The Animal Kingdom (1932)
Tom Collier has had a great relationship with Daisy, but when he decides to marry, it is not Daisy whom he asks, it is Cecelia. After the marriage, Tom is bored with the social scene and the obligations of his life. He publishes books that will sell, not books that he wants to write. Even worse, he has his old friend working as a butler and Cecelia wants him fired. When Tom tries to get back together with Daisy to renew the feelings that he once felt, Daisy turns the tables on him and leaves to protect both of them.
- Edward H. Griffith
- George Cukor
- Thomas Atkins
- Fred Spencer
- Horace Jackson
- Philip Barry
Rating: 5.7/10 by 19 users
Alternative Title:
The Woman in His House - GB
Country:
United States of America
Language:
English
Runtime: 01 hour 25 minutes
Budget: $458,000
Revenue: $0
Plot Keyword: new york city, butler, pre-code, publisher
Leslie Howard certainly had a star quality about him, and he demonstrates that with aplomb here, but the story is just, well, wet... He is caught in a seemingly genuine love triangle between "Daisy" (Ann Harding") and wife "Cecelia" (Myrna Loy) and spends much of the time, aided ably by permanently sozzled butler "Red" (William Gargan) vacillating - occasionally comically - as he treads the fine line between the pair of them. The performances and writing are fine, nothing more, but I just found the story wore way too thin, too quickly - and "Daisy", frankly, deserved far better than to be involved at all... What it does seem to comment upon, surprisingly for 1932, is an acceptability from all concerned - including, to a certain extent from the families, that this arrangement though frustrating, isn't wrong. The film shows an enlightening degree of non-judgmentalism that I found quite refreshing.
