William A. Wellman - 1937
In a kind of sickly lime green Wellman makes Hollywood have the same kind of gangsters as 'The Public Enemy'; they are at their best when hanging out. Frederic March, for the camera and editor way more interesting than the story which is zipped by, is given most time when he looses any pretence to smoothness and mumbles something incomprehensible, looks a little heavy, goes kind of red with the drinking. Janet Gaynor's transformation is largely made by properly lighting her face, frontlit, and by caking her in foundation.
We have the same, generally pans, little movements around, reframings, not fussy but pretty active (for all its elegance) camera. And the elliptical treatment of what could elsewhere be big story elements.
The story, seemingly Wellman's own, is better handled thematically (obviously) in 'Limelight', but Wellman here has really made more of a film about an atmosphere of a place where civility hasn't really entered, if it really can. The way they act in the night court is really pretty similar to the studio office.
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