05 January 2012

The Animal Kingdom


Leslie Howard stars in this film as Tom Collier and I (Gunnar) remember him from my childhood or adolescence from different roles, not least 'The Scarlet Pimpernel', 'Pygmalion' and 'Pimpernel Smith' but also from many other films.

In this film he is a rather selfish and egocentric man who has a relationship with Daisy (Ann Harding). Everyone finds them being the 'perfect couple' but the day he decides to marry, he marries another woman, Cecilia (Myrna Loy).
He is soon bored with his life, not least his 'social duties' being connected to the fact that he is a best selling author. The problem is however that he writes books people want to read but not the books he wants to write.
In his home he has an old friend working as a butler, the friend having had problems with alcohol, or rather still having problems with alcohol. He is also a very rough and rude character, not pleasing neither Tom's wife nor the guests. Cecilia wants him fired.
At this point Tom is longing for Daisy again as he realizes that she was the woman for him but Daisy reacts in a quite different way from what he had expected. She leaves in order to protect both him and Cecilia and this causes some problems.

The story in itself is rather dull and not very imaginative but what saves the film is of course the acting and not least from Leslie Howard's side. He incarnates the intolerable individual very well and this is perhaps the ingredient making the film tolerable.

No comments: