CHAINED

US, 1934, 76 minutes, Black and white.
Joan Crawford, Clark Gable, Otto Kruger, Stuart Erwin, Una O' Connor, Marjorie Gateson, Akim Tamiroff.
Directed by Clarence Brown.

Chained is something of a melodramatic title for this romantic drama.

However, it is a very good star vehicle for Joan Crawford who had been in films at MGM since the late 1920s, gradually taking on star roles. However, she is given the Clarence Brown treatment, which he had given to such stars as critic Garbo and Katharine Hepburn, highlighting their glamour. In this sense, Chained is a key Joan Crawford film, attractive, glamorous, and wearing an extraordinary range of costumes by Adrian.

This is a pre-code film with the touch of the permissive but the ultimate self-sacrifice. Joan Crawford plays Diane, mistress of a wealthy businessmen, played with charm by Otto Kruger. He wants to divorce his wife, Marjorie Gateson, but she is unwilling. He sends Diane on a cruise to South America, giving her time to think about their future relationship.

On the ship, she encounters an American who has a ranch in Argentina. He is played by Clark Gable who had already appeared with Joan Crawford in Possessed. The shipboard romance is played with elegance, very effectively by each of the stars. She is falling in love, goes to his ranch, but feels that she must go back to New York to explain the new situation. On her return, the businessman does not give her a chance to speak, reveals that his wife has given him a divorce and that Diane is the meaning of his life. She feels she must stay for him. She writes a harsh letter breaking the relationship with Gable.

A year later, he is in New York and they meet by chance. She is willing to continue the sacrifice and stay with her husband – with Gable visiting in order to confront him and tell him the truth but realising how much the husband loved his wife. And, in a further self-sacrifice, the husband realises what has happened and frees Diane to go back to Argentina.

Audiences will be caught up with the stars, their story, their love, the sacrifices. And, for audiences who have been through the Depression, the cinema world that is offered is one of immense affluence, luxury, and the most comfortable of lives.

Otto Kruger is very good, always charming, as the husband and there is a cameo by Una O’ Connor, looking less like a pecking bird than usual, and Akim Tamiroff as the chef on the ranch in Argentina.

1. An MGM drama of the 1930s? Pre-code with stories about marriages, mistresses, divorce?


2. Production values, the stars, costumes and decor, fashion, sea voyages, life on boats, Buenos Aires, the Argentinian ranch? Musical score?

3. The situation, Richard, building up his shipping business, alienation from his wife, her cruises, refusal of a divorce? Diane present in the discussions? Her relationship with Richard, in the office, personal?

4. Richard sending Diane on the voyage, the luxury, the meeting with Johnny and his lines, his setting up Mike, her overhearing the talk? Reactions, cheerful, wanting to be by herself, attracted by Mike? Their activities on the boat? Her saying she would not see him again, going shopping in Buenos Aires?

5. The hotel, the luxury, Mike tracking her down, taking her riding, the ranch, the foal, Johnny and the friendship, Pablo and his cooking? In love with Mike? The friendship with Johnny and his support of Mike? Hoping for a future?

6. Her decision to go back to New York and tell Richard? His overwhelming her, her being unable to tell him the truth? The wedding, the newspaper headlines, society life? Her harsh letter to Mike?

7. The year passing, meeting Mike, the bond, the meal, the lavish service, her going back to her husband?

8. Mike, visiting the house, talking with Richard, prices for the shipping of cattle? Richard and his devotion to Diane, Mike changing his mind and leaving?

9. Richard, knowing the truth, saying the Diane had made him happy for the year, allowing her to go? Back in Argentina?