Their Own Desire (1929)

I've crossed off one more Robert Montgomery film from the "To See" list (down to three now), Their Own Desire.

It's an early talkie, and it shows (or would that be "hears"), but you get over it quickly. I'm never good at giving film overviews (just comments), so allow me to grab this from IMDB:

Lally is a rich girl whose Father who writes books and plays Polo. After 23 years of marriage, Father decides to divorce Harriet, his wife, and marry Mrs. Chevers who is also divorcing her husband. This sours Lally on all men, but on vacation she meets Jack, who succeeds in stealing her heart. The trouble begins when Lally discovers that Jack is the son of Beth Chevers, the woman who is to marry her father.

The first 15 minutes of the film - love it. Jack (Bob) & Lally (Norma Shearer) meet at an art deco pool, set on the shores of Lake Michigan. How Jack "picks up" Lally is priceless - she high-dives into the pool and gets a kiss from a total stranger underwater. That night, there's a party poolside where everyone is dressed to the nines. The filming of the scene is unique in how the camera makes its way through the dancers to Jack & Lally. It's the atmosphere...sigh.



From there, IMO, the film gets a bit melodramatic. The couple is just dying to be together (almost literally) and one late night, they sneak away to the lake. Spoiler Alert. While on an island, a storm approaches and Lally is desperate to get back to her mother (she is suicidal from the breakup). Frantically paddling back home, the storm tosses the boat and washes them up on a deserted island. Days pass and Lally gets a bit overprotective over Jack's limp body - is he dead? Following searches by air, Lally's father finds them and, well, everyone makes it out alive. The movie cuts off way too early with the two contemplating marriage, again. I couldn't help but think that Jacks' mother & Lally's father won't get married - they displayed some behavior that to me read that they weren't quite ready. Perhaps the love of their kids' relationship would trump their own.

One last observation, I had to check and see how many islands there are in Lake Michigan for Jack & Lally to get stranded on - I could only think of one. Wikipedia is listing five named islands. You learn something new every day...

Now jump on over to Laura's blog where she has some interesting info on location filming for Desire.