Susan Lenox (Her Fall and Rise)

Troubles never come singly,and in the short space of barely 75 minutes,the least we can say is that rain keeps falling over Garbo's head.The director treats of his heroine's childhood as a shadow show,a good idea and a way to sweeten the rather dense and eventful story.So dense it's sometimes hard to keep up with it.GB is a wretch,then a circus artist, a socialite,a hostess in a seedy African cabaret..Well it's melodrama!This is not as good as contemporary Stahl's best works though,because of the unsatisfying cutting. Long before "Ninotchka" Garbo laughs when she sees caviar .(it looks like buckshots!).This is not as much misogynist as they often say.Except for Gable's character and the man in the cabaret,all the males are infamous pigs whose only desire is to get the heroine in their bed.

Susan Lenox: Her Fall and Rise (1931) *** (out of 4) A young girl (Greta Garbo) runs away from home due to her violent father and ends up at the house of a man (Clark Gable) but fate keeps them apart until they are reunited years later. This is my fourth Garbo film in a row and it's apparent that she was a huge star so the studio just kept having her play the same type of characters. Once again she goes to a bastard she hates while the man she really loves is mad at her for going to other men. I really wouldn't call this a "good" movie but it is a rather interesting one due in large part to Gable. He plays the character as a happy-go-lucky, fast talking guy and it's rather strange seeing Gable do this. I wouldn't call the performance good because he's stretching so much but it does make for an entertaining viewing. The scene where he insults Garbo at the dinner table and then threatens to beat up the guy she's with is hysterical, although I don't think it was meant to be.

This film is noteworthy because of the unique, mysterious, and wonderful screen presence of Greta Garbo. She is thoroughly convincing as the vulnerable young woman at the beginning of the film, and as her character becomes more worldly but still vulnerable she remains convincing. Occasionally she might lapse into acting that would seem to the modern viewer to be overly dramatic, but overall she is brilliant. Clark Gable is okay, but the construction of the film from a plot standpoint left something to be desired. Some things needed to be explained better. This seems to be a common problem with many early sound films as most of the 1928-31 sound films that I have seen are at times disjointed, leaving the viewer wondering why something occurred. That said, I recommend this film because of Garbo.

This was an interesting story. It was also very hard to swallow, almost as though it was edited beyond intelligibility. They fall in love too quickly, then later in the picture she tracks him down without any clue as to his whereabouts. She falls in with a circus troupe and writes him to meet her despite becoming the mistress of the circus owner - and she's shocked when Gable drops her on the spot. How could she not anticipate rejection in this circumstance? Though it borders on fantasy it works due to the efforts of the two stars. There was good chemistry between Garbo and Gable, and she is chiefly responsible for it. I am in a minority here, but I always fail to see Garbo's 'indescribable charm and allure'. I guess I am too young. Nevertheless, it is she who makes the film work, and raises a poorly written and ultimately inferior movie to my rating of six.

Actually, I thought the movie was the opposite of the title - this film "rose" high at the start and just slowly fell to the bottom. It started off great, especially in the cinematography department. Greta Garbo looked very pretty and captivating and there was Clark Gable, sans famous mustache. This was Gable's first starring role. The start of the second half signaled the decline as the film turned into a sappy melodrama and finished with an incredibly bad last 15 minutes, ruining what looked like a really promising film. Jean Hersholt and John Miljan provided able supporting help but, in the end, the film was disappointment.