A Free Soul Posted 31 July 2008 in Projects Screening log 1931 US Dir Clarence Brown Cast Norma Shearer, Clark Gable, Lionel Barrymore, Leslie Howard, James Gleason, Lucy Beaumont IMDb

Norma Shearer ruins this, her fakey-fake mannerisms impossible to ignore or integrate into the role as they were in The Divorcee. Not a whole lot of movie to ruin, though, with a plot that changes its mind about what it wants to do at every scene change. Enjoyable strictly on the pre-Code level, featuring illicit sex with dangerous men, murder, and as a highlight, an inventively staged Prohibition-era transformation from alcohol-saturated gambling establishment to innocent pool hall under a raid.

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