The Best Old Movies on a Big Screen This Week: NYC Repertory Cinema Picks, June 15-21
Party Husband (1931)
Directed by Clarence Badger
Something amazing happens with Party Husband’s depth of field, which from early on is established as being as profound as are the film’s observations of social dynamics. The main characters initially inhabit full, large, multi-layered spaces with seeming freedom of movement. Then, as their surroundings constrict, they must mutually find ways to open themselves back out into the world. The people in question are Laura and Jay, two halves of an urban self-proclaimed “modern” married couple (played by Dorothy Mackaill and James Rennie) who each grant the other the right to work long hours in co-ed company. In classic pre-Code fashion, several compromising situations result that involve late nights, alcohol, and bubbling sexual tension with other people. Our upscale newlyweds, separated from each other by attractive distractions across enormous well-drawn rooms, eventually come back together as they navigate their way towards the shared realization that their values are more traditional than they had thought. Badger (who is likely known best for the silent-era romantic comedy It) coordinates the madness and awkwardness with nothing less than impeccable grace. Aaron Cutler (June 19, 1pm at the Metrograph’s “Old and Improved,” in a 35mm print preserved by the Library of Congress)
