KEPT HUSBANDS (1931)

A fairly average pre-Code romantic drama; the main reason for watching this is Joel McCrea, the primary "kept husband" of the title. He's a working class guy and former college football star currently in the employ of steel magnate Robert McQuade. When McCrea heroically saves some fellow workers from a potentially fatal accident, the boss asks him to dinner where he attracts the attention of McQuade's daughter, Dorothy Mackaill, who bets her father that she can rope him into marriage in four weeks, and she does, though she takes the unorthdox step (for the era) of proposing to him. He then becomes a "kept" husband, as Mackaill intends to have them essentially live comfortably off of her family. She keeps him in Europe on their honeymoon for weeks, with a promise from her father that he will give McCrea a raise and also give her a secret allowance that will let her live in the manner to which she has become accustomed. McCrea becomes a vice-president with essentially no duties, leaving him free to learn how play bridge during his office hours (in a funny scene with his equally bored secretary). Soon, however, McCrea gets a chance to work on a real project and he goes at it gung-ho, much to the irritation of his wife who is tempted to stray into an affair with a dissipated pal. McCrea decides to leave her, and to resign as "kept vice-president," but McCrea's mom (Mary Carr), a salt-of-the-earth type, advises him that all husbands are kept one way or another, whether by money or love; she pushes him to try again and the two finally reconcile, this time with McCrea re-proposing to he--got to set things right symbolically by the rigid gender codes of the time. The incredibly young and comely McCrea seems completely natural, but next to him Mackaill is too mannered and brittle; she might have come off as an early feminist, but instead she's just a spoiled "rich bitch" whom we know will be "humanized" in the end, and our sympathies go to McCrea, no matter how we feel about the gender issues under consideration. Ned Sparks lends some nice comic relief as a former work buddy of McCrea's who lives in Carr's house, although here a little of him goes a long way. Freeman Wood has a very small role as a passive kept husband who is presented a couple of times in the background as a warning of what McCrea might heading for. McCrea fans will love this one, but others can take a pass. [TCM]