Westward Passage (1932)

User Rating:

5.8/10   

Director:

Robert Milton

Writers:

Margaret Ayer Barnes (story)
Bradley King (adaptation)

Release Date:

27 May 1932 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

A struggling writer divorces his wife to pursue his career without interference, but they meet in Europe years later after she has remarried.

Plot Keywords:

Divorce | Lucerne Switzerland | Ocean Liner | Chicago Illinois | Novelist

Cast

Ann Harding	...	Olivia Van Tyne Allen Ottendorf
Laurence Olivier	...	Nicholas 'Nick' Allen
Zasu Pitts	...	Mrs. Truesdale
Irving Pichel	...	Harry Ottendorf
Juliette Compton	...	Heniretta, Olivia's Cousin
Emmett King	...	Mr. Henry P. Ottendorf
Florence Roberts	...	Mrs. Ottendorf
Ethel Griffies	...	Lady Caverly
Don Alvarado	...	Count Felipe DeLatorie
Bonita Granville	...	Little Olivia Allen (age 9)
Florence Lake	...	Elmer's Wife
Edgar Kennedy	...	Elmer
Herman Bing	...	Otto Hoopengarner, the Dutchman
Irene Purcell	...	Baroness Diane von Stael

Runtime:

73 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Photophone System)

Certification:

Iceland:L | USA:Passed

Company:

RKO Pathé Pictures

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "The American Experience: The Battle Over Citizen Kane (#8.7)" (1996)

Soundtrack:

My Wonderful One

Nice Drama

I liked this movie, in fact I like very much Ann Harding's "natural" acting style, her fresh appearance, her smile, she's a great (& forgotten) talent, and she needs to be rediscovered, as the excellent actress (& star) she was in the early thirties. Thanks to TCM, I've been able myself to "discover" her luminous presence on the silver screen, because few of her films are available on any format, on the market.

Here she plays nicely opposite a very young Laurence Olivier, and they have wonderful chemistry, as a struggling couple of newlyweds, trying to cope with their "incompatibilities", he's an aspiring writer and she tries hard to be the "devoted" wife.

Nice support from Irving Pichel as Harding's eternal suitor, Juliette Compton as Harding's sophisticated cousin,... check for Bonita Granville's first film role, as Harding & Olivier's daughter, who looks very, very pretty...she's already got plenty of talent & that "je ne sais quois" that made her a child star, later in the decade, as the brat in Goldwyn's 1936 "These Three".

A quality picture.