Columbia Pictures president Harry Cohn was known to be crude to his actresses behind closed doors. According to one account in Larry Swindell's biography on Carole Lombard, while on loan from Paramount she met Cohn for the first time in his office before the filming of October 1932's "Virtue." Cohn's opening remarks about her looks were met with an aggressive retort by the actress on his personal affairs. The studio head never had been confronted by such verbal jousting from anyone before. The back-and-forth continued between them until Cohn realized Lombard was a stand-up, confident woman whom he couldn't take advantage.
Photoplay magazine wrote an article titled "How I Live by a Man's Code," detailing Lombard's well-known reputation as a professional actress who didn't take any gruff from male management. "Play fair with men," she said in the article, "don't burn over criticism-stand up to it like a man." The published account was intended to show Lombard's independence as contrasted to the more meek actresses who succumb to the claws of aggressive men.
In "Virtue," the most popular of the five pictures Lombard appeared in 1932, she's a streetwalker, one of the final Hollywood films on the heels of Tallulah Bankhead's "Faithless" to use the oldest profession as a major theme before the strict enforcement of the Movie Production Code. The script by Robert Riskin, famous for his collaboration with director Frank Capra, is filled with the writer's sharp dialogue, giving Lombard a few hard-hitting comeback lines. A supposed street-wise cab driver, Jimmy Doyle (Pat O'Brien) has Mae (Lombard) as a passenger before she skips out paying the fare. Her friends include Lil (Mayo Methot) and Gert (Shirley Grey), both working as waitresses. Later Jimmy, unaware how Mae gets her money, falls in love with her and gets married. But the law, who had banished Mae from New York City, catches up with her as well as her involvement in the murder of her friend Gert.
Viewing Mayo Methot's performance in "Virtue" as Lil is fascinating since today she's largely known as Humphrey Bogart's ex-wife. Methot first appeared on the stage in 1919 as a 15-year-old actress for a stock company. Married two years later to a cameraman that lasted four-years, Methot appeared on Broadway in 1923. She transitioned to film in 1930, and found herself married to an oil tycoon a year later. Playing mostly tough-talking dames such as the one in "Virtue," Mayo's movie career lasted until 1940, when she made a commitment to devote her life to Bogart and her family. But her personal temperament matched the characters she played on the screen, and the seven-year marriage proved to be quite tempestuous.
At the time of filming "Virtue," Lombard was married to actor William Powell since June 1931. The two, according to the actress, 'were diametrically different." Their "see-saw love" contrasted Lombard's 22-year-old carefree and rather foul-mouthed personality to the 38-year-old actor's intellectual and sophisticated demeanor. Besides her acting, being married to one of Hollywood's more popular actors increased her celebrity status, leading to her first major role in "Virtue." Lombard divorced Powell a year later and eventually married actor Clark Gable in the spring of 1939. One of the most clairvoyant lines ever preserved in "Virtue" is said when Frank (Ward Bond), Jimmy's friend, tells him as he spots Lombard waiting in the District Attorney's office that "You're no Clark Gable."
Photoplay magazine wrote an article titled "How I Live by a Man's Code," detailing Lombard's well-known reputation as a professional actress who didn't take any gruff from male management. "Play fair with men," she said in the article, "don't burn over criticism-stand up to it like a man." The published account was intended to show Lombard's independence as contrasted to the more meek actresses who succumb to the claws of aggressive men.
In "Virtue," the most popular of the five pictures Lombard appeared in 1932, she's a streetwalker, one of the final Hollywood films on the heels of Tallulah Bankhead's "Faithless" to use the oldest profession as a major theme before the strict enforcement of the Movie Production Code. The script by Robert Riskin, famous for his collaboration with director Frank Capra, is filled with the writer's sharp dialogue, giving Lombard a few hard-hitting comeback lines. A supposed street-wise cab driver, Jimmy Doyle (Pat O'Brien) has Mae (Lombard) as a passenger before she skips out paying the fare. Her friends include Lil (Mayo Methot) and Gert (Shirley Grey), both working as waitresses. Later Jimmy, unaware how Mae gets her money, falls in love with her and gets married. But the law, who had banished Mae from New York City, catches up with her as well as her involvement in the murder of her friend Gert.
Viewing Mayo Methot's performance in "Virtue" as Lil is fascinating since today she's largely known as Humphrey Bogart's ex-wife. Methot first appeared on the stage in 1919 as a 15-year-old actress for a stock company. Married two years later to a cameraman that lasted four-years, Methot appeared on Broadway in 1923. She transitioned to film in 1930, and found herself married to an oil tycoon a year later. Playing mostly tough-talking dames such as the one in "Virtue," Mayo's movie career lasted until 1940, when she made a commitment to devote her life to Bogart and her family. But her personal temperament matched the characters she played on the screen, and the seven-year marriage proved to be quite tempestuous.
At the time of filming "Virtue," Lombard was married to actor William Powell since June 1931. The two, according to the actress, 'were diametrically different." Their "see-saw love" contrasted Lombard's 22-year-old carefree and rather foul-mouthed personality to the 38-year-old actor's intellectual and sophisticated demeanor. Besides her acting, being married to one of Hollywood's more popular actors increased her celebrity status, leading to her first major role in "Virtue." Lombard divorced Powell a year later and eventually married actor Clark Gable in the spring of 1939. One of the most clairvoyant lines ever preserved in "Virtue" is said when Frank (Ward Bond), Jimmy's friend, tells him as he spots Lombard waiting in the District Attorney's office that "You're no Clark Gable."