A Free Soul

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Steve S @RT32687682 04/12/2022 Superior performances from Lionel Barrymore and Norma Shearer lift the overall film. But...the drama only works occasionally. Both Clark Gable and Leslie Howard are also good. The final scenes involving a courtroom dooms the picture sadly. It becomes unbelievable theatrical and manipulative. See more michael d @RT16138633 12/13/2021 This movie is famous for Barrymore's climactic courtroom monologue that is likely the reason he wont the Oscar for Best Actor that year. Gable made such an impression in the role of a gangster who pushes Shearer around that he was catapulted from supporting player to leading man. It perhaps is the first instance of the "If it doesn't fit you must acquit," defense when Dwight puts on a hat too small for his head from the scene of the crime. It was heavily protested and banned in Canada and Ireland due to the unfair portrayal of pharmacists. See more steve d @RT35616104 07/23/2020 Ridiculous but its cast makes it fun. See more 02/24/2019 Sprawling and messy, Clark Gable is introduced as a vile brute: a gangster who sold drugs, ran prostitution rings, and was involved in the human slave trade. He treated Shearer like a whore, yet treating women badly made him more alluring to women. The phony courtroom scene at the end is not a testament to Barrymore (although maybe it was in 1931). Class distinctions are thrown in, something you see in almost all early films, but not something modern audiences identify with. Gable's vile and vicious behavior ensures that this is not something you'd watch today. Shearer's overacting was the norm, but her streak of independence was abnormal for 1930. Regular women of the time would not identify with Shearer. The men who wrote this film are pushing for sexual independence (for their own benefit, of course). See more 05/05/2017 Here's the way I see things..... Norma Shearer's character Jan falls in love with a gangster played by you know who even though she's going out with a nice guy.The gangster is something exciting while the nice guy is quickly forgotten.What girl wouldn't want to be in constant danger of being shot at instead of horseback rides on the beach? Daddy, who's a lawyer & alcoholic, was OK with the gangster (Hey he's bringing in business, right?) until he found out the gangster is going out with his daughter.Now there's a problem & this causes a rift in the once tight bond between father & daughter, her family as well.Eventually the daughter realizes her & the gangster's relationship is going nowhere & he realizes that she's never going to publicly acknowledge their relationship (She always sneaking in the backdoor to see him) She sees what a mistake shes made & that she was actually better off with the nice guy.The gangster let's her know he's never, NEVER going anywhere & in steps the nice guy to save her from the gangster.BOOM.Now they go & find her father who was doing well but slipped & fell off the wagon a little ways back & hopped a train to ??? to bring him back to try & help the nice guy beat the case.THE END.I wasn't into this movie as much I hoped or thought I would be.It was just something to sit back & watch.I think I might have dozed off once or twice & had to rewind it back.Go ahead & give A Free Soul a shot.You'll probably enjoy it more than I did See more jona i @RT86387422 04/20/2017 Here and there. Still interesting. See more Read all reviews

A Free Soul

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