Whirlpool (1934) User Reviews

Great Jack Holt Performance

[boblipton · 8/10 · 30 August 2009]

Jack Holt is great in this rather ornately written melodrama. He plays a man sentenced to prison for twenty years, whose pregnant wife refuses to divorce him. He sends her a letter that he has committed suicide in a way that leaves no corpse. We then fast forward twenty-five years. Jack is now a reclusive night-club owner and his daughter is Jean Arthur, a newspaperwoman who figures out who he is. In order to protect her mother, who has remarried, from public scandal, Holt has to disappear again.

The rest of the movie is about the complications surrounding the latter events and Jack Holt gives a better performance than I have ever seen him give, enormously underplayed by his usual standards. Jean Arthur has to contend with some lines that have not aged well, as does juvenile Donald Cook.

Nonetheless, throughout all this, the performances as as good as they can get under old hand Roy William Neill. Like many silent directors, Neill had retreated to the Bs -- although this is definitely an A picture from Columbia. Even so, Neill always worked well and carefully and this is a fine effort, the visuals perfect under a crack team of three cinematographers and half a dozen camera operators that included Joe August and Ben Kline.

In short, while the dialogue may occasionally make you roll your eyes, everything else about this movie will keep you intensely interested.

Surprisingly Entertaining

[simonqbb · 8/10 · 31 August 2009]

I probably never would have bothered with this were I not a big Jean Arthur fan; but even in her oeuvre this is rarely mentioned. That may be because "Whirlpool" isn't *quite* the quintessential Arthur movie (see "Easy Living," "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington," "The Devil and Miss Jones," etc.--now!). Still, Jean's in full blossom here, and well on her way to her glory days. Either way, this is a remarkably entertaining little movie, told in a brisk, energetic, entertaining style that seems to have been practically unique in some ways to the Hollywood of the early to mid-30's. Jack Holt stars as an ex-con who is reunited by chance with his daughter (Arthur) after a 20-year stint in prison: He's high up in the underworld, she's a newspaper reporter. The plot machinations come fast and furious, and contrived though they may be, they are only so in the best way--the way Hollywood could pull this kind of thing off in the 30's. Good performances all the way around, but Holt--often looking very much like Brando's Don Corleone in "The Godfather"--and Arthur carry the show. (Another Godfather mention: Donald Cook, who plays Arthur's boyfriend Bob, looks quite a lot like Al Pacino!) Holt, in fact, really carries this picture, bringing to his Buck Rankin/Duke Sheldon a very sympathetic mix of no-nonsense tough guy and heart, and the relationship between him and Arthur is thoroughly convincing. I have to say that the opening credits had me worried: The "whirlpool" seems to be nothing more than water spinning down a sink! But this is mostly the exception: There's even one montage of father and daughter that's remarkably well-done, almost even poetic in its images and editing. Overall, I wouldn't call this a classic, but if you like Jean Arthur or the movies of the 30's in general, this is a better bet than you might have guessed.

Despite a story that seems far-fetched, it really was well made and sweet.

[planktonrules · 8/10 · 29 October 2010]

Jack Holt and Lila Lee play a couple of married folks who work for the carnival. When a fight breaks out, Holt accidentally kills a man and is sent to prison for 20 years. However, his wife is pregnant and vows to wait for him. He knows this is NOT practical and he sends a forged letter to her saying he'd been killed while trying to escape. This is because Holt loves her very much and wants her to have a life and not be stuck with a man in prison.

Years pass and now Holt is a free man. He wanders about for a few years until he is located, somewhat by accident, by his daughter (Jean Arthur). Arthur is a reporter, so her discovering his identity isn't really that hard to believe. I loved this next portion, as seeing Jean reconnect with her father after all these years of thinking him dead was very sweet--and very well done. Lovely music and cinematography really make these scenes work! Holt has made Arthur to protect his identity--after all, her mother is very happily married to another man AND everyone hearing she is accidentally a bigamist would sure hurt her! However, a bit later, Holt learns that a guy he knew from prison has been accused of a serious crime and he COULD exonerate the man--after all, he knows this criminal is not guilty for this new crime. BUT, to testify would also mean revealing his true identity!! How all this is handled is very exciting and results in an ending you cannot forget.

For a simple film, this sure is a good one--a great tear-jerker and a plot that is pretty unique and worth your time. If you like old films, see this one. If you don't, then....well, see it anyway!

great surprise

[audiemurph · 5 October 2011]

This film was recently shown on TCM as part of a series of Jack Holt films. This is a great thing about TCM, in that it allows, by seeing several films in a row featuring a particular actor, to really get a good feel for the range of the actor, and to help you determine how much you might like that actor; and, happily, on Jack Holt day, I have found another very likable and interesting actor to look forward to seeing in other films. This is a sleeper of a great film; the scenes between Jack and Jean Arthur are genuinely touching, especially the recognition scene, which is beautifully underplayed; they truly complement each other's style. Some of the other reviews are mildly critical of some of the dated dialogue, but I have always found that to be part of the charm of old films. I don't need "realistic" dialogue; that is already a part of everyday life. Alan Jenkins is funny as always, but Jack's acting, traveling back and forth between toughness and tenderness, is lovely.

Notable Jean Arthur film, worth watching to see the beginning of an actor's successful career

[annodnosinut · 7/10 · 9 October 2010]

Jack Holt is OK in this film but Jean Arthur saves it. The plot is unbelievable, but is noteworthy since it was Arthur's first film for Columbia after her return to Hollywood from the New York stage. Her previous films at Universal were forgettable. According to her biography, it was when executives saw the daily rushes, that they offered her a long term contract.

This movie is also notable in that Frank Capra reviewed her scenes and decided to offer her the part as Babe Bennett in the now classic Mr. Deeds Goes To Town. You can understand why he picked her. It was the beginning of a successful film period, which lasted 20 more years.

It is also interesting and funny to see Allen Jenkins, in a typical side kick role, particularly when he is doing knee bends in front of a window in his underwear.

Well-made melodrama with two great leads

[Philipp_Flersheim · 8/10 · 25 May 2022]

The premise of this well-made melodrama is far-fetched: A newly-married man (Jack Holt) is sentenced to 20 years for manslaughter. Once in jail, he fakes his suicide in order to allow his pregnant wife (Lila Lee) to lead a life not bound to a prisoner. Some years after his release, he meets his daughter (Jean Arthur), who recognises him from a photograph her mother has kept, and complications ensue - mainly because his wife has meanwhile married another man, which exposes her to the charge of bigamy. Despite the complicated set-up, the story works. In fact, it works very well, thanks to the two brilliant leads Holt and Arthur. Others might have overacted melodramatic roles such as theirs, but not these two. Holt is great in an understated way, and Arthur plays her part really touchingly without overdoing it. By 1934, she had been in the film business for more than a decade with at best middling success, but after this film, Hollywood would never again overlook her. Don't so so either - take a look at 'Whirlpool'; it's worth it!

The kitten finally grows some claws.

[mark.waltz · 5/10 · 4 September 2014]

This will be of interest to classic movie fans interested, not only in Jean Arthur, but in seeing the transformation of her career from those fragile Paramount heroines to a few feisty young women in low budget RKO films of varying personalities. This started the most memorable stage of Arthur's film career, playing a series of career girls (usually reporters) who had motivations they didn't always reveal to the men they were using for various reasons. In this case, she's a reporter who goes to interview a powerful businessman (Jack Holt) after seeing his picture in the paper and wanting to find out his true identity. He's involved in criminal activities, having risen to the top of the rackets, and she believes he's an honest businessman. Of course, there's a back story, and that is the old "Enoch Arden" theme of "back from the dead".

This starts off with the back story, of Holt's marriage to the pretty Lila Lee, and his subsequent incarceration for manslaughter. Lee is horrified to find out that he supposedly died in a prison escape attempt, but Holt arranged it so she'd be able to go on with her life and not wait for him. Twenty years pass and Lee is now re-married, ironically to the judge who sentenced Holt. He is overjoyed to find out he has a grown daughter and they begin to spend precious time together much to the chagrin of Donald Cook, Arthur's long-time beau. Of course, it's all innocent, but cosy lunches between the two spotted by Cook have him believing otherwise. Holt's enemies find out the truth and threaten to spill the beans. Not wanting to break his wife's heart a second time, Holt makes drastic decisions, bringing his whirlpool of a life full circle.

Having seen a few films with Jack Holt over the years, I mainly recalled him from a few film stills which make him look pretty hard, not at all the typical leading man. He makes a crack here in regards to that, telling Arthur that he's not really photogenic. Lee, however, is very photogenic, and when Arthur surprises him with a picture of how his wife looks now, Holt is touched by her beauty. Other than the opening, however, Lee has only a few scenes with Arthur towards the end, the film changing its structure several times as it tells its familiar but well crafted tale. Allen Jenkins offers a lot of amusement as Holt's driver, especially as he re-accounts the traffic tickets he got from various policemen while waiting for Holt to finish his lunch with Arthur.

A delightfully obscure film thankfully released on DVD with some other obscure Jean Arthur films I have been searching for over many years, "Whirlpool" is combination carny/crime/prison/parental love/soap opera. Columbia, other than its Grace Moore operettas and of course the Frank Capra films, was lesser known among Hollywood studios, and did turn out some little gems along the way. While this may not be an outstanding entry in their early 30's catalog, it is slightly better than average with some interesting performances, some sparkling dialog of pre-code nature, and a glimpse of the magic Arthur would soon achieve when she took on gangster Edward G. Robinson in that comedy gem "The Whole Town's Talking" and Gary Cooper in the brilliant "Mr. Deeds Goes to Town".

Efficient filmmaking with heart

[artalaska-24645 · 8/10 · 7 August 2022]

This film contains the stuff of soapy melodrama (improbable plot, stock characters of shallow dimension, sensational scenes), but it contains more. Jack Holt, father of the athletic cowboy Tim Holt, plays a man devoted to his family at high personal cost that he pays without hesitation. Holt also glides through his role as the captivatingly handsome "man's man" that he naturally was. Further, into various scenes, for those who care about such things, Jean Arthur brings familial heart and soul that is breathtaking. Though formulaic, admirable and efficient filmmaking with a heart makes "Whirlpool" engaging and memorable..

Sounds familiar

[searchanddestroy-1 · 15 December 2013]

A Roy William Neill's movie, with the exception of Sherlock Holmes series, are hard to find, especially the silent ones, mostly lost, unfortunately. This Columbia Pictures film is rare too. But the scheme is very familiar to me, where a father meets his lost daughter twenty years later, after he was separated from her mother, after he was in jail. This scheme has been seen a couple of times before, all in thirties features. I don't remember the titles. And we did not see such topics anymore a decade later. This scheme seemed to be made only in the thirties.

A melodrama mixed up a little with some noir accents.

An interesting gem.

How Beautiful Lila Lee Looks in Those Beautiful Picture Hats!!

[kidboots · 8/10 · 28 February 2017]

Wow - how beautiful Lila Lee looked, photographed to perfection by Benjamin H. Kline in fetching period costumes and stylistically filmed in slanting shadows. She plays Helen, starry eyed wife of carnival manager Buck Rankin (Jack Holt) whose honeymoon is over before it begins when he is sentenced to 20 years for killing a man in a side show brawl.

Jack Holt was Columbia's most bankable male star and by the early 30s seemed to be in every other movie - usually playing in adventurous thrillers but this one was a hearts and flowers tear-jerker that still left room for some action. Desperate for Helen to get on with her life, he forges a letter from the prison governor in which he announces his own death - jumping into the whirlpool of water that no prisoner has ever survived, all the while serving out his sentence.

Twenty years after shows him now free and with the help of his buddy (Allan Jenkins) has him going from strength to strength as a racketeer. He is all set to give evidence at a trial of one of his associates when Sandy enters the scene. Sandy is an eager reporter but also Rankin's daughter who recognizes him at once due to his picture always being prominent on her mother's dressing table. Although remarried she has never forgotten her first love!! Jean Arthur is just splendid as Sandy, never cloying or sentimental or full of recriminations for the past - she is just eager to spend as much time as she can with her dad. There is also a young man played by the moody Don Cook who, of course, jumps to the wrong conclusion when he sees them together!!

Having started in movies back in 1923, by 1932 Jean Arthur realized she would need to go to Broadway if she wanted to be anything more than just an ingénue. She did and came back to Hollywood with a Columbia contract. As well as going blonde, she had emerged as a better actress and as Sandy she lights up the screen and along with Lila Lee, the real reason "Whirlpool" is such a success!!

Very Recommended.

Daddy's little girl

[jkholman · 31 August 2009]

I only caught the last third of this film the other morning, but it was enough to show me what a wonderful job Jack Holt does as a little girl's father. Because even at twenty-one, she is still his little girl. It makes everything that follows worth it. I have two (eleven and five), and the end of the film breaks my heart. Some other films that feature moments of paternal love include: China Doll (Victor Mature); Desperate Hours (Fredrick March); Kramer vs. Kramer (Dustin Hoffman); The Taking of Peggy Ann (look for David Soul on this one); The Green Berets (Jim Hutton); True Grit (the other Duke saying goodbye to Mattie Ross); It's a Wonderful Life (George Bailey with Zsu Zsu's petals); Man on Fire (Denzel Washington parleying for the life of his ward); Twilight Zone - Episode: Little Girl Lost;

Way to go, Duke.

• JKHolman