Donne di altri uomini

Early talkies didn't always fare particularly well and some are even pretty bad, even at the time. Some though are quite good and more. While it does fall short of being a great film, 'Other Men's Women' is one of the quite good if not quite great ones. Other reasons for wanting to see it were for the cast, including seeing Grant Withers against type and James Cagney and Joan Blondell in early roles, and for that it was directed by William A Wellman, who excelled at his uncompromising approach to heavy subjects.

'Other Men's Women' is much better than the simplistic and slightly dubious title aside and actually struck me as a good film. Not one of the better early talkies, but light years away from being one of the worst either. It is not one of the best from all involved, with some flawed story execution and that the storyteling is not as inventive as the visuals. 'Other Men's Women' however piles on the invention visually and technically and there are some scenes that are very difficult to forget for a very long time afterwards.

Will start with the many great things. Visually, it moves on from the static, filmed play-like approach that some earlier talkies adopted when transitioning from silent to sound and there are some very inventive visuals and shots enhancing a film that has some of the best use of a railroad on film. Especially the blind man struggling in the rain sequence and the climax, those scenes may not have been as powerful as they were if the photography wasn't so good in those scenes. The script is as sharp as a razor, taut and very witty with some pre-code content that is quite bold for back then and is not too tame still today.

Direction from Wellman also has glimpses of real imagination, especially in the climax which showed that he was very good at directing tense dramatic action. Other films of his did better at taking difficult topics and exploring them in a way that is far from safe, but enough of the film engrosses and as said there are memorable scenes. Not before the moving struggling in the rain scene and the hair-raising climax, but also pre-stardom James Cagney's impromptu tap dance.

Acting is also good on the most part, Withers not only is in a lead role rather than in his usual scene-stealing supporting roles but it is an against type kind of role. He fares rather charmingly and doesn't seem taxed. Mary Astor has less to do but is sensual and also quite charming. Cagney is fun in his small role but my favourite performance comes from Joan Blondell in a kind of role that she played better than most actresses at the time and one of the best at.

By all means 'Other Men's Women' is not perfect. It gets very heavy on the melodrama towards the end and the melodrama is rather forced and sudsy. Reegis Toomey is another one of the male leads and he doesn't have as much presence as Withers and apart from one great scene his role needed more grit.

It is a shame that after such imagination in the technical and direction departments and some inspired scenes that the storytelling tends to be rather conventional, predictable and sometimes silly. The very end is slightly too pat, like too many pre-code films.

To conclude, quite good and not bad as far as very early sound pictures go. 7/10