Grand Canary (1934) User Reviews

The censor kills the canary.

[piccadillyjim-1 · 6/10 · 28 December 2006]

GRAND CANARY by A.J. Cronin suffers from the misfortune of being produced during the changeover to the Hollywood Code imposed by the infamous Hays office which the studio producers meekly accepted, fearing a governmental censorship if they refused. It's a shame, for this might have been a better movie.

In 1932,before the code, it was possible to tell a story of two people meeting and falling in love even if one of them was getting a divorce from an earlier marriage. In 1934, William Hays, under the guidance of the Catholic Church's Legion Of Decency, forbid any script involving divorce on the grounds that such action was immoral. Reality went underground for almost thirty years in stories dealing with the relations between men and women. Needlees to say, the censor's blackout fell on the script for GRAND CANARY which dealt with a disgraced doctor who meets and falls in love with a beautiful but married woman while on a voyage. She loves him too, but can their love be consummated. Not with Mr. Hays. This is 1934.

Another critic on these pages, Mr. MacIntyre, has already described the end of the film. I can only assume that he may have seen a print made for foreign distribution since the domestic print has a totally different ending. The ending he describes is faithful to the book but is not the one seen in the United States. Indeed, the American version is so jarring that one wonders if the director and producer just washed their hands at the end and walked away from the whole thing. I would have rated this two points higher if the ending were faithful to the book.

It's a shame because the cast is very good in this film. This is one of Madge Evans' few outside films during her tenure at MGM. It offers her a sympathetic and touching role as the unhappy wife whose fate, after she has been struck by yellow fever, lies in the hands of the very doctor she has fallen in love with. Madge is beautifully photographed in this film and carries her "privileged class" role with an air of authority.

Warner Baxter does seem a little stiff, but when wasn't he? It's his style of acting. He never seems to be able to become really angry... not just upset, but angry. Even so, his scenes with Madge are tender and touching, as they play two troubled people who fate brings together.

H.B. Warner has a very minor role and Marjorie Rambeau is somewhat off key but Zita Johann performs admirably as the jealous nurse who is also enamored of the good doctor.

If you can find a good print, and I haven't, I recommend watching this simply to see the romance develop between Baxter and Evans... but be ready for the censor at the end.

A man going through inner torment is tortured by the love of two women.

[mark.waltz · 7/10 · 4 January 2018]

I love the under acting of certain actors. It's the little things that are not said that makes a difference rather than several pages of dialog in a script leading to a monolog. It's Warner Baxter here, one of the most underrated stars of his time, emoting little but saying much as a disillusioned doctor who seems to be either an endless bender or a vocal strike, creating all sorts of talk when he boards a luxury liner and gains everybody's curiously. Not all is good curiously, as there are those who find him suspicious, but for two women (Madge Evans and Zita Johann), meeting him is like the tanna leaves that brought the mummy back to life. The two completely different women are revealed to be going through their own inner torment, but as he slowly regains a purpose, it's apparent that choosing one over the other could destroy the one he doesn't choose.

Almost Josef von Sternberg like in its themes and pacing, this is as exotic as seeing Dietrich and Garbo together fighting nobly over John Gilbert. An overly dressed cockney Marjorie Rambeau shows that class and trash aren't always separate, an example of style over substance, delivering a showy performance that makes you wonder why she's so forgotten. This is very theatrical and grand in its own way, directed by Irving Cummings in an almost operatic manner. H.B. Warner and Carrie Daumery offer showy performances of a very theatrical nature. This is the type of film that takes much patience to get into, but like a great novel, it really takes you away to another world. To watch Baxter go from the walking dead to enthusiastic grabber of everything living is quite poetic, matching the script in both substance and style. One of the great discoveries for me of golden age cinema that I can see myself revisiting over and over.

Feverish

[F Gwynplaine MacIntyre · 5/10 · 12 October 2004]

CONTAINS SPOILERS. 'Grand Canary' is based on a novel by Scots author A.J. Cronin, who specialised in stories about doctors caught in ethical crises. The star of this film is Warner Baxter, whom I usually like, but his performance here seems to be a practice run for his later role in 'The Prisoner of Shark Island'. In both films, Baxter plays a disgraced physician who redeems himself when an epidemic breaks out on a remote island where Baxter is in exile. The principal difference between the two stories is that, in 'Grand Canary', the exile is self-imposed. Also, 'Grand Canary' has got more women in it.

Baxter plays Harvey Leith, an English physician whose refusal to accept current medical standards leads him to develop an experimental vaccine. In the charity ward, he tests this on three patients who are terminally ill; they're going to die anyway, but Dr Leith wants to see if the vaccine will relieve their symptoms before they succumb. A.J. Cronin's medical protagonists tend to be crusaders who must contend with the bloody-minded obstinacy of their administrative superiors, so it's no surprise what happens to Dr Leith: the hospital governor blames Leith's vaccine for the deaths of his three patients. In disgrace, Leith leaves the country, boarding a Liverpool steamer bound for the Canary Islands. (Hence the title.)

Aboard the steamer, Leith meets attractive Lady Mary Fielding, who's bound for the Canaries to rejoin her husband. Lady Mary is attracted to the debonair doctor, but ... she's bound for the Canaries to rejoin her husband. The ship reaches the Canaries just in time for a malaria epidemic. Dr Leith's career and reputation are over, so he's not afraid to die. He rolls up his sleeves and gives medical aid to the malaria victims.

At this point, as in most of A.J. Cronin's stories, soap-opera rears its ugly head. Lady Mary follows Dr Leith into the quarantine zone. Of course, she gets malaria. Of course, Dr Leith just happens to have a handy batch of his miracle serum to use on Lady Mary. When the blackballed doctor saves this green-eyed blue-blood from yellow fever, he becomes a hero back home in Harley Street. Dr Leith goes home to England, vindicated. Lady Mary discreetly tells her husband that she loves Dr Leith, and her husband obligingly gives her a divorce and steps aside. Whisky and soda all round, eh what? (UPDATE: My review is based on a British print of this film. I've since seen an American print, which has a different ending.)

There are several irrelevant subplots, and quite a few characters could easily be pruned from this movie. I usually welcome character actress Marjorie Rambeau, but here she supplies some inept comic relief that merely distracts attention from the main story. A better performance is given by Carrie Daumery, as an elderly marchioness who lets Dr Leith use her mansion for a malaria ward.

In the central role, Warner Baxter has the sense to avoid attempting a British accent. Unfortunately, he gives Dr Leith a stiff-upper-lip characterisation that seems to conform to some stereotype of Britishness rather than evoking a human being. H.B. Warner, an extremely variable actor, is quite bad here. Most of what's good in 'Grand Canary' was done better in 'The Prisoner of Shark Island', which had the merits of being a (heavily fictionalised) true story without nearly so many subplots. 'Grand Canary' is a well-meaning movie that manages to be very 'worthy' without actually being very good. I'll rate 'Grand Canary' 5 out of 10. Next patient!