RECKLESS: in praise of the wonderful William Powell

RECKLESS boasts practically everything but a tidal wave!

MGM hurled the proverbial kitchen sink into this 1935 production. There's comedy, drama, musical numbers, dancing, melodrama, scandal, public condemnation, high society snobs, showgirls, drunkenness, suspicious death, unrequited love, a feisty grandmother, wrestlers and jockeys.
Inevitably the story eventually capsizes under the weight of all these disparate elements, all but erasing the memory of its early promise.
But from the wreckage one man rises tall and untarnished.
The wonderful - incomparable - William Powell.
The surprise is not that he's good. Anyone who's seen one of the 'Thin Man' movies knows that. The surprise is that he succeeds in doing such incredibly good things with material that would drag a lesser actor down to his professional death.
As New York based sports agent Ned Riley he has to convince us that he's never plucked up the courage to profess his true feelings for Broadway headliner Mona Leslie, played by Jean Harlow. He's guided her from carnival dancer to star of the Great White Way and, in the process, allowed himself to become adopted as her big brother by both Mona and her plucky grandmother (May Robson). Powell is not the kind of actor one naturally associates with benign big brother to a sexpot roles, so it's to his immense credit that he makes Riley's predicament plausible. To his loyal numbskull associates Smiley and Blossom (Ted Healy and Nat Pendleton) he's genial, self-assured and confident, seemingly without a care in the world, but all the while he's concealing an aching heart and crippled by an inability to express his true feelings to Mona, except when she's asleep. In an era when leading men became stars by repeatedly playing a certain type Powell bucks the trend by presenting Riley as a fully-rounded, multi-faceted character whose actions and motivations can't be so easily anticipated. When Riley does reveal his vulnerable side, after learning that Mona has married wealthy playboy Robert Harrison Jr (Franchot Tone) it elicits a real emotional response.

Powell's performance also deserves praise for convincing us Mona is a gal worth moping over. In previous reviews of her films I've made clear my incomprehension at Harlow's sexbomb status and she's no more alluring here. Nor does her performance offers any clues to explain why Mona is a Broadway sensation. She's an average dancer and singer (even with Harlow lipsyncing - badly - to someone else's voice) starring in an uninspiring musical review featuring bland and unmemorable songs. And nothing she does indicates a lifestyle suggested by the film's title. Clearly though, she had something because Harlow and Powell became an item in real life after working together on RECKLESS.
The story and the star aren't much cop but there are some other reasons in addition to Powell for investing your time in this film. Robson is a real delight as Mona's feisty granny, Tone is charming and handsome as the troubled suitor, and there's some lovely comedy pieces from Healy and Pendleton.
RECKLESS is a genuine curate's egg. The bad parts really stink but Powell's delicious playing does ameliorate the stench to the point where it's possible to remain in the room without holding your breath.