March Movie of the Month: Strange Interlude (1932)

“In order for us to fully understand his characters, Eugene O’Neill allows them to express their thoughts aloud. As in life, these thoughts are quite different from the words that pass their lips.”

Such is the–I’ll call it a warning–at the beginning of Strange Interlude, a pre-code film that is indeed…strange.

As a classic film lover, particularly of the 1930’s, I cringe when people refer to some classic films as “creaky.” But unfortunately that is the word I feel I must use to describe Strange Interlude–a film that has not aged well, a film that I would definitely not recommend to those new to classic film and wary of its elements.

An adaptation of a successful Eugene O’Neill play that won a Pulitzer Prize, Strange Interlude is different because as the action is going on, the actors pause, look into the distance, and their thoughts are verbalized. In the play, the actors would step out of the scene and have a brief aside under a spotlight, which I imagine worked well on a stage. But in a film it is really ridiculous. In real life, when you have thoughts, you don’t stand there with a dumb look on your face  and people you are talking to are silent and staring at you while you think them! It makes the pacing of the film very dull.

The story would have been fine without the ridiculous asides, a soapy drama stuffed full of pre-code elements:

Gable is Dr. Ned Darrell, who has fallen in love with Nina Leeds (Shearer), a free-spirited young woman who is mourning the loss of her love in World War I. Also in love with her are family friend Charlie (Ralph Morgan) and Sam (Alexander Kirkland), a friend of her deceased boyfriend. Sam proposes to Nina and even though she is still heartbroken, she accepts and decides to move on with her life. Right after their marriage, Sam’s mother (May Robson) tells Nina that she and Sam must never have a child because insanity runs rampant in Sam’s father’s side of the family. She recommends that Nina give Sam a child fathered by another man to keep him happy and never let him know the truth. Devastated by the news, Nina turns to Ned for advice and Ned agrees that she must give Sam a child to make him happy. Ned volunteers to sire the child and soon they are in a passionate affair behind Sam’s back. A boy is born to Nina and Sam never suspects that the child is not his. Jealous Charlie watches this all unfold, pining for Nina all the while. Years pass and Nina and Ned constantly struggle with their love for each other and whether or not to tell Sam the truth.

Clark doesn’t have a lot to do other than pine for Norma and look like a wounded puppy. He is wearing far too much makeup right from the beginning and as the story goes on, he is supposed to age. This is indicated at first by the presence of a pencil thin mustache–the very first mustache Clark had onscreen, although it was a fake one!–and then later as he is made up to look like Colonel Sanders with fluffy white eyebrows and drawn-on wrinkles. Clark didn’t really age well, but at least he didn’t age like that!

The asides make them all look ridiculous. In one of his first scenes, Clark’s character is accused of being in love with Nina and his hurried thought says, “Wonder if I am?” with this dumb look on his face.

Norma Shearer has her fans and her detractors; her detractors largely pointing out that she never got over the silent, 1920’s way of acting in which every motion is overextended and every emotion must be expressed with big gestures. Well, if that does bother you about Norma, then this film will really get under your skin. She is at her prettiest at this stage in her life, in my humble opinion.

The main point of the film is that everyone–and I mean everyone–is in love with Norma’s Nina. First an unseen fiance she loses in World War I, creepy family friend Charlie, Clark’s Ned,  then puppy-eyed Sam.

It’s all a bit hard to take as Nina is really quite selfish. Still clinging to the memory of her dead fiance, she marries Sam pretty much because he is the closest warm body. Then when his eccentric mother (who could play that role but May Robson, I ask you!) tells her of the family mental illness, she is of course upset but soon doesn’t seem to be too tormented by the idea of carrying on an affair with Ned and giving birth to his son but passing him off as Sam’s–oh, and naming him after her dead fiance. And all the while stringing along Charlie.

The main point of family insanity in the plot is not something that today’s audiences would really sympathisize with–a crazy, cackling aunt locked in an attic means that Nina and her husband can’t have children? Although in those days mental illness was hardly understood, it was assumed to be in the blood and inevitable. 

One thing that bothered me on my first viewing of the film was that it seemed evident that after Sam’s mother revelation, Nina stopped having sex with Sam, saying she is sick. Sam starts to doubt himself as a man and even considers asking Nina for a divorce since he can’t seem to fulfill his “obligations.” So why then is he so happy when Nina gets pregnant, why would he believe the child is his? Does the man not know where babies come from? He even drops to his knees and thanks God, saying this shows that Nina really loves him. What?! Well, as is the case with many pre-code films derived from plays, a major plot element was danced around. In the play, Nina is apparently already pregnant with Sam’s child when she is told of the insanity in his family. She then aborts his child and concieves with Ned.

Interestingly, Robert Young and Maureen O’Sullivan pop up at the end playing the adult Gordon and his girlfriend.

Strange Interlude is available on DVD (unrestored and is sketchy in places) through the Warner Brothers Archive Collection. Read more on the film here and see over 70 images from the film in the gallery.