First of all you should know that I will watch any movie Frank Morgan is in. Some have been great. Some perhaps less so. But Frank Morgan has never failed to entertain me. His avuncular, bumbling, inept con man film persona is so well known that I sometimes remark on a movie "oh, Frank Morgan is playing the Frank Morgan role". It wasn't always so. You will be surprised at his superb performance in "The Kiss Before the Mirror" (1933). I consider it a tour de force performance. Other reviewers will tell you the plot, or comment on the other actors, or explain its dated social shortcomings ad nauseam. I am not here to defend the social attitudes of the 1930's. I am here to urge you to watch a masterful performance in a riveting courtroom drama. If you like it and want to see another surprising Frank Morgan dramatic performance, then you should watch "The Vanishing Virginian" (1942). Again, you will need to suspend your modern preconceptions of social morality and accept that you are watching a story about a different time when people not only thought differently, but struggled with concepts of morality and justice that we take for granted today. It is the results of their struggles that we enjoy our so-called enlightened attitudes today.
Review of The Kiss Before the Mirror
