The Magnificent Lie (1931) User Reviews

Routine Chatterton film with some fine songs

[jeffrey-simmons · 6/10 · 9 December 2008]

Ruth Chatterton (Poll) plays a saucy nightclub singer in this Paramount melodrama. Her love interest, a blind ex-soldier, is played by the always adequate Ralph Bellamy (Bill).

The story begins in the first World War when a shell-shocked soldier falls in love with a visiting French actress named Rosa Duchene. Apparently, no relationship occurs, but several years later, his vision failing, he still has feelings for her. After he goes entirely blind and asks permission to see Duchene, her assistants (watch for a young Charles Boyer) decide to play a trick, and have night club singer Poll pretend to be Duchene. Any more plot details would spoil the story.

If you enjoy Ruth Chatterton's singing, this is a must-see. Chatterton does three numbers and two of them are really enjoyable. Another attraction is that throughout the film, Chatterton, pretending to be Duchene, speaks and sings with a French accent. Surprisingly, her accent is quite convincing. Also, she speaks with a tough as nails Midwestern accent when not impersonating the Duchene. Still, that harsh theater English of hers does slip up at times.

For Chatterton's fans, this film is well-worth tracking down, but if you are just looking for a seedy pre-code, then steer clear of "The Magnificent Lie."

A Lie, Not Nearly Magnificent

[view_and_review · 2/10 · 9 February 2024]

The title of this movie was a little more grand than it needed to be. There was a lie, however it wasn't magnificent.

A soldier named Bill Childers (Ralph Bellamy) went blind due to injuries he suffered in the war. Before he went blind he was cheered up by the famous French singer, Rosa Duchene (Francoise Rosay). She so mesmerized him that he remembered her thirteen years later when she was in New Orleans for a performance. He wanted to see her, but her handlers sent Poll (Ruth Chatterton), a New Orleans cabaret singer, instead. She put on a French accent and rightly fooled Bill the blind.

At this point there was no forthcoming conflict until Bill went to the nightclub Poll was performing at. He heard her and was so overcome by her performance he had to meet her. This is where the movie kind of unraveled for me. They began to force too many events for my liking. A movie is best when the events that unfold seem natural and organic, not man made.

Bill told his friend Elmer (Stuart Graham) to arrange a meeting between him and Poll and not to tell her he was blind. This is a foolish request as it is, because any sighted person can tell he's blind. It was made doubly foolish knowing that Poll already knew he was blind.

While Poll and Bill were dining and she was pretending to not notice he was blind, Madame Duchene entered the establishment. This was yet more interfering by the writers trying their best to make drama. When Poll saw Madame Duchene she knew there could be a problem because she had been pretending to be Duchene and now Duchene was there in the flesh.

Duchene was told of the little lie by her handlers. She knew Poll pretended to be her and decided that she'd have some fun with Bill as well. Well, by this time Poll genuinely liked Bill. This was a common occurrence in the '30's. If a decent woman spent a few minutes with a decent guy they'd fall in love. Poll didn't want Duchene to have fun at Bill's expense, so she slipped Bill a glass of hard liquor and told him to drink it. He downed the alcohol and was a slurring drunk within seconds.

I had a few problems with this scenario:

Problem 1: Couldn't he tell he was drinking hard liquor and not the wine or cocktail he'd ordered?

Problem 2: Once he began drinking the hard stuff wouldn't it have been difficult to guzzle like he did?

Problem 3: IF he was that familiar with, and used to, hard drinks that he could down them no problem, wouldn't it stand to reason that he would NOT get drunk within seconds?

The whole reason Poll wanted Bill drunk was so that he wouldn't be coherent when meeting the real Duchene, and it worked. It just worked too fast. If he wasn't coherent, then he wouldn't know that he'd been fooled before and was being made a fool of again.

What happened next was even more forced and unnatural than everything up until this point.

Poll took Bill to her house after he passed out. When he came to, she started getting flirty and putting moves on him. Finally, she told him that she had been pretending to be Duchene and that she really liked him and wanted him badly. Bill dismissed her and her pouring out her heart which clearly hurt her feelings. He thought she was a rotten person for playing a joke on a blind man. Poll got in her feelings and decided to drive like a maniac when taking Bill back to his place. She crashed, Bill got his eyesight back, and the two were in love like nothing ever happened.

It was some of the laziest writing you'll ever see. I think the writers were under contract for one more script so they churned out this dud. Ruth Chatterton has been in some wonderful movies, and she's been in some stinkers too. This one was a stinker.

Free on Odnoklassniki.