Who better to take on the role of Norma Shearer's heroine of 1931's "A Free Soul" than Elizabeth Taylor? 22 years after that film (starring the queen of the studio at that time), MGM remade it with one of their three reigning queens of the early 50's (Ava Gardner and Lana Turner being the others). What they did to Adela St. John's story was shrink it down to 69 minutes and taking a bite out of it that leaves it seeming a bit inconclusive.
In "A Free Soul", rebellious society girl (Shearer) got involved with a gangster (Clark Gable) leaving her fiancée (Leslie Howard) high and dry and upsetting her attorney father (Lionel Barrymore) who once defended Gable. That story remains with Taylor, Fernando Lamas, Gig Young, and William Powell in the roles, listed by actor in the order of the characters in the synopsis above. Taylor and Powell, reunited from 1947's "Life With Father", are perfect replacements for Shearer and Barrymore (who won an Oscar for his powerful performance), and leave the other two actors on the skids. Lamas tries to make his character multi-dimensional, but he is too easy to see through. It is understandable that two extremely attractive people like Lamas and Taylor would fall into bed with each other (left to the imagination here), but how Taylor, much feistier than Shearer, would consider marrying such an obvious scumbag makes her more "The Girl Who Had Everything but Smarts".
Powell is still dashing almost 20 years after teaming with Gable and Myrna Loy in MGM's 1934 gangster classic "Manhattan Melodrama". He gives the film's best performance, but sadly, it lacks the trial scene that Barrymore won the Oscar for in the first place. The ending here comes too swift to be satisfying. While at the height of her young adult beauty, Taylor is forced to wear far too much eye makeup, which hides the natural beauty of those violet peepers. Gig Young's character is never fleshed out enough, making him a one dimensional opposite of Lamas's scoundrel. The film is too well cast to be one of MGM's "B" outputs of the early TV era, and that makes it obvious why this is considered no classic. Still, the MGM gloss shines through, and any film with Taylor and Powell is worth a viewing or two.
In "A Free Soul", rebellious society girl (Shearer) got involved with a gangster (Clark Gable) leaving her fiancée (Leslie Howard) high and dry and upsetting her attorney father (Lionel Barrymore) who once defended Gable. That story remains with Taylor, Fernando Lamas, Gig Young, and William Powell in the roles, listed by actor in the order of the characters in the synopsis above. Taylor and Powell, reunited from 1947's "Life With Father", are perfect replacements for Shearer and Barrymore (who won an Oscar for his powerful performance), and leave the other two actors on the skids. Lamas tries to make his character multi-dimensional, but he is too easy to see through. It is understandable that two extremely attractive people like Lamas and Taylor would fall into bed with each other (left to the imagination here), but how Taylor, much feistier than Shearer, would consider marrying such an obvious scumbag makes her more "The Girl Who Had Everything but Smarts".
Powell is still dashing almost 20 years after teaming with Gable and Myrna Loy in MGM's 1934 gangster classic "Manhattan Melodrama". He gives the film's best performance, but sadly, it lacks the trial scene that Barrymore won the Oscar for in the first place. The ending here comes too swift to be satisfying. While at the height of her young adult beauty, Taylor is forced to wear far too much eye makeup, which hides the natural beauty of those violet peepers. Gig Young's character is never fleshed out enough, making him a one dimensional opposite of Lamas's scoundrel. The film is too well cast to be one of MGM's "B" outputs of the early TV era, and that makes it obvious why this is considered no classic. Still, the MGM gloss shines through, and any film with Taylor and Powell is worth a viewing or two.