Try It Out Thursday: THE ANIMAL KINGDOM

Saturday night, I was scouting around trying to find something to watch that interested me. Cable was the same old reruns of old television shows and movies. I wanted something I hadn’t seen before. I wanted a new adventure, so I turned to Netflix. I stumbled upon a film from 1932 that intrigued me; THE ANIMAL KINGDOM. The cast included Lesley Howard (best known as Ashley Wilkes from GONE WITH THE WIND), Myrna Loy (best known from the THIN MAN series) and Ann Harding.

The story revolves around the characters of Tom Collier (Lesley Howard), Daisy Sage (Ann Harding) and Cee Henry (Myrna Loy). Tom is a free thinker and has been living that lifestyle; enjoying art and only publishing books that he actually would want to read. Tom thinks that it is time to become respectable so he announces his engagement, but it is not to longtime girlfriend Daisy but to Cee, a New York socialite. Cee represents everything that he has been running away from in his father’s world. It doesn’t take him too long after the marriage to realize the mistake that he has made. Cee shows herself to be conniving and deceitful while Daisy only wants what is best for Tom. Tom must choose between his desire for Cee and Daisy. Which one fulfills him more as a person? The acting is stellar.

The film is a bit stilted; it is an adaptation of a staged play that was filmed. The film touches on topics of premarital sex, adultery, love and friendship. It is the film version of a Philip Barry play. This film was the first of three of his plays to be filmed: HOLIDAY (1938) and THE PHILADELPHIA STORY (1940). It is interesting to see Myrna Loy as an unsympathetic character. She usually plays someone the audience likes, but it is hard to like or root for her here. Lesley Howard plays a much more interesting character than I have seen him portray before; here he is multi-dimensional and interesting.

This film is not from the beginning of either of their careers but it is a footnote to things to come. I am glad that I found it. I love HOLIDAY and THE PHILADELPHIA STORY and was glad to discover another film written by Phillip Barry. THE ANIMAL KINGDOM is available on Netflix instant stream. Enjoy.