powell and Lombard were married within six weeks of LM's official release. No doubt their off-screen relationship helped Lombard to become a better actress, and critics also commented on her delightful performance in LM as well as her growing confidence and glamour. While Powell and Francis would conclude their six film partnership with a celebrated pairing one year later in the classic One Way Passage, they made their romantic roles in LM touching, appealing and believable.

It is difficult to like watching the repetitious adventures of a professional gigolo, but Powell obviously put a great deal of his personal charm into the part. It may also be hard to view the idle rich as a particularly interesting group of people upon whom to invest your time. This is especially true when adultery is treated with such remarkable pre-code indifference, and where a mother and daughter are both knowingly being bedded down by the same man! But Powell, Francis and Lombard were all so personally appealing in LM that we can and should be forgiven for enjoying the movie---with its warts and all.

Lothar Mendes by this time was something of an expert in directing such cinematic stories. And particular mention should be made of the screenplay contribution of Herman J. Mankiewicz, who of course would later gain immortality for his script collaboration with Orson Welles on Citizen Kane.

Powell was only three years away from making his career-changing role of Nick Charles in the The Thin Man at MGM. And in that same year (1934), Lombard scored big in her breakthrough screwball comedy Twentieth Century with John Barrymore for Columbia Studio and directed by Howard Hawks. Finally, Francis made her classic Ernst Lubitsch romantic comedy Trouble in Paradise at Paramount in 1932--just one year after completing this film. LM may not have achieved the success of these later cinematic efforts, but it does have its own rewards!

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6/10

Lombard steals the show

jelinek-2012427 March 2022

Warning: Spoilers

I was very eager to see this film since it stars two of my favorite actresses, Kay Francis and Carole Lombard. Unfortunately, the pacing of the film is quite slow and seems to go on for much too long, spoiling any potential the film displays.

Surprisingly or maybe not, Lombard steals the show from her co-stars, demonstrating her comedic talents in a scene where she's imbibed more than a few cocktails with a beau.

This is pre-code all the way up until the end, when Powell must be penalized for his immoral behavior.

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2/10

Odd storyline

HotToastyRag20 August 2020

We all think of William Powell as debonair, but how many of us think of him as a gigolo? If you can't imagine it, you'll have to rent Ladies' Man to see him in the role. He's not very convincing, but because he's really tired of his job, it makes sense. He's not sickeningly sweet and simpering to his lady clients, but instead seems bored that he has to keep wooing older, rich married women to pay his bills.

The storyline of this old movie will put a lot of viewers off. Bill's current lady is Olive Tell, and while her husband knows about their arrangement, so does her daughter, Carole Lombard. Here's the gross part: Carole is in love with William Powell! How could she possibly fall for her mother's gigolo? He doesn't lead her on, but in fact finds love with a third lady, Kay Francis. Kay, who seems to dislike her leading man so much she visibly leans away from him during their closeups, doesn't seem very sincere in accepting her new boyfriend's profession, even though she's supposed to.

Unless you want to see Bill and Carole in a very odd movie when they were married in real life, you can skip this one. It's not very good, and it doesn't stand the test of time very well.

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6/10

William Powell, the honorable gigolo

gbill-748777 November 2023

"I'm with you, and yet it seems as though you are alone." "I'm always alone."

William Powell plays a guy who is having an affair with both a married woman (Olive Tell) and her daughter at the same time (Carole Lombard), and yet he's given the appearance of being gentlemanly rather than lecherous, even after he meets and falls for yet another woman (Kay Francis). With the former two women he seems to have a resigned sense of calm, but with Francis's character, he truly lights up, excitedly telling her "I'm the little man who can show you this big city," and that they can spend the night together on the town:

"Dance a little. Drop in a musical piece. Catch an act at the opera. And then a midnight flight above the city. We could turn the plane over and over. The town would go round like a wheel with you sitting on the hub. You'll never know New York until you see it as the moon sees it. Then a nightclub or two and out in time to catch the sunrise somewhere along the Hudson. Ah, the sun does some of its very nicest rising around here."

He's nonplussed when with this potential new love interest he runs into the mother in one restaurant, and then the daughter, who is intoxicated, at another. Lombard is hilarious playing a miserable drunk, and it's probably the highlight of the film. As she goes on and on, embarrassing him, he asks "Rachel, will you do me a big favor?" to which she slurs "Do you any flavor, honey." I also loved how she delivered her last line at the restaurant, "Never mind, I'll handle it," which seemed so modern. She then shows up at Powell's apartment, and in a very nice bit of acting, threatens to kill herself if he doesn't marry her. To her brother who turns up and wants to get out of there she says "Home? Let you make you make an entrance with the erring sister and a couple hallelujahs? Ha ha, and ha," emphasizing the ha's. It was in all of these moments where the film had the most life.

That's not to say that Francis and Powell didn't have chemistry; just look at the way she looks at him when they plan to get married. The trouble is it doesn't go very far before everything crashes down around him when the husband finds out he's been cuckolded. The pacing in the film doesn't help either, as most of it seems to be moving slowly, dampening any sense of passion.

The film takes its most unfortunate turn when it spends energy justifying Powell's character. First we have Lombard's character saying that any woman who gets used by him only has herself to blame, which is soon followed by Powell defending himself to Francis, saying he's a moral as anyone else because he's honest about what he does, and that ever since he was young, he simply discovered he could make money through the attention of women. He's lonely despite all the attention he gets and knows he's "low and unspeakable" for his actions, and is thus portrayed as a reluctant, honorable gigolo of sorts.

It's remarkable how much he's allowed to be the good guy here, to appear like a dignified gentleman for being a "kept man," when we know how women would be portrayed in the reverse case, and certainly not allowed to eloquently justify themselves. On the other hand, in a similar way to the fate of many such women in film, Powell's character does pay a price for his "sinful" life. The film would have been better had he had at least a bit of rascal in him, but it seemed like it wanted to neutralize as many aspects of what was a sordid concept as possible. That's true all the way up to that nauseating final line from Francis, trying to put some kind of happy face on the ending.

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3/10

Powell and Francis are always worth watching

hotangen29 August 2013

I like Francis. I especially like her in the films she made when she was a little star, before she went to Warner Bros and became a big star. And I like Powell. Their film One Way Passage is perfect and they were perfection in it. But not so in this film, primarily because their romance is unbelievable. They meet and over a period of 24 hours one seamy incident after another takes place and Francis reaction is to fall deeper in love. The problem is not in the casting of Powell as a cad, but in the story, which, it seems to me, had the makings of a sophisticated comedy with a happy ending. Unhappily, the movie sinks. Happily, Powell and Francis, and Lombard too, survived this mess and went on their merry way to become Super Stars.

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6/10

Just a Gigolo

st-shot31 March 2022

Bill Powell steps out of his usually engaging character type to play a sleazy gigolo in this ho-hum story of women juggling that ends badly for the smug charmer.

Jamie Dellicourt is the ladies man of the day as he charms and seduces high society women of distracted husbands. Presently he is working double shifts with a mother and daughter team but finds himself enthralled by a financially challenged woman ( Kay Francis) where love replaces monetary gain. It does not sit well with his benefactors and they stir the disinterested husband and father to violent action.

Powell lends a certain tenderness to his heel as he transitions to true love, albeit too late, as the scorned mistresses exact revenge by way of a bravura finale (hampered probably by censors) saturated in utter cynicism.

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5/10

It's hard to care very much about the guy.

planktonrules5 October 2021

Although the acting is very good in "Ladies' Man", the film has one huge strike against it....you don't care very much for the main character. In some stories, this doesn't matter but for a romance, that's a significant problem!

Jamie (William Powell) is a gigolo who is romancing BOTH a woman (Carole Lombard) AND her mother at the same time! Now that really takes nerve! But what takes even more nerve is his beginning to date a third person (Kay Francis) at the same time! The daughter (Lombard) is pretty unstable and you can't help but think bad things will come of all this.

As I already said, the acting is very good and the story isn't bad. But you can't help but not care very much about Jamie or his exploits, as this guy uses women and has no interest in working and having a real job. Enjoying the high life off of women is his only goal in life....though meeting Norma (Francis) shakes his resolve. Watchable and interesting but no more.

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9/10

A little-known gem

chriwor-119 December 2008

Every now and then a truly unusual film from the early thirties resurfaces which proves to be a revelation. "The Ladies Man" definitely fits that description. Mature, sophisticated, intelligent and uncompromising, to watch "The Ladies Man" is a breath of fresh air for anyone who is used to finding most of the movies produced in the early talky era crude, formulaic claptrap with "a happy ending".

William Powell is one of my favorite actors, and in this silkenly produced 1931 Paramount bauble he gives a startling world-weary, downbeat, and even tragic performance. He plays an unrepentant gigolo who seems all too aware his dissipated lifestyle dooms him somehow, he just doesn't know when the other shoe is going to drop. Kay Francis was never more appealing and glamorous, and Carole Lombard gives perhaps the first great performance of her career, playing a drunken playgirl driven nearly crazy by her mixed feelings towards Powell's strangely sympathetic cad. To say more would be to spoil a well-directed, well-paced film.

Definitely recommended for anyone with adult tastes and looking for something that's not the same-old same-old.

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4/10

Anyone love long dramatic ...pauses?

1930s_Time_Machine31 December 2023

Even critics at the time thought this was rubbish but I loved this absurd, weirdly acted nonsense. There's something magical in its badness. Something charming in the way it really does take itself seriously.

Unlike so many awful very early talkies this is not unwatchable, terribly acted, static nor stagey, nor indeed a very early talkie anyway. This is a high budget feature - big(ish) stars, flashy sets and decent photography. It's still an awful film but somehow an entertaining and enjoyable one!

Paramount acquired the rights to film this popular novel originally intending it to be a Paul Lukas and Kay Francis vehicle. Then, to get their money's worth from their departing star they replaced Lukas with Bill Powell. To spice things up they threw in his then fiancé, Carole Lombard as Francis' love rival.

This is Bill Powell's last film for Paramount before his move to Warners. There, maybe because that studio was renowned for its penny pinching technique of using as little film stock as possible, ensuring every inch of film was crammed with as much dialogue as possible, they'd probably talk at about twice the speed they do in this. If this were a WB picture they'd have done it in about half an hour. It's the strangest style of directing I've ever seen and as the film progresses the talking gets even slower with longer and longer .......dramatic .......pauses.

Although an old film, it's not a really old film, so it shouldn't be like this - it feels like one of those very, very early talkies from the late twenties. A critic at the time explained this by suggesting that Mr Mendes couldn't direct. That's wrong, he just had his own rather unique technique. For example, how he makes his dramatic finale even more dramatic is to make the dramatic pauses even longer. At one point there are long pauses between eve....ry syl......a.......ble. If you can adjust your playback speed, try watching this at x1.5, it honestly seems more natural but still about 60% is pauses!

If you can overlook the atrocious direction, nonsensical plot and absurd script, you might enjoy this. Carol Lombard doesn't do much but William Powell, resplendent in top hat is more urbane than any human could be. Kay Francis takes sexiness to Jessica Rabbit levels - even wearing a dress similar to a Dalek suit I had when I was seven and carrying a giant hand muff which looks like she stole a roller from a car wash. This really is so bad it's good.

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4/10

So Embarrassed for Norma

view_and_review9 August 2022

Warning: Spoilers

Have you ever been in a situation where you've been embarrassed for someone else who wasn't even embarrassed for themself? That was me watching Norma Page (Kay Francis) as she was subjected to more than one humiliating situation.

But let me back up.

Jamie Darricott (William Powell) was a known New York playboy. He was a ladies' man who had no qualms with taking valuable gifts from women, married or not. In fact, that's how he earned his living. At this point in his career he was escorting Elaine Fendley (Olive Tell), an older, wealthy, married woman who was positively in love with him. The two of them were a spectacle and an open secret. They barely hid their relationship from the public and from Horace Fendley (Gilbert Emery), Elaine's husband.

Also in love with Jamie was Rachel Fendley (Carole Lombard), Elaine's daughter. It was an ugly quagmire for Jamie. Or was it? They were both rich and he would benefit financially from whichever woman was on his arm.

The two women were both bumped to the side when Jamie laid eyes on Norma. He was instantly smitten and presumably, for the first time, it wasn't about money. Norma knew who Jamie was and what he was all about, yet she entertained his come-ons. At first, I thought she was just stringing him along in order to reject him for once in his life. But no. She only pretended to be uninterested and made herself available for him anyway--and that was the beginning of the embarrassment.

He laid a heavy game on her and in spite of all of her apparent rebuffs, she relented. She was supposed to leave town, but she buckled under Jamie's charm and went on the town with him.

To begin with, he took her out in a limousine that belonged to Elaine Fendley. He didn't even have the shame enough to hide the fact he was using his sugar mama's car to take her on a date. It was as though he knew his charm was so strong this wasn't a deal breaker.

Next, he ran into his sugar mama while with Norma. It was an awkward situation for Norma and Elaine. Norma knew this was the woman sponsoring Jamie's lifestyle, and Elaine knew this woman was Jamie's "sick aunt" for whom he needed her limousine. For Jamie's part, he was totally unperturbed. He knew Elaine would get over it and he knew Norma was still under his spell. Norma just stood there sheepishly. When she asked Jamie if Elaine would be upset with him, he simply said, "No, but she'll hate you."

And still Norma stayed.

They left that venue and went to a less swanky club where they ran into Rachel Fendley. Rachel was drunk and told all of Jamie's business and how she was in love with him. Jamie appeared unfazed as though he knew that nothing could break the hold he now had over Norma.

Again, Norma sat there uncomfortably, but never budged.

Jamie then invited Norma to his apartment. Norma feigned indignance then accepted the invitation anyway. There they found Rachel waiting to further proclaim her love and demand Jamie marry her. Norma again idly and patiently stood by as though she was just waiting for her turn with Jamie like every other woman got.

Once Jamie cleared his home of Rachel and her concerned brother, Jamie asked Norma when he could see her again. In her attempts to be proud and uninterested she said that he could come over for tea before she left, and no more.

At this point I was already thoroughly embarrassed for Norma. How could she allow herself to be subjected to such open disrespect and inconsideration? And then, after such an embarrassing evening, she still invited Jamie over for tea. Where is your dignity woman?

And then it got worse.

The next day, over tea, Jamie professed his love for Norma. At first she dismissed it, but after some more game from Jamie she wilted. He asked her to marry him and she said, "Of course."

So, after one night on the town filled with mortifying situations in which she was constantly affronted with Jamie's current paramours she fell in love with him and accepted his marriage proposal.

I'm used to instantaneous love and marriages in older movies. It always baffles me, but I'm still used to it. But never had I seen a woman fall in love with a guy who was a known womanizer the very next day after seeing the effects of his womanizing in action. It was as though the night before never happened and those women didn't exist. It was mind-boggling.

I guess the heart wants what the heart wants. As for me, I'm pulling my heart out of my chest and stomping on it with utility grade lineman boots if it allows me to remain with a woman after such humiliation.

Norma was spared the lifelong blemish of marrying Jamie, the ladies' man, because Horace Fendley killed him. Horace was finally awakened from his slumber regarding his wife and either pride, jealousy, or both drove him to rid the planet of Jamie, thereby depriving the many women of New York of his services.

Free on YouTube.

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5/10

Surprisingly, William Powell does not rise above this material! ...

AlsExGal19 March 2022

... because he speaks in a rather haughty fashion, much like he did when talking film first came in a couple of years before, and he seems rather bored with the whole thing. Maybe it was because he knew he was leaving Paramount and thus he knew this was his last film there before moving to Warner Brothers. Maybe it's because the tone of the film itself is inconsistent as it starts out like a precode comedy of the upper class being enthusiastically fooled by a grifter and then turns deadly serious.

Jamie Darricott (William Powell) is a high society gigilo. He gets friendly with his new neighbors, the Fendleys. I'm not sure that he even intended for anything to happen between them, but Mrs. Fendley turns to Jamie after her husband repeatedly breaks dates with her because of business to which he must attend. Jamie is giving her ego that last gasp of romance, and she is giving him her jewelry which he hocks in order to live off of. He makes a really serious mistake when he starts yet another romance with Mrs. Fendley's daughter, the rather unstable Rachel (Carole Lombard) for non financial reasons. You have to wonder what was he thinking, because he can't let either woman find out about the other.

And then he meets socialite Norma (Kay Francis), and there is a genuine romance that develops between them, and this makes him want to leave his life of being a "ladies' man". But of course, complications ensue, not the least of which is that neither Fendley woman is just going to let Jamie go without a fight, even knowing what he is.

I found Olive Tell really interesting here as Mrs. Fendley, a woman who is frantically trying to hold on to the last vestiges of her youth. She successfully made the transition to sound, but she also wasn't nearly as old as the part she was playing. It's mentioned several times that she and Jamie look ridiculous together because of the difference in their ages, yet William Powell was actually two years older than Olive Tell! And Ms. Tell is only ten years older than the actor playing her son.

This is pretty much a paint by numbers precode. I would mainly recommend it for fans of William Powell and Kay Francis who always had great chemistry together and who would both be heading over to Warner Brothers to make some of their best films. This is probably one of the hardest to find of William Powell's talking films.

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3/10

Can't recommend

AbundantDay4 March 2011

The movie didn't do it for me. I expected much more after reading the reviews. I can't say too many positive things about it. I found the movie boring, particularly in the beginning. I also didn't like the subject matter and found most of the characters shallow. The only good thing I can say is that Carole Lombard played her role well. Along with the fact that the title did fit the lead. But I didn't find most of the characters to be likable. I also feel the male leads real romance didn't have the time to build the relationship. It was not believable. I hardly made it through the entire movie because it didn't grab my attention and I didn't find anything appealing. I hope you won't waste your time.

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