Millie
by John Francis Dillon
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DVD details
Actor: Edmund Breese, Hooper Atchley, Joan Blondell, Marie Astaire, Robert AmesDirector: John Francis Dillon
Cinematographer: Ernest Haller
Composer: Art Lange
Audio: English (Original Language)
Format: Black & White, DVD, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 85 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2006-02-28
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Alpha Video
DVD Reviews of Millie
DVD Review: "Work?!? You won't have any time for opportunity!"
Summary: 5 Stars
Millie is an excellent pre-Code drama with convincing acting and a plot that moves along at a fairly good pace despite some slow points here and there. The casting is well done and the choreography is great! The cinematography is very good and the sound is fine; the quality of the print is really rather good for an "Alpha Films" DVD release.
When the action starts (and believe me, there'll be lots of action in this picture), we meet Millicent 'Millie' Blake (Helen Twelvetrees) who gets a surprise proposal of marriage from a man (John 'Jack' Maitland played by James Hall) she's not quite ready to settle down with; but she goes through with it even though she's rather nervous on her wedding night, to say the least. Time passes; and Millie and Jack now have an adorable baby girl. They are living well in fancy Westchester County, New York, too. There's just one little problem: Jack no longer loves Millie! He says he still loves her; but Millie knows better. One day, when Millie goes to have lunch with her "more-than-just-good-friends" Helen 'Hel' Riley (Lilyan Tashman) and Angie Wickerstaff (Joan Blondell), Millie discovers Jack fooling around with another woman--and that's it for their marriage.
Millie leaves her daughter Connie with Jack because she wants Connie to have all the best in the world that Jack can give her with his money; Millie sees Connie as much as she can and she gets herself a new life. Millie gets a job at a hotel lobby concession stand and she thinks of letting one of two men into her life: James 'Jimmy' Damier (John Halliday) and Tommy Rock (Robert Ames). Although Jimmy could take good financial care of Millie, Millie wants to remain free of relying on men; she proudly says several times that she likes to "pay (her) own way." Tommy does finally manage to catch her, though; and they begin a romance that is also shattered when Millie finds out, again through friends, that Tommy is not being loyal to Millie.
Millie is through with men; but then the greatest challenge comes a few years down the road: what to do when older men start eyeing her now grown (well, sixteen years old) daughter Connie? Millie wants no man doing to Connie what men have done to her; and when she realizes that Connie is being wooed by Jimmy despite his promises to steer clear of Connie, Millie must make a hard choice--and she's quite emotional about it, too!
Of course, the plot can go anywhere from here. What happens to Connie when Jimmy pursues her--will she defy her mother or will Millie lay down the law--or go even further to make sure things don't get out of control? What about Jack and Tommy, the men from Millie's past--will they be able to help, or will one or both of them do nothing to help Millie when she needs it? And what becomes of the love relationship between Helen and Angie after Angie decides to marry a rich older man purely for his money? No spoilers here--watch and find out!
Millie is one of the better pre-Code films released by Alpha Video. It's great to see fine performances by stars including Anita Louise as the grown Connie and Helen Twelvetrees as Millie; Joan Blondell also does a wonderful job of portraying Angie. I highly recommend this for fans of pre-Code drama and the stars of this film.
DVD Review: Millie
Summary: 5 Stars
Loved this movie. This is definitely a movie of "forbidden Holywood". This movie touches on lesbianism, attempted rape and how life in the fast lane affects one woman.
DVD Review: exceptional Pre-Code gem
Summary: 4 Stars
MILLIE, produced by Radio Pictures Corp. in 1931, is a fascinating Pre-Code marvel starring lovely Helen Twelvetrees in the title role. Another reviewer has already outlined the plot, so there's no need for me to elaborate on that. Suffice to say, if you have a fondness for the movies of Pre-Code Hollywood, MILLIE will deliver a fun evening of entertainment.
Fans of Joan Blondell will love her early supporting role as one of Millie's wisecracking friends; she plays a woman involved in a thinly-veiled lesbian relationship with Lilyan Tashman (a real-life lesbian actress whose few movies are sadly lacking on DVD); she passed away six years after this film was released. MILLIE was one of the first mainstream Hollywood films to depict a lesbian relationship.
Helen Twelvetrees is fascinating to watch in the title role. In lots of ways the story is incredibly predictable (and the final reel drags the plot into sickly sweet territory); but it all adds to the charm of the movie. MILLIE will be a great addition to any classic movie collection.
Alpha's DVD is one of the best I've seen from this budget company. The image is a little jittery but it's sharp and stable for the entire duration of the film. The soundtrack is clear and strong, too. Another incentive for checking out this fascinating example of Pre-Code cinema.
DVD Review: Disappointing
Summary: 2 Stars
Millie (Helen Twelvetrees) is a young girl jumping into marriage with a man named John (James Hall). Despite her inhibitions, she puts all she has into their relationship and bears a child, but finds that John has been cheating on her. She drops him and soon moves on to Tommy (Robert Ames), a reporter who appears to be very devoted to her. Not the case, as pointed out by Millie's two best friends, lovers Helen (Lilyan Tashman) and Angie (Joan Blondell). Time goes on, and Millie's daughter Connie (Anita Louise) becomes a beautiful young teenager, who unsuspectingly draws glances from men old enough to be her father.
For a pre-code, this film is surprisingly dull. Yes Millie is a woman who has "loved" multiple men who have jilted her, and yes she knows men that try to take advantage of both jaded and naive women, but these things are staples of melodrama, a genre that transcended the production code. The most shocking thing here is the lesbian relationship between Blondell and Tashman, which is only mildly important to the story.
DVD Review: The Alpha version of Millie is exceptional.
Summary: 4 Stars
The Alpha version of Millie is exceptional. The print quality is outstanding and far better than I expected. This is the old Pre-Code story about Mother Love with exceptional performances by Helen Twelvetrees, Joan Blondell, Lilyan Tashman, and John Halliday.
Description of Millie
In the years before Hollywood submitted to the self-imposed censorship of the Production Code, filmmakers were free to use adultery, prohibition drinking, and sexual double standards to explore the moral complexity of the modern age. Of Human Bondage, John Cromwell's adaptation of W.?Somerset Maugham's novel, is the best-known but perhaps least interesting example in this triple-feature set. Leslie Howard stars as the sensitive would-be artist turned medical student who falls in love with a slutty waitress (Bette Davis, who steals the film with her cold-hearted manipulations and shrill cockney accent), allowing his desire for this vicious little tart to control and almost destroy his life. At a brief 80?minutes, the picture leaves little nourishment between the narrative peaks but is always well-acted and handsomely staged.Stalwart Joel McCrea is the working-class engineer who marries a spoiled society girl in Kept Husbands. "Dad, I want him more than anything in the world. Can't I have him?" pleads kittenish Dorothy Mackaill, but the tug of war between his work and her play soon tears them apart. Though the plot is sometimes slow, sparkling society wit and humorous working-class platitudes (croaked out by an always entertaining Ned Sparks) add dimension to the familiar story.
Millie, the jewel of the collection, represents everything great about the pre-code era. Sweetly sexy Helen Twelvetrees is Millie, a small-town girl turned big-city woman disillusioned with love, but while she lets the good times roll she never sacrifices her ideals: "I pay my own way," she insists. When a former beau plots to seduce her 16-year-old daughter, however, the worn, sad woman becomes an avenging angel, ready to sacrifice all for the girl. Though highly melodramatic, with adultery and sex to spare, the film drives ahead with wild abandon, with the dynamic Millie centering the drama. --Sean Axmaker
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