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 Private Lives (1931) doesn't have what a snazzy premise. Observing a couple's on-again/off-again relationship may not sound like a rip-roaring story, especially when it's about the romantic misadventures of the rich and entitled. But this old soldier of the theater was first penned by Noel Coward, a man for whom getting us to care about the upper class was only one of his many accomplishments. Private Lives doesn't get all weepy on us in depicting Norma Shearer and Robert Montgomery as two people who can't live with or without one another. Reginald Denny and Una Merkel also appear in the film that has more snark than sentiment.
Amanda (Shearer) and Elyot (Montgomery) love each other so much, it hurts. They were meant to be, but five minutes can't go by without a screaming match erupting. As our tale begins it seems the pair has broken it off for good and found love elsewhere. Amanda with kind but uptight Victor (Reginald Denny) and Elyot with screechy young Sibyl (Una Merkel). But as if fate had nothing better to do, Amanda and Elyot are brought together again through the magic of adjoining honeymoon suites. However, even after the old spark reignites and sends them on an impromptu holiday, it's a matter of time before Amanda and Elyot find their relationship back at square one...and their hands around each other's necks.
Norma Shearer and Robert Montgomery
The success of Private Lives demonstrates how the more hands-off a story's emotional influence is it can sometimes lead to a more personable picture. Two years after this film's release, Coward's play Cavalcade was made into a Best Picture-winning epic that found its drama spread too thin in a saga spanning decades. Now consider Private Lives, the polar opposite in content and structure: there are only four major characters, the plot runs over the course of a couple nights, and we have as few solid details going out as we do heading in. Yet warmness spreads amidst the bitterness and bickering, because behavior tells us more than clunky exposition can.
Director Sidney Franklin (The Good Earth) gets the action moving right from the start, rarely letting viewers up for air but allowing them all they need to know about what the stakes are. All of this is executed with the utmost respect, preserving the story's farcicial mood while not letting buffoonery settle amongst the key players.
Yet those who'd accuse Private Lives of skimping on the narrative wouldn't entirely be in the wrong. It's true that Amanda and Elyot don't get much to do but run around in circles, reenacting the same domestic dispute over and over to an occasionally redundant effect. It all starts so early, and with Denny and Merkel quickly scuttled off to the sidelines, getting exhausted isn't out of the question. But Private Lives still works because as our leads trade verbal and physical blows with each other, Shearer and Montgomery are convincing to the core, and we come to care for them more than if we were being deliberately led towards a tissue box. Together, their nervous natures and metropolitan manners lend much to the movie's pressure cooker atmosphere. Shearer and Montgomery work well on their own, but Private Lives is a true team effort, and their performances are able to sustain tension even when actual onscreen events are scarce.
Private Lives is the very picture of trying to keep a sophisticated lid on an increasingly manic series of events. Though its humor and wit are of the dry persuasion, the film will strike a chord with anyone who's been driven nuts by and is nuts for the love of their life. For so long a VHS treasure, Private Lives is now offered through the Warner Archive Collection, ready for a new crop of classic movie buffs to partake in its chic charms.
Director: Sidney Franklin
Writers: Hans Kraly and Richard Schayer (based on the play by Noel Coward)
Cast: Norma Shearer, Robert Montgomery, Reginald Denny, Una Merkel
Rating: No MPAA Rating (a couple of domestic scuffles)
Classic Movie Guide Rating: 3 stars out of 5
Run Time: 84 minutes
Studio: MGM
Format: Black-and-white, fullscreen
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