Strange Interlude: Warner Brothers Archive Collection

By Jeff Swindoll Mar 30, 2009, 16:11 GMT

Warner Brothers has developed an exciting new way for film buffs to get titles that might not exactly sell well on DVD.  A collection of them are available on their website and you can either order a burned copy or a digital copy (for certain titles).  This Norma Shearer, Clark Gable melodrama is one of them.  

Nina Leeds’ (Norma Shearer) boyfriend has been killed in war.  She’s going against the wishes of her Professor father (Henry B. Walthall) and going away to help in a military hospital.  Family friend and author Charlie Marsden (Ralph Morgan) has come back into town and is anxious to see Nina since he secretly loves him.  However, she only sees him as an uncle figure and his love goes unspoken. 

Time passes as Nina works in the hospital.  She has to come home again since her father is on his deathbed.  She brings Sam Evans (Alexander Kirkland) and Dr. Ned Darrell (Clark Gable) with her back home.  Sam confesses to Charlie that he wants to marry Nina and plans on asking until she accepts. 

Nina does accept and marries Sam, but later finds out that insanity runs in his family and her thoughts of a child are dashed.  She gets another chance when Ned says that if she were to conceive a child with a man she hates that she would grant Sam and child, which he also wants, and not have to worry about the madness being passed on.  She has Ned father her child, but the two falls deeply in love but it has to remain a secret if Sam is to hold on to his sanity.  

Strange Interlude (1932) is based on the play by Eugene O’Neill and is directed by Robert Z. Leonard, who goes uncredited as director.  In stagecraft when a character wants their innermost thoughts to be known they perform a soliloquy.  This is perfectly acceptable on the stage but can seem odd on film.  So it was decided that voiceover be used for those soliloquies. 

This can also be awkward as Strange Interlude proves, especially since there are far too many voiceovers.  In Animal Crackers (1930), Groucho says that he is going to have a strange interlude and talks to the audience (panning O’Neill’s play) so the concept was easily made fun of.  The film is the height of melodrama with much over-the-top expressions and eye rolling.  The play does go through the lives of the characters so we get to see our leads in various ages.  It’s also the first time that we get to see Clark Gable with a moustache. 

Also look for Robert Young as the older child of Ned and Nina.  However, the overly dramatic acting will be easily spoofed these days and probably not too popular with today’s audiences.  Warner probably knows that the film only appeals to Gable, Shearer, and classic film fans.  To that end it’s one of the titles in their new service called the Warner Archive Collection. 

If you go to “Warner Archive Collection” you’ll find a selection of films that you can order or download.  If you order a physical copy, Warner will burn you a copy and mail it to you for $19.95.  Some titles are available for download for $14.95. 

This may be a boon to classic film fans who have been longing for titles that the general public’s lack of interest in have kept them off of DVD.  I’m very much in love with the idea, but the cost is what gives me pause.  Looking over the list I immediately saw three titles that I wanted, but the $60 to have them made me decide that maybe I didn’t need them after all.  Even a download is pretty steep - $9.95 a disc would’ve been more my speed and perhaps $5 a download.

I guess I shouldn’t look a gift horse in the mouth since these titles are being made available, but the cost is going to make me pickier about what titles I might pick up.  That being said, I probably wouldn’t have chosen Strange Interlude as it’s rather creaky and the voiceovers border on the verge of comedy.  

I’d have to give the Warner Archive service an “A” for effort, but wish the service would’ve been a little more affordable as I could envision myself spending a mint on the site.

Especially since I’d want the DVDs and not the downloads.  Strange Interlude is indeed an interlude and also strange.  Classic fans will be delighted to have the ability to get a copy and I hope that other treasures will find their way out of the Warner’s vault.  

For this and 150 other available titles visit the “Warner Archive Collection.”