Riptide (1934)

A high living party girl (Norma Shearer) meets a stiff upper lip British Lord (Herbert Marshall) and they fall in love and marry. He knows about her past but it doesn't matter and she becomes a faithful wife and mother. But when an old flame (Robert Montgomery) enters the picture, everything changes. Directed by Edmund Goulding (GRAND HOTEL), this was one of the very last pre-code films and was released only a few months before the code went into effect. The movie's first half hour leads you to believe it's going to be a screwball comedy about a mismatched pair but it suddenly turns serious as infidelity, jealousy, suspicion and gossip tear the marriage apart. The three leads aren't very sympathetic. Shearer's wife is foolish and places herself in situations that compromise her, Marshall's husband is stuffy and rigid and Montgomery's lover is irritating and can't leave well enough alone. 1934 audiences ate this up and made the film a hit. Interesting as one of the last pre code films as it pushes the envelope regarding adultery among the upper classes but its characters aren't worth our time. With the legendary Mrs. Patrick Campbell (George Bernard Shaw's muse and the original Eliza Doolittle in PYGMALION), Walter Brennan, Ralph Forbes and Lilyan Tashman.