Their Mad Moment (1931) User Reviews

Yawn

[boblipton · 4/10 · 15 December 2019]

Dorothy MacKail's stepmother has brought her to Biarritz to find her a rich husband, and has succeeded splendidly. The patsy..... I mean the eager groom is Lawrence Grant, a British muddy-dud with a lot of money. Miss MacKail doesn't love him, but she is willing to marry him and be a dutiful wife. However, until that happens, she's going to spend some time with hot Basque Warner Baxter, who takes her to the mountains to meet his grandmother, Nance O'Neil. Everyone thinks they're going to be married, including Mary Doran, who loves Baxter, alternately stares daggers at Miss Mackail and cries, and sullenly says "Yes, grand mere" to everything Miss O'Neil says and little else.

Miss Mackail tries to act, but doesn't get much of a chance; Baxter essays an accent for the first couple of minutes, then drops it, It took two directors and six writers to turn out this overwrought yet bland turkey. It's typical of the sort of work that was coming out of Fox Films in this period. With William Fox forced out, theater receipts dropping like stones, no one was sure what to do about anything, unless one of the studio's major directors -- Borzage, Walsh and Ford -- stood firm; even then, the constantly shrinking budgets made everything except the always competent cinematography -- here under the split command of Daniel Clark and Arthur Todd -- well, it wasn't enough.

Well Done Pre-Code Film

[robluvthebeach · 8/10 · 13 October 2016]

Viewed this film online and it is a well made and wonderfully acted pre-code film. Warner Baxter and Dorothy Mackaill are excellent as the two leads and have a romance that is full of twists and turns. Zasu Pitts is a good supporting character and appears so much more youthful in this role and as the film progresses, she develops a good sense of the world. Nella Walker is good as well, as the insensitive and unkind mentor to Dorothy and trying to sabotage her happiness for wealth and position. Warner Baxter is devilishly charming in his role and he and Dorothy make a good pair. However, this is Dorothy's film and she is effective as the conflicted heroine, torn between money, love, family loyalty and friendship.

Don't you know when I am in your arms, I am home.

[mark.waltz · 10/10 · 19 September 2023]

Add a few songs, and recast with Maurice Chevalier and Jeanette MacDonald, and this romantic light drama set in Biarritz France would be considered a classic musical. Instead of the then top romantic team at Paramount, the leads are Dorothy Mackaill and Warner Baxter, not well remembered names outside of extreme classic movie fans, but highly regarded at least by me in the films of theirs I'd previously seen. At only 55 minutes, this is a glorious if somewhat dated piece of fluff, frequently comical in spite of a melodramatic premise.

Mackaill's nasty stepmother (Nella Walker) may not treat her like Cinderella, but she's very domineering none the less. She has demanded that Mackaill marry the painfully dull Lawrence Grant, even suggesting that she have affairs after the wedding just so they can replenish the depleted family fortune. Obviously Mackaill falls in love with Baxter, but she's so accustomed to wealth that she feels she has to go through this farce of a wedding.

Two supporting performances in addition to Walker's harridan are memorable, with Zasu Pitts as always a delight, but showing more dimension than usual thanks to the script and Nance O'Neil as Baxter's surrogate mother, a lovely older woman similar to Maria Ouspenskaya in "Love Affair". I love the atmosphere of this with a mixture of salt and sweetness, a romantic world that only a classic movie can gift to viewers. Absolutely stunning in every way.