Millie (1931)

Sorry, this movie sucks

How sad is this?

A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

This film is an interesting one but it certainly doesn't hold up well. In a way, it's kind of hard to believe this was Helen Twelvetrees' most well-known role, which says something about her overall movie career. The story is highly overwrought and Twelvetrees is often given to hysterics in her portrayal of a woman who is desperate for two things-- to be loved, and to protect her daughter. It's all supposed to be virtuous and noble, but in the end, you can't really side with her, no matter how much the writers and performers want you to. The biggest problem facing a story of this kind is that she only has one scene with her infant daughter, and later after her divorce, she never sees her child again. So it's extremely unrealistic that she and her daughter would have any bond years later. When Millie bursts into the lodge to protect her daughter and ends up shooting the man who's been trying to seduce the girl, this is the first time they've even seen each other in all these years. And surely, the girl wouldn't even remember the woman who gave birth to her and abandoned her before she was able to talk. The courtroom scenes are just as preposterous. We are led to believe the jury is buying the prosecution's idea that Millie killed out of jealousy. But no evidence is even offered to substantiate such a theory. Then, the minute the daughter shows up near the end of the trial, the defense attorney suddenly has it all figured out. How does the defense attorney make this sudden leap in understanding everything? Millie is soon acquitted, and we learn that one of the jurors said he would have killed a man getting cozy with his daughter, too. Wouldn't Millie at least be found guilty of manslaughter?Of course, it sounds like I am picking this story apart...and maybe I am. But these contrivances are what make the film look silly today. My guess is that sophisticated and intelligent audiences found it silly back in 1931. If the performances had at least been grounded in some sort of reality, I could overlook the ridiculousness of the plot. But even Twelvetrees does not seem to know how to play this story with even one ounce of realism. The two women who play her girlfriends are the best performers in this picture, and that's because they're comic relief and allowed to be legitimately silly. Joan Blondell, one of the female friends, seems to be delivering her lines with a tongue-in-cheek approach, proving she is not taking any of this melodrama seriously. And as a result, she's the best thing in this picture-- the only real reason to see it.

Millie is a sap. She marries a rich guy named Maitland and they have a child. She then catches him cheating on her and divorces him...but lets him keep the kid she claims to love. Back then in the early 1930s, she would have been entitled to hefty spousal and child support but lets the guy off amazingly easy...with no support...what a sap! Later, when she has a boyfriend and life seems pretty good, he turns out to ALSO be a cheat! Wow, does she have a hard time picking men.As a result of these bad relationships, Millie changes. Now she's a wild party girl--doing everything she can to distract herself from her hard luck. Suddenly, many years pass. Millie's daughter who she left early on in the film is now 17 and oddly fashions haven't changed one bit. An old friend of Millie's (yes, it's another evil man!) is now pretending to be the daughter's friend, but he has lecherous designs on her. Millie promises him that if he touches the girl, she'll kill him. Take a wild guess what happens next! Overall, the film is a confusing and often bizarre mess--a bit like "Madam X" but much, much less focused. So often Millie's motivations and actions seem to make little sense. And, the film seems to have a little of everything tossed into it--so long as it substantiates the notion that all men are pigs. Unusual but not particularly good.

Soap Opera following the exploits of Millie Blake (Helen Twelvetrees) and her "love parade" of heels. This film spans nearly twenty years as we watch our Millie go from jittery young girl scared to face her honeymoon bed (as her new hubby presses "Are you sleepy yet?"), to rich, bored, and lonesome wife and mother, to divorcée working the counter of a cigar stand fending off "offers" from men, to mother who will stop at nothing to help save her teenage daughter's virtue. Millie soon realizes that "all men are tramps" - and it's true, at least in her world - all the men in this film are just complete womanizing cads, and one man goes even further than that when he attempts to pursue a very innocent sixteen year old girl (who calls him "Uncle"), rubbing her ankles, ladling her with "cider", and getting her to put on one of his assortment of "Mandarin Coats".This pre-code film has it all - from a montage of a day at Coney Island to cat fights to divorce to bootleg cocktail parties to two blondes in negligees sharing a double bed all the way to the schemes of a lecher. It is really fun to watch the scenes with Millie's two blonde gal pals, childhood friend Angie and her bed friend Helen, a feisty, tough, wisecracking sort of gal - these two women run through men, booze, and outlandish fur, satin, and chiffon gowns like water. There is a nice musical number in one nightclub scene, a rendition of "Millie, the Red Head". This film actually becomes quite serious in later scenes, bringing it to a satisfying climax. Very good.

I'm surprised that no-one has commented yet on the amazing lesbian sub-text in the relationship between the characters played by Joan Blondell and Lilyan Tashman (who was an "out" lesbian in real life). Sometimes it's not even sub-text - especially as the first shot of the couple has them in bed together, half-dressed! And Lilyan is obviously most annoyed when Joan runs off with a rich man. It's also interesting that Millie assumes that Lilyan has never been in love, with a man! Lilyan says she has, but I think she might be talking about a woman.All film buffs, and lesbians especially, need to re-discover Lilyan Tashman - a remarkable actress, and an even more remarkable person. Her early death is probably responsible for her relative obscurity today, but there are still enough of her films around for us all to hunt out and enjoy. Long live Lilyan!