A Free Soul
- Director: Clarence Brown
- Writer: Becky Gardiner / John Meehan (from the book by Adela Rogers St. Johns)
- Producer: Clarence Brown
- Studio: MGM
- Stars: Norma Shearer, Lionel Barrymore, Leslie Howard, Clark Gable, James Gleason
- Length: 93 min
- Genre: Drama
- MPAA Rating: Not Rated
- My Rating: **.5
- Oscar Nominations: Director, Actor (Barrymore), Actress (Shearer)
- Nightbird Nominations: Actor (Barrymore), Actress (Shearer), Supporting Actor (Howard), Supporting Actor (Gable)
If someone has seen many films made during the 1930’s, they have seen A Free Soul. That is not to say that it is a classic that is essential viewing, it’s just that it has nothing in it that separates it from any other midlevel film made during that time. It concerns a lawyer, a drunk, a young woman who is a free spirit, a reserved young man who is forced to protect his love, and a brute who is the actual recipient of her love. These plot devices can be found in nine out of ten of the films that Hollywood was churning out during this period. The one thing, and I mean the only thing, that makes the film stand out at all is the acting. I myself watched it two weeks ago, and I can barely remember anything that occurred during the film that doesn’t involve the performances of the incredibly talented cast.
From what I can recall, the plot concerns a young free spirited woman whose father is a lawyer and a drunk. He introduces her to the gangster whom he is currently defending in court. Although she is already engaged to a nice young man, she can’t help but be taken in by the aura danger and passion that this criminal evokes, and they soon begin a wild and secret affair. When her father discovers that they have “known” one another, he forbids her to ever see him again. Because she cannot imagine living without her lover, she offers her father a deal: if he will stop drinking, she will stop seeing him. In other words, they must both give up their addictions.
This emotional scene is followed by a ridiculous sequence in which they leave the city and live off the land for several months in order to keep their minds from wandering. In a way, this sequence illustrates exactly what is wrong with the film. First of all, it runs much too long and contains one scene too many of the father and daughter futilly trying to stay strong and keep their promises. Had these scenes been cut, the film would run more smoothly and not be nearly as ridiculous as it is. How realistic is it for a woman and her father, both of whom have not been outside of the city limits in their entire lives, to suddenly pack everything up go on a three-month-long camping trip? It simply does not make sense. Keeping this bit of their lives off-screen would have done wonders for the film’s believability.
Watching A Free Soul, it soon becomes apparent that the only member of the crew who actually did their job is the casting director. The cast is really what makes the film standout. Lionel Barrymore, a star of the stage (along with his siblings, Ethel and John), had not really made his mark in film at the time that A Free Soul was produced. Aside from the occasional bit of overacting (which is to be expected from a stage actor) he performs his part with a tremendous gusto and defies the viewer to lay their eyes on anything but him. His final monologue (at fourteen minutes, it is still the longest single take in film history) is shattering. Still, the scene that immediately follows this one is oh-so quaint and fast and unneeded. It just makes the Best Director Academy Award nomination that the film received seem like a huge joke.
But Barrymore is not the only one who is so good that he makes the film’s ineptness even more obvious. Norma Shearer, one of the biggest stars in the world in 1931, gives her career-best performance, even better than her Oscar and Nightbird-winning performance in The Divorcee. We also have Leslie Howard, unlike Shearer, does not give nearly his best performance. He does win the Nightbird by a landslide, but that is mostly due to the weakness of the category and his status as a talented and underrated performer. Nominated alongside Howard is Clark Gable, in the powerful performance that first announced him to the movie-going public.
It is often said that an actor’s performance can make a so-so movie better. If you have read some of my other reviews, you might have realized that so far, the films that I have reviewed are more likely to receive awards and nominations for their acting than they are to be positively reviewed. Many bad films do have good acting, and many good films are made better by their acting. But I don’t know if any film as bad as A Free Soul has done as well with Nightbird acting awards. It is easily the worst film to win two acting awards, and probably the worst to receive four nominations for acting. I’m not sure if that is a compliment or not. Let’s put it this way: if you want to see great acting, then go ahead, subject yourself to A Free Soul. But if you’re looking for a film with a solid plot structure, good writing, competent direction, or anything else that a moviegoer should expect from a film with a cast like this, then don’t even bother. Look elsewhere.
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