Tuesday, April 24, 2007

The Right to Romance (1933)

If you're in the mood for a soap opera on film, I've got one for you: The Right to Romance, starring Ann Harding and Robert Young. Ann Harding plays a plastic surgeon, Dr. Peggy Simmons. Talk about ahead of her time - her character's strength is a nice change of pace. Dr. Simmons is hounded by wealthy female patients wanting to recapture their youth (and by referring physicians!). She excels at making women beautiful with the scalpel. She's so well known that she's on the edge of burnout and just wants to escape for a while, to be a female - to have the right to romance.

Escaping a few days to the seacoast, she catches the eye of a somewhat reckless flyer, Bobby Preble, played by Robert Young. They get married a few days later, but marriage becomes a bore for Bobby after a short period of time. Bobby gets caught cheating with his ex girlfriend in their own home. You really want to slug Bob after watching this film.



Here's where it get soap opera-like. Bobby and the ex go flying and crash. Bobby is fine but the girlfriend is scarred. It's up to Dr. Simmons to reconstruct her face so she can be beautiful again for Bobby. Oh the pressure!

Clip and snip there and everyone's fine. Dr. Peggy realizes her true love was always under her nose - make that down the hospital hall - with researcher Dr. "Heppie" Heppling, played by Nils Asther. Nils and Ann are a pleasure to watch in this film.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sounds like my kind of chick flick, heh - thanks for the heads up - I'll definitely be on the lookout for this one :D

la peregrina said...

Thanks, Carrie, I've never heard of this one. It sounds 1930's great. I haven't see enough Ann Harding movies so I can't make up my mind about her. Was she good in this?


Off Topic- I found this website tonight and thought you might find it interesting:

http://www.panamair.org/

Carrie said...

I just grabbed this film off of TCM, so I'm sure it'll be on again.

I think this is the second or third Ann Harding Film I've seen (crowd gasps). I like her - she comes off as one who can take care of her own. She was good in this one.

Thanks for the PanAm site - bot, their home page is depressing: accidents, liquidation, second hand smoke studies! I feel like a flying boat ride now...

la peregrina said...

I can only remember one Ann Harding movie I've seen and that was "When Ladies Meet." I think I was more interested in watching Montgomery and Mryna Loy than Harding at the time. I need to watch it again and this one too.

Yeah, I thought that homepage left a lot to be desired. Those aircraft photos were the most interesting. I also would have loved to ride in one of those flying boats.

I was surprised to find out that PanAm flew Convair 240's. I've been inside a 540 and took a maintenance check ride in a 440. The air cargo company I worked for had a fleet of four and those planes were always having engine problems.

During the flight I sat in a jump seat just in back of and between the pilots. I noticed a placard on the bulkhead beside me and was a bit disturbed by the fact that the aircraft had be built in 1944. I realized I should have waited until after she had been signed off as being mechanically sound before riding in her. It turned out that was the only time I got to fly in one those planes so now I am glad I did it.

Carrie said...

Heh - I think that's the other AH movie I've seen too.

Convair 440s rock. Republic & Northwest were flying them to the end out of here. Flying since 1944, she wouldn't dare go down! :)