Polly of the Circus (1932)
** (out of 4)
Disappointing and way too corny romance between a bad girl trapeze artist (Marion Davies) and a preacher (Clark Gable). After an accident while working, Davies is forced to stay at the home of Gable and soon the two fall in love but the church objects to their relationship. This is an extremely disappointing film from MGM who certainly had better luck in their other 1932 film to be set in the circus and that of course would be Tod Browning's FREAKS. It's interesting to note that none of the circus performers from that film can be seen here. With that out of the way, this film here offers very little in terms of originality as it follows the same guidelines of countless other pre-code stories from the era. We know that opposites are going to attract. We know the church will object. We know this issue will cause problems in the relationship. We know what this is going to do and so on and so forth. The movie starts off rather good as the two stars work well together but it quickly falls apart and ends up being rather boring. Davies has a few strange line deliveries but for the most part she fits the role quite well. She's very believable as this character and brings a lot of life to it but the screenplay doesn't allow her too much as her character is written rather one sided. Gable gives another very impressive, pre-fame performance and I must admit that my respect for him grows each time I see one of these forgotten films on TCM. He manages to bring a lot of passion and fire to the role and delivers some nice work. C. Aubrey Smith is wasted as the Reverend who objects to the romance. Ray Milland can be seen quickly as an usher walking a drunk out of church. Fans of Davies and Gable might want to check this out but I'm sure most will be disappointed with this film that doesn't give the stars much to work with.
