LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Robert Montgomery: Mansion House
built 185 days ago
Marion Davies and Robert Montgomery co-starred in Blondie of the Follies (1932) for M-G-M, and were together for Marion's last motion picture in 1937, Ever Since Eve for Warner Brothers. He joined in the costume parties at Ocean House in Santa Monica, and was a guest at the "working weekends" for Cosmopolitan cast members at San Simeon.
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Montgomery/Danny's breezy, broguish ingratiation, with flickering ambiguous shades of potential ‘mischief’, becomes quietly charged with apprehension by the movie's all but hermetic enclosure. The close quarters are rescued from the three-walled oppressiveness of certain other stage adaptations; not by laboriously programmed flights out of doors (views of the estate and adjoining dark forest are sparing and pertinent) but rather by the animation of John Van Druten's crisply elegant screenplay; interwoven with the spasm-free mobility of cinematographer Ray June's camera. One recalls especially the contrasts and interplays of sunlight and interior light; the powerful distribution of greys, blacks and occasional whites. The methodical, actor-friendly competence of Richard Thorpe is immensely aided by the ever-competent Dame May Whitty; and (as her slavey/ward and Danny's momentary soulmate) Montgomery's ideal partner (uncommonly subdued here) Rosalind Russell. The composite norm that the household evokes is mockingly reflected in Montgomery’s grinning, chatty servility: a facade from which, up until the last ten minutes of the 117-minute film, and a brief scene alone with a mysterious hatbox, he shows no diversion. At one instance, with demonic buoyancy, he trundles Dame May's wheelchair into her bedroom for a nap, like a short-order waiter dishing up a lunch special; depositing her with a beaming zest that seems to radiate prospects of geriatric rape.
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Synopsis: The schizophrenic screenplay of The Earl of Chicago is rendered even more bizarre by the uneven performance by Robert Montgomery. He plays Silky Kilmont, a Runyonesque American gangster who inherits a British title (Earl of Gorley) and mansion. Taking charge of his new estate, Silky has an amusingRead More
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Montgomery's spasm of vocal virtuosity at the finale of The Big House presages his reliance, increasingly throughout his career, on his voice as the backbone of his performing technique. His uninsistent skill at subtle inflection; his ready engagement, when required, of accent; above all, his apparent lifelong gentleman's romance with the English language. His verbal concern was probably foreshadowed in his youthful flutter at writing. The inclination to address his audience surfaces again and again, years before he signed up as speechwriter for that legendary verbal maladept Dwight D. Eisenhower.
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Robert was ... expected to assist in the house when needed. On one occasion in particular he was called to the Mansion House during the night when an enormous framed painting had fallen from the wall. This caused quite a commotion and it took many days to remount the painting. The incident was regarded by the servants as a bad omen and this premonition was realised shortly afterwards when Robert, assisting at the Mansion House one morning, discovered Alison's brother Fairlie Pearson, sitting dead in his chair.
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