THREE WHO LOVED (1931)

At work in a big city bank, we see two tellers: John Hanson, who is also studying law and playing the stock market, and his friend Phil Wilson, a bit of a flirt and probably a cad. At the dock, Hanson meets his Swedish girlfriend, Helga Larson, arriving in America for the first time. He has arranged for her to rent a room in the same boarding house where he lives. John and Helga seem happy as they wait for John to pass the bar exam before they marry, but soon Helga gets tired of sitting around doing nothing while John studies, so Phil starts to take her out to social events, with John's blessing. The landlady sees no good coming from this, but John insists that Phil is his friend and would not take advantage of his time with Helga. Wrong. Phil and Helga begin some serious canoodling while poor John, desperate to make a down payment on a house, embezzles some money from the bank, specifically from Wilson's drawer. Wilson is arrested and tried for embezzlement, while Hanson keeps his mouth shut and Helga reluctantly marries him. How long will it take for Hanson's conscience to prod him into confessing? As it happens, quite a while, and that's the story twist that turns this movie into an unsatisfying downer. Frankly, none of the three is admirable, but also none of the three is particularly interesting, or evil, or even sociopathic. The ending feels like it might have been concocted by committee, but it's also mostly predictable if you know films of this era. The acting is serviceable; Conrad Nagel as John, Betty Compson as Helga, Robert Ames as Phil, Robert Emmett O’Connor as a cop. No one stands out, though Compson might be the weak link as she never truly seems all that engaged by either of the men. Pictured is Conrad Nagel. [TCM]