Public Opinion (1935) User Reviews

A mother loses her voice and her soul.

[mark.waltz · 7/10 · 22 May 2021]

This marital drama takes a similar story to "Anna Karenina" stars Lois Wilson (I forgotten silent actress who had a lengthy career well into the talkies) in a dual role as an opera singer and her sister, dealing with the domestic issues with a possessive husband (Crane Wilbur) who emotionally neglects her which leads her to commit infidelity. She takes her young son with her, but he wins him back in a custody battle while she ends up losing her career due to consumption. When she finds out that her son is ill, she sends her sister to look in on him, and finds that her ex-husband is now involved with the equally possessive former friend Shirley Grey who wants to end up the second wife. But is it really the sister or the ex-wife posing as a sister? Quite an intriguing question when you consider how she acts when she gets there and receives a chilly welcome.

This is very opulent for a poverty row programmer, the type of film that Kay Francis or Ruth Chatterton would have started at Warner Brothers, or Garbo or Shearer at MGM. Ronnie Cosby (no relation to Bing or Bob) plays the ailing son who believes that his aunt is actually his mother, and he must continue to believe that she is his mother in order to recover. In time, the truth of who she is will be revealed, and the character of Shirley Grey will be revealed as well. Florence Roberts is very good as the devoted housekeeper with a huge heart and an insight to the problems they face and how they should be resolved, and she steals the few moments she's in the film. Chesterfield put more detail into making this one, and as a low budget mother love film from a B studio, it gets an A from me.

No Rhyme, No Reason

[nammage · 4/10 · 15 January 2017]

This film is about a man who is jealous. A wife who is an Opera singer. And a son who's just a son. It starts with the wife, the Opera singer. Her lead costar is infatuated with her. The husband keeps running into the two together in out of contexted moments. He thinks his wife is having an affair. She's not. She protests that she isn't but he's so jealous that he ends up wanting a divorce and he fights for custody of their son. It zooms in on the clock in the judge's chambers and shows many hours go by, and the husband's lawyer shows how unfit of a mother the wife is based on the actions of other people. It never shows her defense. And why should it? She's unfit, it clearly shows she is.

She, after the divorce, goes to Milan and the costar who's in love with her follows her and it's all the news: they're lovers! even though they're not. They're in an Opera together in Milan but who cares! She's a slut, apparently. Also, apparently, a drunk. They show two scenes of her being drunk.

Walk in the lovely, nice, kind, gentle neighbor who slowly falls in love with the husband (after the divorce, not before) but oh, the son gets sick, deathly sick and this sweet, gentle neighbor turns into a cruel heartless fiend who lies to the ex-wife's sister about how her son has all forgotten about his mother, and doesn't love her anymore.

This film was so stupid. The acting was average to poor. The direction was paint-by-numbers, the writing was terrible, and the little music actually in the film (such as the Opera) was minimal and uninteresting.

They have so much going on in this film that nothing is really going on. And I knew before they did it that they were going to turn the kind neighbor into a horrible person, I just didn't think they'd wait until the last 15 minutes of the film to do it. The ending was abysmal. I rolled my eyes several times.

The son and the kind neighbor (until the last 15 or so minutes) were the only good things about this film. The film would have been better if they didn't have to have a "bad guy" in this but then looking at the characters, the only good character (seemingly) was the son.

It's good to watch old films especially ones as obscure as this but ...