A Free Soul (1931)
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A Free Soul Movie Review
A Free Soul is a 1931 drama film directed by Clarence Brown and starring Norma Shearer, Leslie Howard, Lionel Barrymore and Clark Gable. It’s a highly melodramatic movie.
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“A lot of people don’t believe that gag about being born equal“
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It tells the story of an alcoholic defense attorney who must defend his daughter’s ex-boyfriend on a charge of murdering the mobster she had started a relationship with, a mobster whom her father had previously got an acquittal for on a murder charge. Yes, this is very much an extreme melodrama typical for this period.
However, I would say that even for this period, this story is extreme. There are simply too many entanglements in its plot along with a couple of implausible developments. I would say that a couple of moments here are pretty good such as those sexual scenes which scream Pre-Code in a memorable way. But most scenes are too stagey or simply preposterous.
A Free Soul’s standout aspect is naturally the acting having in mind that it has a spectacular cast. Norma Shearer is reliably good in the most interesting, conflicting role. Leslie Howard is somewhat forgettable, but Clarke Gable showed great promise in one of his earlier roles here. He is very memorable, incredibly charismatic and also quite intriguing.
As for Lionel Barrymore, he is good, but I wouldn’t call him great. His Oscar win for Best Actor is highly controversial given that he plays a supporting role and basically only that one big courtroom drama scene near the end. But because there wasn’t a supporting category back then, he got the award. As for that scene, it influenced countless other courtroom drama culminations for better and for worse.
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A Free Soul is awfully stagey which is to be expected from an early 30s film, but the direction from Clarence Brown is quite weak as is the pacing and structure of the film. The entire movie is honestly a giant mess, especially in terms of its ridiculous storyline, character interactions and even some dialogue. It is a very odd, messy product of its time.
A Free Soul is a mess. It does have a great cast with the highlights being reliably good Norma Shearer and excellent Clarke Gable who impressed in one of his earlier roles and showed a lot of charisma. But the film is otherwise stagey and very odd with unlikable characters, many preposterous plot points and simply an implausible, overly melodramatic, very difficult to buy storyline.
