Rockabye (1932) User Reviews

Some girls want to have it all!

[kmk-3 · 6/10 · 3 January 2002]

This enchanting 1933 movie's series of remarkable moments -- a courtroom trial where a blonde Broadway actress actually defends a former "friend;" realistic playtime with a darling little girl; exuberance in a speakeasy, with old chums; a joyously funny, sexy scene in a kitchen; and much more -- are simply delightful. The plot doesn't do justice to the energy and excitement generated by Constance Bennett, Joel MacCrea, Paul Lukas and many others... she's a "Gashouse" neighborhood girl who has made herself into a lady, an actress who searches for love through family, children, travel, a new man, her work, etc., and he's an old-money college-boy playwright with a strong social conscience. And her agent loves her... But see the movie for its pleasures and overlook the occasional creakiness -- it's an unexpected treasure.

a major star of the '30s and lots of soon-to-be stars in this early Cukor

[blanche-2 · 6/10 · 10 August 2005]

Possibly because her heyday was 70+ years ago, the beauty and glamor of Constance Bennett is not mentioned much today. It's a pity, because she was a vivacious film presence and remained so until her death in 1966. Lana Turner was a bit taken aback when, on the set of Madame X in 1965, she first saw the woman who was to play her formidable mother-in-law - a gorgeous Bennett. If Turner was to wear mink, Bennett wanted sable and got it. Unfortunately, she died shortly after the film's completion.

Rockabye is a 1932 film about an actress with a certain reputation. She has three suitors - her ex-fiancée, Walter Pidgeon, whose trial begins the film, in a very small role, youthful Joel McCrea as a married playwright, and her agent, played by Paul Lukas. Directed by Cukor, it's an interesting film (and I believe pre-code), fueled by Bennett's performance, who is especially charming in scenes with the child. She also does all her own singing.

This is a good one to catch on TCM.

Constance wants a baby

[hotangen · 5/10 · 9 February 2015]

Constance Bennett brings vim and vigor to this soppy story of maternal longings. In Bennett's most recent hit movie, What Price Hollywood, she said, "I can't have a baby in every picture", but in that film, and in Rockabye, no kidding, there's a baby. In Bennett's private life, as all fan mag readers knew, between marriages Bennett had adopted a baby and was raising it as a single, working mom. This was unusual in 1932, but as fan mag readers also knew, Bennett did as she pleased. In Rockabye, Bennett, a celebrated Hollywood star with an adopted baby, plays Judy, a celebrated stage star adopting a baby. A case of art imitating life. Did Bennett's femme fan base vicariously see themselves in Bennett's character, a lone woman with child? Not likely, as Judy did not struggle alone to raise an adorable tyke but had multiple hands assisting - namely a nanny, nurse, governess, cook, and her own mother, plus a male presence in the person of her doting manager. Did Bennett's femme fan base wonder why Bennett didn't marry first and then pursue motherhood? Did the adoption agency wonder? Did audiences wonder why Bennett, at the peak of her Star Power, insisted on making this never produced and unproducible play?

Bennett is fabulous and gives a wonderful and lively performance. In films prior to What Price Hollywood Bennett was passive, even lethargic. In Rockabye she kicks up her heels, sings in a speakeasy with the pals of her youth, gets frisky with scrambled eggs and balloons, and has a rollicking good time with her new love. I suspect Bennett was playing herself, a free-spirit who thumbed her nose at conventions. Bennett too is believable in the script's hard-to-swallow scenes of sorrow and sacrifice. Variety's reviewer wrote, "This actress is one of the few who can somehow achieve conviction in just such stagey things" and "She is accountable for practically all its merits."

How did the public respond to Rockabye? After the opening in New York, Variety predicted it would do well, as all Bennett films had done. Bennett's biographer wrote that it was a colossal box-office flop. TCM wrote that RKO records showed it was a respectable hit and grossed slightly more than the very successful What Price Hollywood. So it was a flop and a hit? Maybe it was both. After a disastrous preview of Rockabye, the film was remade with a new director and costars. This would have doubled production costs and resulted in a loss, regardless of grosses. RKO then wised up - in future, no more babies.

10 stars for Bennett. 0 stars for story.

Gorgeous Constance Bennett

[drednm · 15 August 2005]

Gorgeous Constance Bennett was a major star of the early 30s and gave several excellent performances (What Price Hollywood? and others) yet she never won an Oscar nomination. She specialized in playing suffering women (as did Kay Francis) in women's pictures—never the kinds of roles that won big awards. In Rockabye, Bennett plays a stage actress who is implicated in a sleazy affair (with Walter Pigeon) where money was involved. In a terrific court- room scene, Bennett blurts out that the baby she is adopting is not Pigeon's child, which is what the prosecutor was trying to establish. Although she tells the truth the newspapers splash nasty headlines about her and the adopted baby is taken away. She flees to Europe where she finds a new play to do on Broadway. She gets involved with the playwright (Joel McCrea) and returns to Broadway in triumph. But that's not the ending.

This briskly paced film is a terrific little pre-Code drama that boasts a wonderful performance by Bennett. McCrea is also very good. Paul Lukas is OK as the love-struck manager. Walter Pigeon has a small role in the opening scenes. Jobyna Howland is a hoot as Bennett's mother. Clara Blandick is the housekeeper, Charles Middleton is the prosecutor, Virginia Hammond is McCrea's mother, Walter Catlett is a barfly, and Sterling Holloway is the night clubber who keeps asking for "Poor Butterfly." And little June Filmer is wonderful as the baby.

Bennett has a few excellent dramatic scenes, gets to sing a jazz number, and then there are all those balloons!

chapter 3 for Bennett and McCrae

[ksf-2 · 6/10 · 21 July 2017]

This was the third film McCrae had made with Constance Bennett, and backed by Selznick and directed by Cukor, I'm surprised it wasn't made into a bigger production (it's only 68 minutes). According to a review on TCM.com, this film was a dud at first. Cukor did many reshoots and edits to fix it up. Lead Judy Carroll (Bennett) has to testify against Al Howard (Walter Pidgeon), and because of that, she is not allowed to adopt the little girl she had been raising. To get her career going again, Judy wants to do a play written by "Jakobs" ( McCrae), but she has become so "refined", that he doesn't think Judy can do the part justice. Judy takes him around to her old, rough neighborhood to prove she started off at the bottom, and can do the part justice. Bennett even sings a song in a pub during a night on the town. Of COURSE they fall in love, and if Jakobs' jealousy doesn't get in the way, it could work out. Then more complications arise, and they must decide if you CAN have it all. Jobyna Howland plays Judy's mother, and she's so over the top, and drunk half the time that she really steals the scenes in which she appears. Also a couple lines for Sterling Holloway (Winnie the Pooh !) in the pub. This seems to have started as a play by Lucia Bronder, her only film project. There are a couple of abrupt, rough edits, but after reading the history of the film, I guess that's to be expected. It's pretty good... I'm actually surprised at the low rating that this has... of course, it IS only 200 votes so far.

Constance Bennett...quite a dame!

[planktonrules · 5/10 · 1 November 2010]

This is obviously a Pre-Code film for Constance Bennett, as she plays a likable but rather amoral character that certainly would not have been portrayed this way just a couple years later. That's because in 1934, Hollywood adopted a strengthened Production Code that forbade lots of behaviors that Bennett indulged in throughout this film! It is very strongly implied that she has slept around and you see her as a hard-drinking good time girl! This is certainly not the sort of virginal heroine who would be required in the era of the new Code! The film begins with Bennett involved in a scandal with a crooked politician. The notoriety of this doesn't bother her at all...until the agency that is arranging an adoption for this single actress changes its mind and removes the child. This scene is actually pretty heart-wrenching and the child did a great job--so much so that you wonder how they got such a young kid to do such a scene.

Because Bennett is so traumatized by this, she decides to go to Europe for eight months. When she returns, she announces that she's going to do a new play entitled "Rockabye" and is going to meet with its author (Joel McCrea). McCrea is apparently married (and, according to him, getting a divorce) and the pair soon begin having an affair. Once again, a married man, steamy action on the kitchen floor and the like is definitely NOT Code types of behavior! What comes next, frankly, hurt the movie--as it brought the schmaltz level to amazing heights. You find out that McCrea's soon-to-be ex-wife was pregnant and didn't tell him. Now that she's had a son, Joel is torn between his love for Constance and promise to marry her and his new son. In an attempt to do the right thing (despite the pain to her), Constance spurns his love to try to drive him back to the arms of his wife and new child. It's all VERY weepy, but didn't work well for me because it was hard to like the leading lady--and a lot harder to like her dipsomaniac mother. You knew Joel would do the right thing by not staying with her and caring about Constance's subsequent pain was just not a factor. Had they made her nicer and less trashy, I think the whole thing would have worked. As it is, elements are nice but that is all.

By the way, you may or may not like the part of Bennett's mom, Snooks (Jobyna Howland). She is supposed to be a funny alcoholic and plays it for laughs. Unfortunately, the character comes on very strong--subtle she ain't! I found her quite annoying--as comic relief seemed ill-advised for such a film.

Lucky on stage, Unlucky in love

[bkoganbing · 4/10 · 17 May 2012]

Rockabye is both the title of this film and the title of a play that society writer Joel McCrea wants Constance Bennett to star in. She's a hit in the play, the movie left a bit to be desired.

This movie is strictly Connie's show and she has three men panting after her. First is Walter Pidgeon who is a political fixer of sorts who is on trial for bribery. Her relationship with him causes her to be subpoenaed as a witness by District Attorney Charles Middleton. Though Pidgeon is acquitted both their reputations have suffered. As a result the baby she has adopted is taken from here by the blue noses who run the Bureau of Child Welfare. What this crowd might have done with Angelina Jolie or Madonna today is something to contemplate.

Her second man is agent Paul Lukas who suggests a nice long European trip till the scandal talk dies down which she does and where she meets McCrea. His character seems to be based on that real society playwright George Kelly, uncle of Grace. He writes a play that proves to be her biggest hit.

Connie's lucky in her career on stage, but singularly unlucky in love. The rest of Rockabye will show that should one care to view it.

Bennett and McCrea were a screen team of sorts doing four films including this one in the early Thirties. According to Tony Thomas in the films of Joel McCrea and THE authority on such matters Robert Osborne, the film was originally shot with Phillips Holmes in Joel's role, but Connie got George Cukor the director to re-shoot her scenes with McCrea. Personally in this somewhat maudlin film I think that Phillips Holmes might have been done the real favor.

George Cukor who usually had such a good touch in these 'women's' pictures went off the mark in this early work of his.

Actress gets baby, loses baby, gets guy, fights with guy, loses guy, fights to get guy back.

[mark.waltz · 4/10 · 31 May 2018]

In other words, it's all about scandal and it took two directors to get it done.

In other words, it's combination soap opera, screwball comedy, mother love saga, backstage saga, love story and even a bit of a musical, although Constance Bennett never does sing "Poor Butterfly" for the pesky Sterling Holloway. It starts off with Bennett in court as a corespondent in a scandalous trial, losing her adopted daughter as a result, and then sailing off to Paris with vain mother Jobyna Howland, returning to star in a play ironically called "Rockabye", getting to visit her former daughter thanks to understanding respectable adoptive parents, and being fought over by producer Paul Lukas and playwright Joel McCrea.

With a lack of direction in it's structure struggling plot, it's ironic that two directors (George Cukor and William Fitzmaurice) were at the helm. At her most glamorous, Bennett does get to stretch her acting muscles, but it is the boozy, glamour obsessed Howland who steals the film, vainly comparing her looks to daughter Bennett's as her frozen face barely moves around her lips. It's everything (and more) that made precode so much fun, but simply goes around in circles plotwise, leaving the viewer truly dizzy.

What a mismatch

[ArtVandelayImporterExporter · 2/10 · 26 September 2022]

I believe this is the earliest Joel McCrea film I've seen thus far, though I am familiar with many of hislater films. By contract, I just discovered Constance Bennett this weekend, watching as I am all her Summer Under The Stars films featured on TCM.

I can now say without reservation that the charm-o-meter pointed entirely in McCrea's direction. He's ridiculously good-looking and has exquisite physical movement. Bennett, while not exactly a dog's behind like, say, Bette Davis, has no s3x appeal, no zip, no nothing. She's just a doll playing dressup. Maybe Depression-Era audiences were thrilled to see her change outfits every scene. Snoozerama for me.

There is one interesting pre-Code scene in the kitchen. Bennett slaps McCrea suggestively. McCrea gives her a playful shove back. They do this a couple more times. All thetime smiling. It's pretty clear what they were going for here. But that's where the thrills end.

Poor

[Michael_Elliott · 11 March 2008]

Rockabye (1932)

* 1/2 (out of 4)

Growing up trashy but turned into a lady, an actress (Constance Bennett) wants to adopt a child but isn't allowed after her past is brought up in a court trial. This is an early film from George Cukor that really doesn't have any of the charm or spirit that his later films have. The film is incredibly slow moving and the 67-minute running time feels longer than three hours. Bennett is good in her role but she doesn't have a lot to work with and Joel McCrea is wasted as is Walter Pidgeon. With a cast like this you'd expect a lot better.

Down will come baby cradle and all

[jarrodmcdonald-1 · 3 July 2022]

Though the film had a troubled production history, this RKO precode comes off fairly well. Mostly, it's a tour-de-force for lead actress Constance Bennett playing a role that was originally intended for Gloria Swanson. Swanson bought the rights of the unpublished play and the story upon which it is based, but then sold these properties to RKO. Producer David Selznick was keen to use the material as a showcase for his all-important star at the studio.

Many scenes had to be redone when the director was fired and replaced by Selznick with George Cukor. The leading actor was also dropped and so was one of the supporting players. These changes necessitated a lot of reshooting when Joel McCrea and Jobyna Howland, one of my favorite character actresses from this period, were brought on board in the middle of production.

Miss Bennett had previously costarred with Mr. McCrea in two previous pictures, so they were a proven commodity. Plus they share considerable chemistry on screen together.

Some scenes already shot with Bennett and the costars that were not replaced have been retained and "blended" with the newer footage. As a result, the film is a hybrid of two versions that features shots from before the switch in director and subsequent cast changes, with Cukor's stuff. This sewing together of shots is a bit noticeable, because the editing is not exactly smooth in a few spots.

Also, while Selznick was careful to match Bennett's hairstyle, make-up and costumes with the older footage, you can still sense a different energy in what was filmed earlier compared to what was done later with Cukor.

Despite the behind-the-scenes difficulties, the finished picture is mostly cohesive. I would be lying if I said what we have is a great movie, but ROCKABYE does contain engaging performances. One thing that helps is how Bennett seems to take chances with the material. She does an admirable job; and while she addresses the script's stiffer tearjerker moments with skill, she manages to loosen up and give us some manic comedy bits. These dimensions seem to suggest the screwball roles she would do for Hal Roach a few years later.

In the story, she portrays a renowned Broadway personality who finds that happiness eludes her. When her character thinks she has finally found true love with McCrea, appearing as a neophyte playwright, it is all snatched away from her. The relationship must end when it turns out his estranged wife secretly had a baby, and he has to go back to them. Ironic, since a theme in the movie is that career gal Bennett has been anxious to settle down and have a baby of her own.

If this film had been produced at Warner Brothers, it certainly would have been made with Bette Davis and George Brent. It is that type of film, where the melodrama is dialed up and the lead actress is encouraged to overplay the more full-blown aspects of heartache and pain that come her way.

In the end, she will make a supreme sacrifice so that we can see her suffer valiantly before the closing credits, and so we can be assured she's not really self-centered at all, but a great lady.

Probably the best performance in this piece belongs to Jobyna Howland. She is on hand as Bennett's mother, a soused matriarch who sneaks sips from a hidden flask and is first out the door when someone mentions a party.

There is a wonderful scene where she has to walk down some steps inside her daughter's posh apartment. Just as she reaches the bottom landing, and it seems she has miraculously maintained her balance, she hobbles forward then falls flat on her face. It's quite funny.

Another thing that's interesting about Howland's character, which the writers neglect to explore in any real detail, is that she is in direct competition with Paul Lukas' manager character for control of her daughter. She takes credit for Bennett's stage triumphs, but she has been a total flop, literally, in the motherhood department. This ties in thematically with the fact that Bennett still wants to be a mother herself...maybe to prove that she can give a child a better set of circumstances than she was given.