RKO Classic Romances Collection (Sin Takes a Holiday / Millie / Kept Husbands / The Lady Refuses / The Woman Between)

Directors– Paul L. Stein, Victor Schertzinger, George Archainbaud, Lloyd Bacon, John Francis Dillon

Starring – Helen Twelvetrees, Anita Louise, Constance Bennett, Lili Damita, Betty Compson, Dorothy Mackaill
 

Country of Origin- U.S.
 

Distributor - Kino Lorber

Number of discs –  2

Reviewed by - David Steigman

Date- 06/26/2019

Kino Lorber under their Kino Classics umbrella are no strangers to releasing both silent films and pre-code classics. They label recently put together a pair of pre-code collections now available on Blu-ray disc. One collection is adventure themed, while the other is focused on pre-code romances where at the time any subject matter, taboo or otherwise was fair fame. This collection, called RKO Classic Romances Collection is a showcase of 5 pre-code early talkie romance themed films which have plots that were ahead of its time and still relevant today, with deviant topics of adultery, prostitution, lust between people that are decades apart in age, and sleazy love triangles

The first film in the collection, Millie is the story about a woman Millie Blake Maitland (Helen Twelvetrees) is very cautious about picking her husband after a failed first marriage with wealthy man, Jack (James Hall). They have a child, but soon after their marriage falls apart, as Jack shows less love and affection toward Mille and has alleged business related “evening meetings”, which is revealed to be nothing more than Jack seeing another woman. This of course leads to a divorce. Millie now embittered by the bad marital experience and despite getting involved with other men, is reluctant to get married again. Another man she has a relationship with, Tommy Rock (Robert Ames) is caught cheating on her. Years after yet another man stabbed her in the back, Millie just has impersonal flings with men, not getting too emotionally attached. Another man, a wealthy socialite, Jimmy Damier (John Halliday) who had been rejected by Millie for Tommy, learns that she has a daughter, Connie, now a young lady at the ripe age of 16, decides to court her instead. Despite repeated warnings by Millie asking Jimmy to leave her daughter alone, he doesn’t listen and continues to make the moves on her. This leads to one grand finale with Mille and Jimmy at a private lodge, where Jimmy is seducing Connie and planning some pre-code erotica. 

Millie is an incredible film, with the wonderfully sleazy climax with “Uncle” Jimmy wanting to have a love affair with Millie’s 16 year old daughter Connie. Helen Twelvetrees hands in one incredible performance, and is considered to be one of her best roles. The supporting cast does an excellent job as well. The cinematography by Ernest Haller is also superb. Arguably this is the best of the five films in this set.

Kept Husbands, the second film in this release stars screen legend Joel McCrea. In this film Dorothea "Dot" (Dorothy Mackaill) Parker and Richard "Dick" Brunten (Joel McCrea) are two young lovers who meet at an extended family dinner arranged by Dot's wealthy father Robert McWade (Arthur Parker). Dick is a kind, smart hard working blue-collar gentlemen that the wealthy Dorothea is attracted to and wants to marry him. They get married, soon it becomes sour as she wants him to be a ‘kept husband’ and control his every move, and be part of her parties she throws with her circle of socialites, while Dick has his own aspirations. The fact that they are complete opposites rears its head nearly splitting the two apart. It climaxes with Dick ready to take a new position in St. Louis to enhance his career and Dot refuses to go with him, dealing a great blow to the marriage.

Even though it isn’t quite as good or compelling as Mille and some of the other features in this set, Kept Husbands is still a well-done film kept afloat by the great acting by Joel McCrea and Dorothy Mackaill, who had chemistry together, at least in the acting department, but not in their roles! 

The third film in the collection, The Lady Refuses is a 1931 pre-code film directed by George Archainbaud. In this film, a wealthy London nobleman Sir Gerald Courtney (Gilbert Emery) hires an attractive, broke young girl June (silent film star Betty Compson) to distract his own son Russell (John Darrow) from marrying a gold-digging woman named Berthine Waller (Margaret Livingston). June is not only to sway Russell from Berthine, but to get him more focused in his job as an architect. It starts to get complicated when June and Gerald begin to fall for each other, which is unfortunate as Russell has also fallen for June. When he finds out that she was hired by her father to keep him company, he completely loses it.

The Lady Refuses is definitely a hidden gem due to the crazy storyline and its abnormalities. In this film you get a woman, who is about to become a call-girl, gets hired as one by a young man’s own father, and of course the love professed between June and Gerald, with their ages difference being worlds apart. John Darrow lets it all go with an amazing, relenting (for 1931) performance as Russell when he learns the truth about his father and June. The second half if this film is just full of raw energy with some great dialog spoken. The supporting cast also does a great job in this film. 

The Woman Between is another spicy pre-code romance about a man Victor Whitcomb (Lester Vail) returning home from Europe. During his return his father arranges a family reunion. He introduces Victor to his younger wife Julie Whitcomb (Lili Damita). As it turns out, Julie and Victor had a romantic interlude during the ship’s voyage home, which causes serious tension within the family. Yes, unknowingly Victor had an affair with his stepmother or you can look at it the other way with Julie cheating on her husband with her stepson. The rest of the film is poor June trying to conceal the truth but she is completely torn apart by the series of events.

This film is just fantastic with a story about something that somewhere out there is probably relevant today. The acting is simply outstanding with the former lovers trying to not to admit their guilt.

Sin Takes a Holiday, the final film in the set features Sylvia Brenner (Constance Bennett) is just your average girl, working for a man named Gaylord Stanton (Kenneth MacKenna), who only dates married women as he is not interested in getting married. As luck would have it, Sylvia starts to develop feelings for her boss which was safer than it is in our contemporary society with fears of sexual harassment. One of the women that Gaylord is fooling around with, Grace Lawrence (Rita La Roy) decides to leave her husband in order to marry him. Gaylord, now in a jam, takes a few necessary risks and asks Sylvia to marry him. Gaylord has no interest in marrying Grace and be an actual husband. His idea, is by marrying Sylvia, he can continue to be free as the marriage would be a business deal rather than marrying for love. To complicate matters. Sylvia meets Gaylord’s friend Reggie Durant (screen legend Basil Rathbone), who falls in love with her, leading to a potential love triangle.

Sin Takes a Holiday is another lively entrée with another off the wall plot and some great dialog. The acting is excellent, as one would expect especially from Basil Rathbone, at that point a rising star and future Sherlock Holmes. 

Kino Lorber debuts this set of 5 films on Blu-ray. The restorations for all the films were done by Lobster Films and they have done a remarkably good job with these obscurities.

Starting with Millie, the image is a real stunner in high-definition. Yes, there are print damages and other issues such as speckles but outside of that; the presentation looks polished with a balanced grey scale with excellent details to the scenery. This was the most attractive of the five films, at least to me.

As for Kept Husbands, the image is serviceable, with the elements in relatively decent condition considering the age and condition of the source materials used for the presentation. As is the case with Millie, the black and white image is clear with a balanced grey scale, which can be said about all the films.  There are instances of dirt, some minor debris, and print wear that I think with more time and restoration could have been cleaned up further, and looked even better. 

The Lady Refuses also looks clear and smooth, but a bit on the softer side and also with speckles and print damages that occur at certain intervals but overall it’s an impressive, clear image. 

The Woman Between also looks similar to the other releases. The image is clear with excellent details and texture. Film grain is present throughout. There is some print damage at the beginning of the presentation but otherwise the picture quality is superb with a smooth appearance and a balanced grey scale, on par with the other movies. 

Sin Takes a Holiday is the least attractive with, speckles, lines and some print damages here and there. There are some areas where the video is soft, even slightly blurry, but despite the shortcomings and distractions the image is still clear. All five films do have clarity which is more than what can be said for the DVD counterparts where everything is blurry, choppy and often unwatchable. 

The audio for this release for all five films is English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 and the sounds, which is mostly dialog, come in strong without any noticeable drop-offs, hissing or serious defects except for Sin Takes a Holiday as the dialog comes in murky and at times. The music which is basically at the beginning and the ends for the film sounds the most aggressive. Optional English subtitles are available for this offering

There are no extras to be found on this release. While a lack of any supplements can be a disappointment to some, at least these rare gems have been given a Blu-ray release and we can watch and listen to them in the best presentation to date. Fans of classic pre-code films should not miss out on this release.