The Trial of Vivienne Ware (1932)

8/10

AlsExGal20 March 2011

Fox really has some gems rotting away in its vaults and this is one of them. Vivienne Ware clocks in at just under an hour but is full of thrills. The movie starts out like one of the Thin Man movies would - you have a really bad guy that has no shortage of enemies. In this case the bad guy is slimy Damon Fenwick who believably has attracted the fascination and not so believably the love of wealthy socialite Vivienne Ware (Joan Bennett), to whom he has become engaged. Everybody has a reason to hate this guy - there's attorney John Sutherland (Donald Cook) who is a good guy in love with Vivienne, there's Damon's chorus girl ex-mistress Delores Devine (Lillian Bond) that he threw over for Vivienne, there's club owner Angelo Peroni who keeps shooting Delores and Damon mysterious dirty looks, and finally Vivienne herself when she finds Damon at breakfast with Delores and thus finds out Delores is not such an ex after all.

It's no surprise therefore when Damon turns up dead. The police come knocking at the door of Vivienne in the middle of the night who seems to be packing everything she owns for a long journey - not good if you're a suspect in a murder, which she is. She has a remarkable lack of explanations and alibis, and so she is put on trial for her life with ever loyal John as her attorney. Perennial bad guy over at Warner Bros. Alan Dinehart plays the enthusiastic prosecuting attorney. For comic relief there is Skeets Gallagher as dramatic crime report Graham McNally making radio broadcasts as the trial is in session and he is a real hoot reporting alongside Zasu Pitts as gossip reporter Gladys Fairweather. Graham is charming before the audience, but always has an insult for the long-suffering Gladys every time she takes over the microphone. Full of twists and turns, precode situations and one-liners, I heartily recommend this one.

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8/10

Rushing by like a locomotive heading for the gas chamber.

mark.waltz19 February 2017

Warning: Spoilers

Veteran actress Joan Bennett had more looks than Lon Chaney, going from cute blonde to brunette femme fatale and finally to gracious matriarch. This early film of her long career is her best of the blonde bombshell era, a tight and fast moving pre-code courtroom drama where Joan is on trial for her life, having been accused of murdering a slick playboy.

Another ex, Donald Cook, defends her, as her trial is covered on the radio by fast talking Skeets Gallagher and manipulative sob sister Zasu Pitts. With the deck stashed against her, it doesn't look good, creating a tense drama that flies by in under an hour. This is a must for pre-code aficionados and never lets up. Bennett was nothing special in her early films, but this one is an exception. Pitts gives an award worthy supporting performance, quite different than many of her other films.

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8/10

Lilian Bond is Sassy and Sexy!!

kidboots26 July 2017

Warning: Spoilers

While Joan Bennett may have played the title role (Richard Watts Jr. called her a "pretty if unexciting heroine") there were so many stars determined to have their moment in the sun that Joan was almost left behind - but not quite!! You know it's a pre-code with wisecracks like - "I thought my sugar daddy was going to take me to Paris - well he did want to show me where he was wounded in the war and no it wasn't there!!"

Apart from the establishing shot of hot shot lawyer John Sullivan eagerly running from the ship to renew his friendship with the beautiful Vivienne only to find she is engaged to seedy ladies man Damon Fenwick (Jameson Thomas), this fast paced movie takes place in the court room. Court room dramas were still a staple of the early 1930s and both Alan Dinehart and Don Cook were given the roles of a lifetime. Dinehart was the prosecutor who made mincemeat of the witnesses with his penetrating questions, and if you've only seen Cook as a moody love interest, he proves he has energy and personality as he outdoes Perry Mason with his "I object on the grounds that it is incompetent, irrelevant and immaterial"!!etc.

And where would a movie trial be without snappy radio commentary - Skeets Gallagher delivers the sensation while Zasu Pitts offers a woman's angle, describing Vivienne's hats, gowns and make-up - in fact Pitts gets an exclusive interview with the condemned girl but she doesn't give Vivienne a chance to talk - it's all about Gladys (Pitts) and her Virginian childhood!! She does come up trumps when describing Vivienne's fetching ensemble!! The film really belongs to Lilian Bond and she sparkles as Dolores Devine, the other woman!! She is sassy, sexy and hysterical by turns. Dolores was the woman Damon couldn't give up, the one (in a very pre-code scene) whom Vivienne found lounging in a pair of barely there pajamas, at Damon's apartment early one morning!!

Suddenly there is a sensational development - Skeets comments on "a woman scorned" and stand by for the reading of a sensational love letter!! It's almost as though Fox scoured Hollywood in it's effort to find so many wonderful character actors and then given them each a role they would be proud to have on their resumes!! Apart from those mentioned, there is Herbert Mundin, Maude Eburne, Noel Madison, Edwin Maxwell, Ethel Wales and Dale Fuller!!

Highly Recommended!!

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Great Print, OK Movie

GManfred11 November 2015

This was shown at MOMA, New York City, 11/15, on a restored print. The print was gorgeous, probably as good as you can restore a print of a movie almost 85 years old. Had never seen it before and thought it must have value as a milestone of some sort in filmmaking. After all, the Museum of Modern Art is pretty fast company.

Alas, it's just an old picture that breaks no new ground and struck me as dated, and the only strong point was the vintage cast and the atavistic feel of a creaky oldtime movie. As the title states, it's about the murder trial of a woman who we know from the start is innocent. We also suspect the identity of the murderer and the predictable outcome. Along the way, we get a fascinating look at the media attention the trial attracts, as a radio station sets up a temporary studio in a room adjacent to the courtroom. Here we find 'Skeets' Gallagher and Zasu Pitts as trial reporters and serving as comic relief as well. Everyone dressed to the nines, as was evidently the custom in the 30's, and for those of us too young to know or remember, the two opposing lawyers haranguing the witnesses in loud, penetrating voices.

It was fun to watch some of the old-time character actors, and especially to see Joan Bennett as a platinum blonde. Donald Cook was the love interest, and with his customary dour expression. Also on hand were Alan Dinehart, Maude Eburne and Noel Madison who were recognizable to 30's audiences but forgotten today. In sum, I would rather have watched it on TV as the trip to NYC wasn't worth it.

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6/10

Fast-moving, fast-talking courtroom dramatics

DACREEPER21 July 2020

Hang on to your hats gang, this one moves real fast. More interesting than great moving making. But fun with lots of familiar faces to 30's movie geeks (like me). Check out lovely Joan Bennett in her blonde phase. Maude Eburne, Herbert Mundin and Christian Rub show up with their usual memorable roles. Skeets Gallagher and Zasu Pitts add zip as over the top radio hosts covering the trial. And Lilian Bond crushes as the "other woman". One bad note: Cook and Dinehart as the attorneys scream at witnesses and each other and the judge non-stop. I found it very annoying. Predictable and a little creaky but still well worth a watch IMHO.

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9/10

Great Film Version of the Radio Serial

boblipton14 December 2006

William K. Howard was given the task of turning a popular radio serial into a movie, and succeeded. A carefully-written script that actually paid attention to the way cases are tried was the first step. Some great support, particularly Skeets Gallegher and the always fascinating Zasu Pitts helps. A restless camera helps keep up speed, and some interesting sets -- particularly the nightclub set -- make this a fine movie, even if the leads, who became lovers more than twenty years later, had no memory of working together on this one.

I wish to call your attention, if you ever have the chance to see this movie -- it is very rare and the one print I saw was a 16 mm. print, blurry as you would expect -- to the swish cuts. A swish cut is when the camera starts to pan away, then the illusion of high speed movement starts and when the camera slows down it is panning into a new shot -- maybe a quarter second elapses. It adds tremendous excitement to a sequence and Howard uses a lot of them here.

Unhappily, a lot of editing techniques for shot changes were on their ways out. By about 1935, Hollywood had settled on the now-standard techniques, except for a few movies which attempt to evoke the older movies. A loss to film grammar, but what can we do about it now, except to enjoy these techniques when we see them?

May 20 2010: I just noticed a modern use of the swish cut: any Doctor Who fan out there should take a look at Season 5 Episode 4 for the use of one, four minutes into the proceedings.

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8/10

Fast-Paced Courtroom Pre-Code

Maliejandra1 September 2021

The Trial of Vivienne Ware is an unexpected delight. I saw it screened at Cinevent and Capitolfest, and I enjoyed this just as much the second time.

Vivienne Ware (Joan Bennett) is a gorgeous socialite in love with an older playboy (Jameson Thomas). When he is found murdered, Vivienne is accused, and her attorney friend (Donald Cook) agrees to take her case. The facts of the case are depicted in flashback during the trial with creative cuts. Skeets Gallagher and Zasu Pitts provide comic narration as radio reporters. This film is a feast for the eyes; the gorgeous cast wears beautiful clothes representative of the early 30s. Never a dull moment.

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2/10

Some early talkies were filmed stage plays and some were filmed radio plays!

1930s_Time_Machine27 May 2023

It's only a hour long but what a long tedious hour! I can't think of any reason to watch this other than to gain an insight into what passed as light entertainment in the early thirties. Radio dramas were massive back then and this is essentially a radio drama with visual aids. To a 21st century audience however this is neither entertaining, interesting or fun.

OK, viewed purely academically, there is an interesting style to this. It's filmed to that same a frenetic fast pace which was typical of those old radio dramas but I'm not sure that style works in a motion picture. It looks quite good; there's a lot of nice fluid camera movement, rapid editing and very short scenes spliced together with interesting 'swish cuts' which add to the sense of speed director William Howard was trying to achieve. The acting is adequate but because it's all so fast and the characters aren't fully developed people, you can't really tell. You don't get to know the characters, there's no depth or development to any of them, they're just parts of the silly story.

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4/10

Very dated

HotToastyRag12 February 2024

In this brief, pre-Code drama, Joan Bennett stars as a woman at the center of a love triangle. She loves Jameson Thomas, but he's no good. Donald Cook loves her, and he nobly stands aside when she announces her engagement. The next morning, however, Jameson is found dead and Joan is arrested for his murder. It's a good thing Donald is a defense lawyer, isn't it?

The Trial of Vivienne Ware is very old and it feels that way. It's not one of those silver screen gems that can be preserved through the generations and included in the Criterion Collection. The mindset regarding relationships and women's roles in general are very outdated. For example, there's a group of journalists in the courtroom, only one of them is a woman. When she's given the microphone during the on-air radio coverage, all she does is talk about Joan's outfit in court that day. If Joan is your all-time favorite actress, you can check this out, but otherwise, find yourself another courtroom drama.

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