Their Own Desire [DVD] [1929] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC]

This movie is a mixed bag of good and not so good dialogue, plot lines and performances. Unlike some other early talkies, the camera is not completely static with the actors just standing around sprouting dialogue. The movie's director E.Mason Hopper {a very minor league director} does a good job with the early scenes of the polo match which is not filmed on the backlot or staged with back projection and with the swimming pool scenes which takes the camera up diving platform and under water with Norma Shearer and Robert Montgomery. The story line - Norma playing Lally Marlett who adores her father {Lewis Stone} an author who at 45 years old is still yearning for passionate love which his now dowdy wife of 23 years Harriet {Belle Bennett} doesn't measure up to. He embarks on a year long dalliance with a sleeker,newer model - Beth {Hellen Millard} whom he will marry after the divorce is made final. Mom is aware and heartbroken that a divorce is pending. When Lally catchs the lovers in an embrace - a stinging verbal exchange ensues between Father and Daughter with dad coming out the worse with Lally both denoucing and telling dad that she will never see or speak to him again if he divorces her mother. Lally takes Mom to a swanky resort to relax and is eyeballed at the pool by Jack {a smug and breezily self confident Robert Montgomery} and oozing a repugant / persistant charm starts to date Lally and they fall "head over heels" in love. Jack eventually proposes marriage but in discussing their respective parents it turns out its his mom that is having the affair with Lolly's dad. Jack doesn't care - he wants to marry Lally and "to hell with the consequences" or who they may hurt. Lally knowing her mother still loves her dad, had tried to commit suicide the prievous New Year's Eve and is ill with a weak heart realizes that she will not survive Lally marrying the son of her husbands mistress. Lally tells Jack that she can never marry him and despite his persistance - he agrees that its over between them. As a final farewell, they decide to cruise together on a small boat and get caught in a storm which wrecks their boat and strands them with Jack being injured. When told about their children going missing Mallet and Beth both are frantic with worry and fear and start to snipe at each other with both realizing that they had been more "in lust" than in love and in a somewhat too pat wrapup the kids are rescued, Mallet and Harriet are reunited which will allow Lally and Jack to marry. The photograhy by William Daniels is as usual outstanding and Adrian's wardrobe for Ms. Shearer highlights a svelt and slim Norma at her physical peak. The performances of the principle players are uneven to say the least. R.Montgomery is a jarring presence at first - he is overwhelmingly obnoxiously charming in his initial scenes but his performance gets better / more sincere when fighting to hold on to Lally. This is only his 3rd movie performance so his uneven performance is understandable. Lewis Stone is surprising good as the aging, erring husband who wants to feel young thru a renewed passionate love. He is slim and surprisingly virile - a far cry from Andy Hardy's aging, kindly old father/judge. Belle Bennett's Harriet is a dull wife that has the sexual spark of a rock - her performance at most competent and she is second billing to N.Shearer which is hard to understand ! With Ms. Bennett's preachy, whining wife - one feels sympathy for Mallet's predicament BUT at least Beth is not a women twenty years younger than Mallet - she is approximately the same age who is a well preserved divorcee who also seeks passsion/love. I am a huge Norma Shearer fan but in this movie her performance is variable - she is too coy and arch in her initial scenes with Lewis Stone and in some scenes with R. Montgomery and yet doing much better and coming across more realistically in the heavier dramatic parts of the movie. In only her 3rd talking picture she is still feeling her way thru speaking her lines with proper pitch / emotion and trying not to overact. The picture quality is good and the sound quality is very good for a movie of this vintage. I liked this movie with the exception of the to neatly wrapped ending and it plays better than the sum of it's parts so for fans of Norma Shearer and early pre-code movies I recommend this film with a 3 1/2 star rating.

I liked this movie a lot,especially considering this was a early talkie
Norma Shearer is slimmer then in any of the other movies I have of this Great Lady,very sexy!