A Free Soul (1931)

Directed by Clarence Brown. Starring Norma Shearer, Lionel Barrymore, Clark Gable, Leslie Howard, James Gleason, Lucy Beaumont, Frank Sheridan.

Alcoholic attorney Barrymore successfully defends debonair gangster Gable against a murder charge, but doesn’t take kindly to his impressionable, free-spirited daughter (Shearer) falling under the criminal’s spell—engaged to Howard’s clean-cut drip, can you blame her for her wandering eye? A fairly simplistic morality play takes a turn for the tricky in the final act, but doesn’t have the conviction to back up its case for justifiable homicide. Before that, Shearer is at her slinky and liberated best, Lionel does a decent drunk act, and Gable radiates seedy charisma (his roles here and in Night Nurse catapulted him to leading man status in the MGM stable of stars). Watchable pre-Code melodrama with a superficial yet overwrought portrait of alcoholism and hard-to-swallow courtroom finale; nevertheless, the theatrical inebriation and climactic courtroom speech earned Barrymore the only Oscar nomination (and win) of his acting career. Adapted from a same-named novel and play, released in 1927 and 1928, respectively.

66/100