Last night and this morning I watched this classic 1929 talkie. I was only familiar with one of the cast, Loretta Young, whom plays Erma in this movie, plays Gallagher in Frank Capra's classic 1931 film, Platinum Blonde. Otherwise the rest of the cast was new to me. Of all the cast, I think Myrna Loy, as Nubi, was the strongest, while the other actors were ok but nothing to write home about.
The plot of this movie is simple. A beautiful woman, who says she is 16, named Nubi comes to the farm of Josef Lujos (played by Richard Tucker) and his wife Maria (played by Alice Joyce) in the midst of a squall, saying she is escaping her brutal husband, a fellow "gypsy"/Romani. In the process, however she turns men against each other, as they fawn over her, buying her necklaces and jewelry as they want her affection. This leads to jealousy among the men, like Paul (played by Carroll Nye) and Peter (played by Harry Cording), who compete among one another for her. In the process, the women they love, like Erma, in the case of Peter, and Lena (played by ZaSu Pitts), in the case of Peter, are left behind. For his hostile behavior toward Nubi, Paul is kicked out of the house, while Peter even steals Lena's savings to buy beautiful jewelry for Nubi.
The women, like Maria, Lena, and Erma, suspect that something is peculiar about Nubi and the film implies that she has some magical powers, apart from her seductive prowess as you could call it. This is where I agree with the more critical reviews on here of this film, which range from 2 stars to 6 stars. However, I think the concept of this film is relatively interesting so I decided to give it a rating of 7 out of 10. I would say that at its worst this film reminds me of Spike Lee's Chiraq in that men are just seen as interested in love from women, not much more, with the idea that a "sex strike" will solve problems, playing into stereotypes about men.
This film, by showing men as pining for Nubi's attention, does make them relatively shallow characters. Additionally it seems that this film is somewhat anti-Romani in that Nubi, a Romani, is seen as a sort of evil spirit, like another race to be feared, almost in a racist way. At the same time, they are also shown as a strong and proud people. At the same time, the women in this movie are heavily submissive, even though they do think and act on their own accord.
And with that, my review of this film comes to a close.
The plot of this movie is simple. A beautiful woman, who says she is 16, named Nubi comes to the farm of Josef Lujos (played by Richard Tucker) and his wife Maria (played by Alice Joyce) in the midst of a squall, saying she is escaping her brutal husband, a fellow "gypsy"/Romani. In the process, however she turns men against each other, as they fawn over her, buying her necklaces and jewelry as they want her affection. This leads to jealousy among the men, like Paul (played by Carroll Nye) and Peter (played by Harry Cording), who compete among one another for her. In the process, the women they love, like Erma, in the case of Peter, and Lena (played by ZaSu Pitts), in the case of Peter, are left behind. For his hostile behavior toward Nubi, Paul is kicked out of the house, while Peter even steals Lena's savings to buy beautiful jewelry for Nubi.
The women, like Maria, Lena, and Erma, suspect that something is peculiar about Nubi and the film implies that she has some magical powers, apart from her seductive prowess as you could call it. This is where I agree with the more critical reviews on here of this film, which range from 2 stars to 6 stars. However, I think the concept of this film is relatively interesting so I decided to give it a rating of 7 out of 10. I would say that at its worst this film reminds me of Spike Lee's Chiraq in that men are just seen as interested in love from women, not much more, with the idea that a "sex strike" will solve problems, playing into stereotypes about men.
This film, by showing men as pining for Nubi's attention, does make them relatively shallow characters. Additionally it seems that this film is somewhat anti-Romani in that Nubi, a Romani, is seen as a sort of evil spirit, like another race to be feared, almost in a racist way. At the same time, they are also shown as a strong and proud people. At the same time, the women in this movie are heavily submissive, even though they do think and act on their own accord.
And with that, my review of this film comes to a close.