The Scoundrel (1935)

User Rating:

6.7/10   

Directors:

Ben Hecht
Charles MacArthur

Writers:

Ben Hecht (story)
Charles MacArthur (story)

Release Date:

30 April 1935 (USA)

Genre:

Film-Noir | Drama

Plot:

A ruthless, cynical, hated publisher is killed in a plane crash, and his ghost must wander restlessly unless someone sheds a tear for him. |

Plot Keywords:

Ghost | Afterlife | Salvation | Soul | Curse

Awards:

Won Oscar.

Cast

Noel Coward	...	Anthony Mallare
Julie Haydon	...	Cora Moore
Stanley Ridges	...	Paul Decker
Martha Sleeper	...	Julia Vivian
Ernest Cossart	...	Jimmy Clay
Alexander Woollcott	...	Vanderveer Veyden
Everley Gregg	...	Mildred Langwiter
Rosita Moreno	...	Carlotta
Eduardo Ciannelli	...	Maurice Stern
Richard Bond	...	Howard Gillette
Helen Strickland	...	Mrs. Rolinson
Lionel Stander	...	Rothenstien
Frank Conlan	...	Massey
O.Z. Whitehead	...	Calhoun
Raymond Bramley	...	Felix Abrams

Runtime:

76 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Company:

Hecht-MacArthur Productions

Trivia:

Burgess Meredith's first film.

Quotes:

Anthony Mallare: She's the only woman I've ever met who seems shallower and more superficial than I am. It'll be a perfect match: two empty paper bags, belaboring each other.

Disappointing failure

Because so many talented people worked on "The Scoundrel", it pains me to say that this film doesn't work and some parts of it are laughably bad.

Noël Coward plays a character based on Horace Liveright, a (real-life) New York publisher and playboy who was a vicious S.O.B. and an inept businessman; Liveright died broke and friendless. That's not quite what happens to Coward in this movie.

"The Scoundrel" is a fantasy, but we don't find this out until about halfway through the film ... and in a flashback, worse luck. Coward dies and comes back as a ghost, and (unlike in "The Sixth Sense") he KNOWS he's a ghost. After returning from the dead, the first thing he does is go back to his office and perform a long dull dialogue scene with his employees, without bothering to tell them that he's dead. I haven't given away any spoilers here, because this film has very little worth spoiling. Coward delivers all of his dialogue in a slow lugubrious tone. He spends the second half of the movie as a ghost, but he's equally lifeless in the first half.

"The Scoundrel" has a low budget and several continuity errors. It was filmed in New York City (at the Astoria studio) but there are no vintage shots of NYC locations; one street scene is a painfully obvious interior set.

The notorious drama critic Alexander Woollcott appears in a tiny role (basically playing himself), but he's on screen just long enough to prove he's no actor. Lionel Stander (better known as Max from "Hart to Hart") shows up briefly to sip champagne with Coward. This makes Lionel Stander the only actor who worked with both Noël Coward and Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle. I don't recommend "The Scoundrel" unless you're intensely interested in any of the actors or writers who worked on this film ... all of whom did better work in other films.