A young American girl visits Paris accompanied by her fiancee and her wealthy uncle. There she meets and is romanced by a worldly novelist; what she doesn't know is that he is a blackmailer ... Read allA young American girl visits Paris accompanied by her fiancee and her wealthy uncle. There she meets and is romanced by a worldly novelist; what she doesn't know is that he is a blackmailer who is using her to get to her uncle.A young American girl visits Paris accompanied by her fiancee and her wealthy uncle. There she meets and is romanced by a worldly novelist; what she doesn't know is that he is a blackmailer who is using her to get to her uncle.
- Undetermined Secondary Role
- (uncredited)
- Louis - Headwaiter
- (uncredited)
- Joe - American Tourist
- (uncredited)
- Spade Henderson
- (uncredited)
- Mr. Bradkin
- (uncredited)
- Hotel Desk Clerk
- (uncredited)
- Mrs. Jowitt
- (uncredited)
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaThis was the first of three movies that Powell and Lombard made together. The other two pictures are Ladies' Man (1931) and My Man Godfrey (1936). They met on the set and married the same year the movie was released, but would be divorced in 1933.
- GoofsAt the "Paris" horse race, they wanted to show the horses running clockwise (the opposite direction of US horse racing), so the flipped they negative causing all the numbers on the horses to be reversed in the film. They managed to edit the race to not show the number clearly, that is until the end of the race. The number 5 is very clearly backwards in the close-up of the finish.
- Quotes
Irene Hoffa: Say, I can remember once I had a good-time Charlie. And it was all fixed up for Michael to walk in and ask this guy what he thought he was doing with his wife. Good for 5,000 bucks this guy was too. All right. Mike is supposed to walk in at 4:00, and sharp 7:00 he shows up. You can't imagine what I went through those three hours.
Fred: Yes, I can.
Irene Hoffa: Well, you're wrong.
This picture is very much the creaking early talkie. You know it is from the moment you start the DVD by the 1.20:1 screen aspect ratio. The sound strip on the edge of the film cut the 35 mm film frame's original 1.33:1 (same as an old standard TV screen) down to a claustrophobic, square-looking screen. By 1933 all the studios would adopt the "Accademy Standard" 1.37:1 screen by the simple expedient of a camera aperture mask. Early street scenes in Man Of The World are obviously stock footage from silent movies. But there was little other stock footage available then! When the movies started talking, there were three kinds of actors available -- those who had acted only in silents, stage actors, and actors who had experience in both media. But they and their directors soon learned that the talking picture was a whole new game. The melodramatic gestures needed to convey emotion in silent movies looked ridiculous with actual spoken dialog. Yet the stage style of acting would seem wooden in talking pictures. With microphones actors did not need to shout to be heard, and the motion picture camera could record subtle facial expressions and body movements which would have been lost on the third row of a live theater audience.
Both Powell and Lombard had stage as well as silent movie experience, though much more of the latter in her case. Powell, who would eventually develop a talking picture style of top caliber, was still working on it in Man Of The World. He seems a little stiff at times, and so does Wynne Gibson, but both are nevertheless very effective. Contrary to what some other reviewers have felt, I found Gibson's performance and asset, even though there were times when she was projecting to the back row seats. Carole Lombard's sound acting style with her sexy voice and fluid movement seems more natural, but then her part in the picture is not a particularly demanding one. Guy Kibbee, surprisingly, is the player who had the most secure handle on the new sound movie style. Perhaps it was his early experience as an entertainer in the intimate confines of a Mississippi riverboat.
The oft-used plot has slick con man Powell trying to work a blackmail scheme on naive American lass Lombard and her rich but dimwitted uncle Kibbee. With jealous ex-moll and confederate Gibson egging on the reluctant Powell. Predictably Powell falls in love with the sweet and beautiful Carole. However, all is very well done, things do not necessarily go according to formula, and the ending is something of a surprise.
Though I was about to give up on the Carole Lombard movies after watching two from the set, The Princess Comes Through, and We're Not Dressing (see my review), I was pleasantly surprised by Man Of The World. But then it was really a William Powell movie. Carole didn't have to do much except look good, and she did that very well indeed.
Man Of The World is rough around the edges but rewarding if you stick with it. At an hour and fourteen minutes, a good filler movie.
--------- Post Script (Jan 2014): Since writing this creaky old review, viewings of several other Carol Lombard Lombard pictures, including Love Before Breakfast (1936) (see my review) and the wonderful Twentieth Century (1934) have considerably raised my regard for the beautiful lady's acting ability.
- oldblackandwhite
- May 12, 2011
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Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
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- Also known as
- Cavalier of the Streets
- Filming locations
- Production company
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
- Runtime1 hour 14 minutes
- Color