September 4 movie: Private Lives. Norma Shearer and Robert Montgomery star in the Noel Coward play. It's very funny, but it's basically about two people who stay together because they're so miserably awful that no just world would inflict them on anybody else. The movie takes advantage of its precode date by featuring extended adultery (Shearer and Montgomery are married to other people when they run away and shack up together) and Montgomery hitting Shearer in the face more than once (believe it or not, it's funny).
I read that while this film version is true to the spirit of the play, the dialogue was changed somewhat. It seems to me that if you're going to mess around with Noel Coward's dialogue, why even bother making the movie. But that's just me.
Post a comment