{"id":33238,"date":"2014-04-04T12:28:13","date_gmt":"2014-04-04T19:28:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=33238"},"modified":"2020-12-19T22:23:44","modified_gmt":"2020-12-20T05:23:44","slug":"back-street-1932","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=33238","title":{"rendered":"Back Street (1932)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>&#8220;There isn&#8217;t one woman in a million who&#8217;s found happiness in the back street of any man&#8217;s life.&#8221;<\/strong><\/p>\n<table>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/Back-Street-Poster.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/Back-Street-Poster-199x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"199\" height=\"300\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-33240\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/Back-Street-Poster-199x300.jpg 199w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/Back-Street-Poster-85x128.jpg 85w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/Back-Street-Poster.jpg 211w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 199px) 100vw, 199px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Synopsis:<\/strong><br \/>\nA young woman (Irene Dunne) resists courtship by an earnest entrepreneur (George Meeker), instead falling in love with a charming man (John Boles) who&#8217;s about to be married. Eventually, she becomes Boles&#8217; mistress, but finds her entire life compromised by her &#8220;back street&#8221; position.\n<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p>\n<strong>Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Feminism and Women&#8217;s Issues<\/li>\n<li>Historical Drama<\/li>\n<li>Irene Dunne Films<\/li>\n<li>Star-Crossed Lovers<\/li>\n<li>Zasu Pitts Films<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Review: <\/strong><br \/>\nBased on a best-selling novel by <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Fannie_Hurst\">Fannie Hurst<\/a> (best known for penning <em>Imitation of Life<\/em>), this beautifully photographed (by Karl Freund) women&#8217;s weepie is almost unbearably painful to watch, knowing that our plucky protagonist will be doomed by her undying love for a &#8220;taken&#8221; man. At first, we admire youthful Dunne&#8217;s unabashed certainty that she can have a good time with men while setting up inviolable [sexual] boundaries; the opening scene is particularly masterful in establishing this basic tenet of her carefree existence, especially in contrast with the ironic fate that befalls her over-protected half-sister (June Clyde). When Dunne falls hard for Boles, however, we recognize the dangerous territory she&#8217;s entered &#8212; and, despite the agony of watching her miss (through no fault of her own) her potential opportunity to meet Boles&#8217; mother and be seen as &#8220;legit&#8221;, we&#8217;re thrilled to see her emerging later in the film as an independent, seemingly happy single career woman in New York. <\/p>\n<p>From the moment she accidentally reconnects with Boles, however, things go swiftly downhill. Proving Blaise Pascal&#8217;s dictum that &#8220;the heart has its reasons which reason knows nothing of&#8221;, she allows herself to become a permanent &#8220;back street fixture&#8221; in Boles&#8217; life. We&#8217;re tortured a few times by potential hope of happiness and relief for Dunne, but ultimately, <em>Back Street<\/em> remains a morality tale through-and-through: despite its pre-Code status, audiences are meant to understand that choosing life as a mistress is a compromised bargain with the Devil. Most infuriating of all is how scot-free Boles&#8217; existence remains: he&#8217;s not portrayed as an entirely terrible fellow (he did try, after all, to see if he could manage to make Dunne his legitimate wife) &#8212; but hearing him complain childishly about how Dunne CAN&#8217;T leave him, how he NEEDS her desperately, makes one sigh with bitterness at the inequity of it all. With all that said, Dunne &#8212; beautiful, smart, and tragic &#8212; is so marvelous in the lead role that she makes this historical soaper worth sitting through once, no matter how uncomfortable the subject matter. <\/p>\n<p><strong>Redeeming Qualities and Moments: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Irene Dunne as Ray Schmidt<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/Back-Street-Dunne.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/Back-Street-Dunne.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-33241\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/Back-Street-Dunne.png 640w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/Back-Street-Dunne-128x96.png 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/Back-Street-Dunne-300x225.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<li>Luminous cinematography by Karl Freund<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/Back-Street-Cinematography.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/Back-Street-Cinematography.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-33246\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/Back-Street-Cinematography.png 640w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/Back-Street-Cinematography-128x96.png 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/Back-Street-Cinematography-300x225.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/Back-Street-Cinematography2.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/Back-Street-Cinematography2.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-33245\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/Back-Street-Cinematography2.png 640w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/Back-Street-Cinematography2-128x96.png 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/Back-Street-Cinematography2-300x225.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<li>Fine historical sets<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/Back-Street-Historical.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/Back-Street-Historical.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-33244\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/Back-Street-Historical.png 640w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/Back-Street-Historical-128x96.png 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/Back-Street-Historical-300x225.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/Back-Street-Historical2.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/Back-Street-Historical2.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-33243\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/Back-Street-Historical2.png 640w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/Back-Street-Historical2-128x96.png 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/Back-Street-Historical2-300x225.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<li>Refreshingly frank pre-Code dialogue:<br \/>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;Most of them think they can have me without marrying me.&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Must See? <\/strong><br \/>\nYes, for Dunne&#8217;s performance. <\/p>\n<p><strong>Categories<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Noteworthy Performance(s)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Links: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0022651\/\">IMDb entry<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/1932\/08\/29\/archives\/the-bankers-mistress.html\">NY Times Original Review (spoiler alert)<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.timeout.com\/london\/film\/back-street\">Time Out Capsule Review<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;There isn&#8217;t one woman in a million who&#8217;s found happiness in the back street of any man&#8217;s life.&#8221; Synopsis: A young woman (Irene Dunne) resists courtship by an earnest entrepreneur (George Meeker), instead falling in love with a charming man (John Boles) who&#8217;s about to be married. Eventually, she becomes Boles&#8217; mistress, but finds her entire life compromised by her &#8220;back street&#8221; position. Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors: Feminism and Women&#8217;s Issues Historical Drama Irene Dunne Films Star-Crossed Lovers Zasu&#8230;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"><a class=\"btn btn-default\" href=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=33238\"> Read More<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">  Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-33238","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33238","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=33238"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33238\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":58572,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33238\/revisions\/58572"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=33238"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=33238"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=33238"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}