Rockabye (1932)

Crappy film

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

Constance Bennett brings vim and vigor to this soppy story of maternal longings. In Bennett's most recent hit movie, What Price Hollywood, she said, "I can't have a baby in every picture", but in that film, and in Rockabye, no kidding, there's a baby. In Bennett's private life, as all fan mag readers knew, between marriages Bennett had adopted a baby and was raising it as a single, working mom. This was unusual in 1932, but as fan mag readers also knew, Bennett did as she pleased. In Rockabye, Bennett, a celebrated Hollywood star with an adopted baby, plays Judy, a celebrated stage star adopting a baby. A case of art imitating life. Did Bennett's femme fan base vicariously see themselves in Bennett's character, a lone woman with child? Not likely, as Judy did not struggle alone to raise an adorable tyke but had multiple hands assisting - namely a nanny, nurse, governess, cook, and her own mother, plus a male presence in the person of her doting manager. Did Bennett's femme fan base wonder why Bennett didn't marry first and then pursue motherhood? Did the adoption agency wonder? Did audiences wonder why Bennett, at the peak of her Star Power, insisted on making this never produced and unproducible play?Bennett is fabulous and gives a wonderful and lively performance. In films prior to What Price Hollywood Bennett was passive, even lethargic. In Rockabye she kicks up her heels, sings in a speakeasy with the pals of her youth, gets frisky with scrambled eggs and balloons, and has a rollicking good time with her new love. I suspect Bennett was playing herself, a free-spirit who thumbed her nose at conventions. Bennett too is believable in the script's hard-to-swallow scenes of sorrow and sacrifice. Variety's reviewer wrote, "This actress is one of the few who can somehow achieve conviction in just such stagey things" and "She is accountable for practically all its merits." How did the public respond to Rockabye? After the opening in New York, Variety predicted it would do well, as all Bennett films had done. Bennett's biographer wrote that it was a colossal box-office flop. TCM wrote that RKO records showed it was a respectable hit and grossed slightly more than the very successful What Price Hollywood. So it was a flop and a hit? Maybe it was both. After a disastrous preview of Rockabye, the film was remade with a new director and costars. This would have doubled production costs and resulted in a loss, regardless of grosses. RKO then wised up - in future, no more babies. 10 stars for Bennett. 0 stars for story.

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.