The Animal Kingdom (1932)

[This post gets a bit long, what with all the plot summary. But what are the chances you're going to watch the whole thing for yourself, unless you're a pre-code geek or have a weakness for love triangles?]

The Animal Kingdom is an adaptation of the play by Phillip Barry, who also wrote the better-known Philadelphia Story and Holiday. Once again, it's the story of well-to-do people trying to juggle wealth, integrity, and true love -- without actually having to sacrifice any of those things. Inevitably, the protagonist falls for the wrong person, who is usually more interested in wealth than integrity, thus extinguishing true love.

For someone so skeptical about the moral temptations of wealth, Barry certainly gravitated towards characters who are more than comfortably situated. It all makes for very cozy storytelling, since the protagonist eventually chooses the "right" love interest, who allows him (or her) to hold on to both wealth and integrity. A pretty neat trick, really.

The love triangle in The Animal Kingdom centers on Tom (Leslie Howard), who must choose between his former lover (Ann Harding) and his wife (Myrna Loy). If this movie were made after 1934 (post-code), Myrna Loy as the lawful wife would win hands-down; but this is the pre-code era, so Ann Harding as a bohemian artist has an actual chance at winning the prize that is Leslie Howard.

This is before Gone with the Wind made Leslie Howard seem like such a ninny.

 A note about our stars

Ann Harding is largely forgotten these days, but she's featured in several great pre-code films (Holiday, When Ladies Meet). In an era when most stars sported shorter curled coifs, Harding was remarkable for her long blonde hair, usually worn coiled at the nape of her neck.

Unless she's showing off.

Leslie Howard reminds me a bit of Tom Hiddleston. Howard won me over years ago as Sir Percy in The Scarlet Pimpernel (1936), which counteracted the terrible impression he made on me as Ashley Wilkes. Intelligent, attractive, and slightly feline, I don't blame Myrna and Ann for fighting over him. Rumor has it that he was quite the ladies' man in real life, too.

I cannot resist a pretty man in nerdy glasses.

Myrna Loy is, of course, stunningly beautiful. Since her start in the mid-20s, she had played a string of exotic "ethnic" characters, despite her own thoroughly northern European ancestry. Early film roles included "Slave Girl," "Inez Quartz," "Mai," "Roma," "Mulatta," "Azuri," "Yasmani," and "Carmita." Just prior to Animal Kingdom, Loy played the daughter of the titular villain in The Mask of Fu Manchu.

Oh, dear.

Cecelia is one of Loy's first major roles in which she is neither exotic nor a vamp, even if the character is manipulative and materialistic. In 1934, she would play Nora Charles in the first Thin Man movie, and cement herself as one of the most delightful leading ladies of the 1930s.

William Gargan plays Tom's butler/friend, "Red" or Regan. A former prizefighter, he's not exactly cut out for playing the posh butler that Cecelia requires. Gargan originated the role on Broadway, and although Red doesn't figure strongly into the love story itself, he steals most of his scenes in the movie. 

You may also recall him as the sympathetic attorney/boyfriend in The Story of Temple Drake.

The plot

Tom Collier (Howard) is a wealthy wastrel who has decided to marry Cecelia (Loy). This is quite a relief to his father, who hopes that Tom will finally settle down to do something other than being a wealthy bohemian. Cee is charming, clever, and believes in Tom, although her belief resides more in what he could do, rather than what he is doing.

Just as they are announcing their engagement to Tom's father and Owen (who is Tom's friend and, apparently, Cecelia's freshly-jilted boyfriend), complications arise. It seems that Tom has had a long-term relationship with an artist, Daisy, who has just returned to New York after being abroad for several months.

Tom rushes off to tell Daisy his news, in that annoying way the newly-smitten have of wanting to share their joy with the people least happy to hear about it. Daisy has news of her own: she has decided to give up commercial art and to become a painter; and she wants to marry Tom and have a child together.

Daisy is understandably disappointed to find Tom engaged to someone else. Tom argues that his marriage shouldn't have to come between them, but Daisy shows him and his fickle heart the door.

A few months pass, and Tom and Cecelia have plans to attend Daisy's art opening in the city. Cee, who doesn't actually want to go, artfully uses sex as a means of control, alternately dangling and withdrawing her favors. Tom is no match against the allure of Cecelia in a frilly negligee, and skips the exhibition.

"The way into my parlor is up a winding stair...."

The negligee wins the day.

It's interesting to contrast Cecelia's softness and subtlety against Daisy's straightforwardness, especially through the lens of costume and set design. The view from Daisy's apartment is dominated by the angular structure of a bridge, and the trim of Daisy's gown (and even her fingers against the black) echo these straight lines.

When Tom later waltzes into Daisy's apartment, their chemistry and intellectual compatibility flare once again. But Tom is terrible at being "just friends" -- his embraces are just a bit too long, and his kisses too lingering. He's the sort that would "accidentally" fall into bed with someone, and then make excuses about magnetism, or lack of closure, or temporary insanity. [I had an ex like that once. Not that I'm projecting, or anything.]

Daisy decides to flee the temptation of an almost inevitable affair. Her friend, Franc, helps her pack -- and THIS is the relationship I would cultivate if I were her.

Franc's gown features a bow made of mink. I love her.

I am shipping these two so hard.

More months pass, and Tom is clearly crumbling under Cecelia's persistent drive towards financial success. She's pressuring him to sell out his beloved small press to a mass-market publisher of middle-brow novels.

At a birthday party Cee throws for Tom's birthday, he drinks too much and snobbishly tries to make Red behave like a proper butler. Tom's treatment of Red serves as a kind of weather vane for his state of mind. Their friendship has eroded over time, until Tom is more exasperated employer than friend.

Meanwhile, Daisy and Cee are sizing up one another, and each despising what they see. Cecelia has been using her wiles on Owen, who is an attorney for the big publisher interested in Tom's press. Daisy walks in on them embracing on a sofa, just as Cee is "convincing" Owen to use his influence to further the acquisition. It's as awkward as you might expect.

I forgot to mention that the actor playing Owen will later go on to be Batman's Commissioner Gordon.

The film's climax takes place a few days later, as Tom and Cecelia celebrate the pending sale of his publishing press. Their intimate dinner in Cee's boudoir stirs Tom's memory of an expensive brothel he visited during the war.

"That's a very sexy check you're waving around, Tom."

While trying to be seductive, Cecelia overplays her hand about the connection her sexual favors and Tom's "agreeable" behavior. Cee says that selling the press and accepting the large cash gift from Tom's father are agreeable -- and constitute the sort of behavior that will lead to negligees and kisses. Spending time with bohemian friends and desiring "integrity" will lead to a locked bedroom door.

The structure of this shot parallels the image of Cecelia gloating over Tom's capitulation.

Cecelia doesn't notice when Tom's affection becomes sarcasm, and she retires to bed, expecting Tom to follow. Instead, he makes the check over to Cee and leaves it on the mantlepiece, just as he used to leave payment on the mantel at the brothel.

On his way out the door, To tells Red, "I'm going back to my wife, Red.... My wife, I said."  The end!

Thoughts

I'm kind of a sucker for Philip Barry's clever dialogue and ambivalent lovestories. None of the characters are wholly good or wholly wicked. Myrna Loy, in particular, deserves a lot of credit for making the character of Cecelia more appealing than she might have been. Tom is selfish, but charming and idealistic. Daisy will need that heart of gold if she's going to forgive Tom for his 18-month "affair" with Cecelia.

By casting Cecelia as a coy gold digger, the movie seems to absolve Tom of his fickleness toward Daisy. But most people familiar with The Ethical Slut would agree that getting married without consulting one's primary partner is hardly good polyamory etiquette. When she takes him back, Daisy needs to set up some ground rules toute de suite.

Critical reception of The Animal Kingdom was generally positive. Film Daily wrote:

Although the unconventional morality of its theme catalogues it as chiefly for broad-minded, sophisticated audiences, this Radio Pictures offering embraces so much fine artistry in its direction, acting and photography that it belongs undisputably in the front ranks of class productions.

Some reviewers disliked the wordy, theatrical style of the film. According to Picture Play's Norbert Lusk:

The characters talk and talk as they ceaselessly shred their thoughts and emotions into tatters of nothingness.... In fact, the straining after frankness and fearlessness is rather tiresome. But this display is important in making clear that la Loy can hold her own with stage sophisticates.

There's an alternate ending in my head in which Daisy and Franc are now an item, and Tom gets to play third wheel for a while.

I admit it. I love this movie. I love the characters, the dialogue, the mixed-up love story, the costumes, and Franc. You can watch it on Youtube. 

So much nuzzling in the Animal Kingdom!