Rockabye (1932)

The greatest movie ever made..!

This movie was so-so. It had it's moments, but wasn't the greatest.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

Rockabye is both the title of this film and the title of a play that society writer Joel McCrea wants Constance Bennett to star in. She's a hit in the play, the movie left a bit to be desired.This movie is strictly Connie's show and she has three men panting after her. First is Walter Pidgeon who is a political fixer of sorts who is on trial for bribery. Her relationship with him causes her to be subpoenaed as a witness by District Attorney Charles Middleton. Though Pidgeon is acquitted both their reputations have suffered. As a result the baby she has adopted is taken from here by the blue noses who run the Bureau of Child Welfare. What this crowd might have done with Angelina Jolie or Madonna today is something to contemplate.Her second man is agent Paul Lukas who suggests a nice long European trip till the scandal talk dies down which she does and where she meets McCrea. His character seems to be based on that real society playwright George Kelly, uncle of Grace. He writes a play that proves to be her biggest hit.Connie's lucky in her career on stage, but singularly unlucky in love. The rest of Rockabye will show that should one care to view it. Bennett and McCrea were a screen team of sorts doing four films including this one in the early Thirties. According to Tony Thomas in the films of Joel McCrea and THE authority on such matters Robert Osborne, the film was originally shot with Phillips Holmes in Joel's role, but Connie got George Cukor the director to re-shoot her scenes with McCrea. Personally in this somewhat maudlin film I think that Phillips Holmes might have been done the real favor.George Cukor who usually had such a good touch in these 'women's' pictures went off the mark in this early work of his.

This is obviously a Pre-Code film for Constance Bennett, as she plays a likable but rather amoral character that certainly would not have been portrayed this way just a couple years later. That's because in 1934, Hollywood adopted a strengthened Production Code that forbade lots of behaviors that Bennett indulged in throughout this film! It is very strongly implied that she has slept around and you see her as a hard-drinking good time girl! This is certainly not the sort of virginal heroine who would be required in the era of the new Code! The film begins with Bennett involved in a scandal with a crooked politician. The notoriety of this doesn't bother her at all...until the agency that is arranging an adoption for this single actress changes its mind and removes the child. This scene is actually pretty heart-wrenching and the child did a great job--so much so that you wonder how they got such a young kid to do such a scene.Because Bennett is so traumatized by this, she decides to go to Europe for eight months. When she returns, she announces that she's going to do a new play entitled "Rockabye" and is going to meet with its author (Joel McCrea). McCrea is apparently married (and, according to him, getting a divorce) and the pair soon begin having an affair. Once again, a married man, steamy action on the kitchen floor and the like is definitely NOT Code types of behavior! What comes next, frankly, hurt the movie--as it brought the schmaltz level to amazing heights. You find out that McCrea's soon-to-be ex-wife was pregnant and didn't tell him. Now that she's had a son, Joel is torn between his love for Constance and promise to marry her and his new son. In an attempt to do the right thing (despite the pain to her), Constance spurns his love to try to drive him back to the arms of his wife and new child. It's all VERY weepy, but didn't work well for me because it was hard to like the leading lady--and a lot harder to like her dipsomaniac mother. You knew Joel would do the right thing by not staying with her and caring about Constance's subsequent pain was just not a factor. Had they made her nicer and less trashy, I think the whole thing would have worked. As it is, elements are nice but that is all.By the way, you may or may not like the part of Bennett's mom, Snooks (Jobyna Howland). She is supposed to be a funny alcoholic and plays it for laughs. Unfortunately, the character comes on very strong--subtle she ain't! I found her quite annoying--as comic relief seemed ill-advised for such a film.

Possibly because her heyday was 70+ years ago, the beauty and glamor of Constance Bennett is not mentioned much today. It's a pity, because she was a vivacious film presence and remained so until her death in 1966. Lana Turner was a bit taken aback when, on the set of Madame X in 1965, she first saw the woman who was to play her formidable mother-in-law - a gorgeous Bennett. If Turner was to wear mink, Bennett wanted sable and got it. Unfortunately, she died shortly after the film's completion.Rockabye is a 1932 film about an actress with a certain reputation. She has three suitors - her ex-fiancée, Walter Pidgeon, whose trial begins the film, in a very small role, youthful Joel McCrea as a married playwright, and her agent, played by Paul Lukas. Directed by Cukor, it's an interesting film (and I believe pre-code), fueled by Bennett's performance, who is especially charming in scenes with the child. She also does all her own singing.This is a good one to catch on TCM.

This enchanting 1933 movie's series of remarkable moments -- a courtroom trial where a blonde Broadway actress actually defends a former "friend;" realistic playtime with a darling little girl; exuberance in a speakeasy, with old chums; a joyously funny, sexy scene in a kitchen; and much more -- are simply delightful. The plot doesn't do justice to the energy and excitement generated by Constance Bennett, Joel MacCrea, Paul Lukas and many others... she's a "Gashouse" neighborhood girl who has made herself into a lady, an actress who searches for love through family, children, travel, a new man, her work, etc., and he's an old-money college-boy playwright with a strong social conscience. And her agent loves her... But see the movie for its pleasures and overlook the occasional creakiness -- it's an unexpected treasure.