In Ronald Colman's Oscar winning performance in A Double Life, he plays an actor who gets way too deep into his characters. It's pointed out that when he's in a comedy he's just the life of the party and when in a drama like Othello, we find out he becomes way too much like the character he's playing. Watching The Devil To Pay I thought this must have been the comedy they were talking about.
If Colman ever had a star vehicle in his career, that depended strictly on his British charm to carry the film, this was it. He plays the second son of a titled lord who is as irresponsible as they come. He goes bust in Kenya colony and has to auction his possessions to come back to the United Kingdom when we first meet him. He spends his last few dollars on a dog, touches dear old dad for some more money and charms it out of him, hooks up with old girl friend Myrna Loy and then dumps her when he meets Loretta Young. And Young he takes from the dullard she's planning to marry, Paul Cavanaugh.
When you come right down to it, Colman's a real cad in The Devil To Pay. But he's such a charming cad, he's positively irresistible. I think only Leslie Howard of all the other actors could have been capable enough of bringing off this part, maybe.
Though The Devil To Pay is strictly a star vehicle for Colman, it does have the added attraction of a couple of other movie legends, Young and Loy in their salad days. And I really did enjoy Frederick Kerr as Colman's Lord Blimp of a father.
For fans of Ronald Colman, The Devil To Pay is not to be missed.
If Colman ever had a star vehicle in his career, that depended strictly on his British charm to carry the film, this was it. He plays the second son of a titled lord who is as irresponsible as they come. He goes bust in Kenya colony and has to auction his possessions to come back to the United Kingdom when we first meet him. He spends his last few dollars on a dog, touches dear old dad for some more money and charms it out of him, hooks up with old girl friend Myrna Loy and then dumps her when he meets Loretta Young. And Young he takes from the dullard she's planning to marry, Paul Cavanaugh.
When you come right down to it, Colman's a real cad in The Devil To Pay. But he's such a charming cad, he's positively irresistible. I think only Leslie Howard of all the other actors could have been capable enough of bringing off this part, maybe.
Though The Devil To Pay is strictly a star vehicle for Colman, it does have the added attraction of a couple of other movie legends, Young and Loy in their salad days. And I really did enjoy Frederick Kerr as Colman's Lord Blimp of a father.
For fans of Ronald Colman, The Devil To Pay is not to be missed.