Bachelor Apartment (1931)

I love this movie so much

Sadly Over-hyped

One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

"Bachelor Apartmet" suffers from some rough edits, however those may be the fault of the DVD print I saw (a Spanish copy), so I won't judge Lowell Sherman's direction on that front. But as an actor, he is miscast as a ladies' man; in the silent era perhaps yes, but in 1931 he was 46 years old, his looks were average, and the character he plays has a smarmy demeanor (just because William Powell could pull it off well into his fifties, does not mean that everyone else could). Irene Dunne, with the exception of a single scene, has a dull straight role; Charles Coleman (the butler) and Mae Murray (she has a hearty laugh) fare better. The film is predictable, and any pre-code quotient will NOT get your heart pumping, ** out of 4.

Ground-breaking director/actor Lowell Sherman was the main creative force behind 1931's "Bachelor Apartment," but the real star of the film is the up-and-coming Irene Dunne. This was one of her earliest roles in Hollywood and it's readily apparent watching her here that she was destined for greatness. Her easy-going charm and light comedic touch are evident throughout and although the film is quite dated, her performance holds up very well. As a matter of fact, Sherman's bachelor role (Wayne Carter) is perfectly suited for his acting talents and he's certainly Ms. Dunne's equal. The plot is somewhat "racy" for the times; a rotating bevy of available women stroll in an out of Sherman's apartment to his utter bemusement. He's too busy sipping cocktails and counting his assets to take any of them seriously---until a Miss Andrews (Dunne) arrives on the scene. The chemistry between the two is unmistakable and their repartee is well-written and delivered with just the right amount of understated sexual tension. It's the kind of dialogue one doesn't get to hear very often in the usual 1930's movie. Sherman, unfortunately, didn't live long enough to become a household name. He died in 1934 at the age of 49. His last directing assignment was for the Technicolor "Becky Sharp", but he was gone before major production got underway. Irene Dunne, of course, became one of Hollywood's greatest actresses and outlived nearly all of her contemporaries. For fans of the films of the 1930's, "Bachelor Apartment" is worth the viewing time if it ever pops up on TCM or if one wants to rediscover Lowell Sherman. He was a great talent who never really got his due. Like so many from the early bygone days of movie-making, he's largely forgotten now. It's not fair, but that's Hollywood.

Lowell Sherman had some success as an actor and some success as a director without ever becoming a major name in either speciality: the most interesting thing (but one) about 'Bachelor Apartment' is that he both directed and starred in it. As a screen personality, Sherman was probably the nearest thing to George Sanders before Sanders came along: Sherman typically played a wealthy cad who seduced women solely for his own pleasure, with no concern for their welfare. In at least one movie, 'You Never Know Women', Sanders's character is perfectly willing to commit rape.As I've noted in a previous IMDb review, I find Sherman implausible in such roles. I know almost nothing about his offscreen life (and I don't much want to know), but on the screen he tends to come across (to me, at least) as if he is gay ... in that word's modern sense. Sherman nearly always played skirt-chasers, yet I invariably find him unbelievable as a playboy. He was a talented actor, yet seemed much more believable when playing characters who were epicene (he was brilliant in 'What Price Hollywood?') or men whose sexuality was irrelevant to the plot (as in 'Mammy'). In 'Bachelor Apartment', Sherman portrays Wayne Carter, a millionaire businessman who's also a playboy ... so credibility flies out the window.Carter's only roommate is his live-in butler, very well-played by Charles Coleman ... but we understand that a vast series of women have spent their nights (not all at the same go, mind you) alongside Carter in his bed.I'd mentioned the most interesting thing but one about this movie. Here's the MOST interesting thing about it: the plot line of 'Bachelor Apartment' seems to anticipate two much better works, namely 'My Sister Eileen' and 'Neptune's Daughter' (the latter an MGM musical that had a much neater plot than usual for MGM musicals). Along to New York City come two small-town sisters: the older one level-headed, the younger one much prettier and flirty with it. (Did anybody mention Ruth McKinney and her sister Eileen?) The younger one (well-played by the obscure Claudia Dell) meets the millionaire's butler and mistakenly believes (for contrived reasons) that the butler is the millionaire himself. When protective older sister Irene Dunne learns that her younger sister is involved with millionaire Carter (actually the butler), she stomps into Carter's executive suite to straighten him out. For once genuinely innocent of womanising, Carter doesn't know anything about it ... yet he finds himself attracted to Dunne, and he gets ready to award her the next notch on his bedpost.VERY OBVIOUS SPOILER. It's simultaneously bang obvious and wildly implausible what's going to happen, yet it happens anyway. Carter, planning to seduce Dunne, ends up sincerely falling in love with her ... and (get this, please) he actually gives up his tom-catting to marry her and settle down! Oh, pull the other one.I had more trouble believing this movie than I did with several other Lowell Sherman vehicles. Irene Done has never dunne (I mean Irene Dunne has never done) a thing for me; I've never found her especially attractive nor especially sexy, and I simply couldn't believe that this millionaire playboy would chuck his sybaritic life for this particular woman. In this movie, Irene Dunne wears a hairstyle that renders her even more unattractive than usual. Further, I had the same credibility issue here that I do with most other movies in which a working-class heroine lands a wealthy husband: we're meant to believe that she sincerely loves him, yet she's fully aware that the huge bulge in his trousers is his bank balance. Since the husband is a playboy who has habitually exploited women, it's hard to believe that he never wonders if perhaps he is being exploited in turn by a gold-digger.On the positive side, 'Bachelor Apartment' has one of those great old-movie casts with several interesting performers in supporting roles. Claudia Dell and Charles Coleman, both obscure, are excellent here. Perennial dress extra Bess Flowers has a larger role than usual here. Less favourably, Arthur Housman, in the role of a drunk (what a stretch!), does absolutely nothing here that he didn't do better and funnier while cast as a drunk in fifty other movies. Norman Kerry, cast in a supporting role in this early talkie, proves why his stardom ended in silent movies.'Bachelor Apartment' is well-made; Lowell Sherman was an under-rated director, and might conceivably have gone on to greater success behind the camera after he became too old to carry on in skirt-chaser roles. (He died suddenly of pneumonia, aged only 49.) Any film with a Max Steiner score and production by William LeBaron is worthy of attention. When the clichés settle, my rating for this movie is just 6 out of 10.

I didn't expect much from this film when I first saw it, not knowing who Lowell Sherman was and figuring it would be extremely dated.I found out the film provided some good laughs, some clever sarcastic dialog, realistic characters and a certain charm at the same time.Sherman might have been a bit too old to be playing the role of playboy but he carried it off, being enjoyable to watch. It was fun seeing such a young Irene Dunne, too, complete with the early '30s short hairstyle. Unlike most of the women pictured in this film, Dunne played her typical high-principled character, reflecting the classy lady she was off screen, too.