If I Were Free (1933)

User Rating:

6.6/10   

Director:

Elliott Nugent

Writers:

John Van Druten (play)
Dwight Taylor (screenplay)

Release Date:

1 December 1933 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Romance

Plot:

Gordon Evers, a dignified middle-aged barrister, is depressed and suicidal following an injury suffered during WWI...

Plot Keywords:

Antique Dealer | Reputation | Infidelity | Gossip | Surgery

Cast

Irene Dunne	...	Sarah Cazenove
Clive Brook	...	Gordon Evers
Nils Asther	...	Tono Casanove
Henry Stephenson	...	Hector Stribling
Vivian Tobin	...	Jewel Stribling
Laura Hope Crews	...	Dame Evers
Tempe Pigott	...	Mrs. Gill
Lorraine MacLean	...	Catherine Evers

Also Known As:

Behold We Live (UK)

Runtime:

66 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Victor System)

Certification:

USA:Approved (PCA #1344-R, 29 August 1935 for re-release)

Company:

RKO Radio Pictures

Trivia:

The play, "Behold, We Live", opened in London on 16 August 1932.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Man Selling French Postcards: [scene: a Paris street cafe] Des cartes postales, m'sieur? Des cartes postales, sir?
[Man seated with lady shoos the vendor away]
Man Selling French Postcards: [approaching Gordon and Hector's table] Postal cards, m'sier? *Dirty* postcards?
Hector Stribling: [turning away, disgusted] Uh!
Gordon Evers: Charming.
[taking the cards]
Gordon Evers: Would you like to look at them, Hector?
Hector Stribling: Certainly not!
Gordon Evers: How much are they?
[...]

Soundtrack:

Early Rising

Censors would have nixed if later than '33-'34

I enjoyed this 1933 movie made before the censors had their hand into things. After 1934 you would not have seen this same story, the unwanted wife would have had to die or would have been a bad wife and a divorce the right thing for her husband to do. The story is rather sophisticated in that the unwanted wife is just asked to step aside so her husband's love affair could be made legitimate. Oh,they had made an agreement that if either one got tired of the other than one or the other could walk away from the marriage with no argument. Apparently the unwanted wife had had an affair earlier, it didn't work out so she wanted to hang on to what she had and not give her husband up to Irene Dunne's character. Though Clive Brock's character was diagnosed with a life-threatening problem that required a very risky surgery, the unwanted wife did not want the divorce and demanded that his lover, Dunne leave the hospital even in the face of the fact that Brock was near death and calling for Dunne and not his wife. The wife does not want to allow the visit but Dunne pushes by and goes to the dying man's bedside and her presence stimulates Brock's recovery from surgery and they are seen in the last scene as a married couple on holiday. Censors would not have permitted this to pass if done later than the mid thirties. Especially since the unwanted wife did not want or agree to the divorce when she found out that her husband was having an affair and wanted to leave her for another woman. It was a good story and I would see it again.