Susan Lenox: Her Fall & Rise (1931)

Every Gable Fan HAS to Watch This Movie

I was not expecting much when I sat down to watch this movie for the first time. It had received pretty mediocre reviews on this site, but I bought it regardless, simply because of the good price and because I am infatuated with Clark Gable. After watching this movie, I did not understand why people were so unimpressed with it. It is one of the prized movies in my collection.

This film is short and sweet, and gets directly to the point. Basically the plot revolves around Greta and Gable's seemingly hopeless romance, which is pretty standard, but for some reason this movie is not standard. It is great.

Clark is impeccable in this early role. He really held his own and Greta did a good job as well, though it is not amongst her best roles, certainly.

The direction is very interesting and well done. Greta was filmed in a loving, caressing light. The camera really loved her, and this movie shows her off at her prime.

I would highly reccomend this movie to all you hopeless romantics out there. The story ends happily and there are countless sizzling romance scenes between the two main stars. In fact, in no other movie will you see Clark Gable making so much love or looking so devastatingly handsome. By the end of the movie, I literally could not breath and I fell to the ground, swooning.

Yes, this movie is melodramatic and slightly stagey, but it sets your heart racing and really sweeps you away with its romance! April 12, 2006

Three Cheers for Robert Z. Leonard

I watched this movie the other night mainly because it starred Clark Gable and Greta Garbo. They're both in there but there weren't many others of note in the cast. This is actually a pretty standard mediocre movie EXCEPT that the director did an excellent job in putting the film together. He couldn't do much with the cast but he did a lot with the camera and subtle suggestion. For example, the film opens with a foundling's birth. We are given just enough information in a short conversation to tell us that mom had a questionable past and that the child wasn't really wanted by her grandparents. We then get a series of silhouette shots of a growing girl. In each scene we get the message that she is overworked and underloved. There are scenes of men who try to take advantage of her as a woman. These scenes are impressively done with enough of an image of lust and fear to make a potent message. We get an understanding of a young woman who was abused every step of her life and we get this understanding with subtleties that seem quite suggestive for the era. As I watched this movie I became more and more aware of how well the director, Robert Z. Leonard, was able to make his point. An otherwise unimpressive movie became rather impressive as a result. April 21, 2005

Garbo's Tortured Love For Rising Gable

There are some stars in Hollywood's history that by their sheer star power and magnetism are always able to transcend inferior material and create memorable work. Greta Garbo was one such performer and in "Susan Lenox: Her Fall and Rise", she succeeds in making a fairly ordinary storyline (based on an early "racy" novel by David Graham Phillips), great viewing with her convincing performance and commitment to making an incredible set of circumstances more acceptable. Produced in 1931 this early sound film is unique in being the only teaming of MGM legends Greta Garbo and Clark Gable. Despite numerous reports about the pairs mutual dislike for each other and their very different acting styles, they in actual fact team well in this melodrama of one woman's quest for true love in many wrong places. Garbo is most definately the star here but as in most of the eleven roles he performed that year Clark Gable reveals a startling acting presence that matches the more experienced playing by Garbo all the way.

Garbo, fresh from her triumphs in the talkies "Anna Christie", "Romance" and "Inspiration", here plays the down trodden Helga, the illegitimate niece of a gruff farmer called Ohlin (Jean Hersholt in a brief but vivid perfromance). Used to a grim life of servitude because her mother "didn't have a ring", Helga finds herself in danger of being married off by her uncle to an uncouth older man called Mondstrum (Alan Hale). When he is forced to stay overnight in the house because of a storm Mondstrum attempts to "claim his property" early and in the ensuring struggle Helga flees the house and wanders lost out into the storm. Seeking refuge in a barn she is detected in her hiding place by weekend resident engineer Rodney Spencer (Clark Gable) Having nowhere to go Helga stays on at Rodney's Cabin and the pair fall in love and plan marriage. Rodney returns to the city for his work promising to return to Helga when his tasks are completed. However Ohlin and Mondstrum track Helga down and she is once again forced to flee without telling Rodney her whereabouts. Her flight finds Helga teaming up with a travelling carnival she encounters on a train and she becomes a dancer and the mistress of the show's owner Burlingham (John Miljan) who believes in enjoying the favours of his staff to the fullest. Rodney in the meantime manages to track down Helga who has been christened "Susan Lenox" by the troupe , however he rejects Susan when he discovers the terms of her "employment" with Burlingham. Moving on from the carnival by sheer self preservation and will power Susan finds herself the mistress of society go getter Mike Kelly who has political aspirations. By a fluke Susan runs into Rodney at one of Kelly's dinner parties where she realises her old passion for him is unchanged however Rodney still harbours the old bitterness towards her and in a nasty scene embarrasses her and storms out of the party. Susan then sacrifices her new found social position as the "kept woman", of Kelly and pursues Rodney down to South America. Encountering the decent Robert Lane (Ian Keith)who wants to marry her Susan is torn between his uncomplicated love and her unresolved feelings for Rodney. When she finally finds Rodney down on his luck she realises he will always be the one for her and at the fade out just before Rodney is due to return to his work upriver the two decide to make another go at sharing their lives.

Certainly "Susan Lenox", is a complicated and contrived melodrama with a bewildering array of men seeking the love of the elusive Garbo but out of such proceedings Garbo by her well honed abilities, succeeds in making this story a satisfying if not great one. Even with it's early origins "Susan Lenox: Her Fall and Rise", is a quite polished production befitting the divine Garbo's status as the aloof queen of MGM. Despite the well documented lack of offscreen chemistry between Garbo and Gable, on screen they team well and Gable performs excellently in the type of no nonsense characterisation that became his later trademark. While alot of these early characters of his were your typical "he-men" more often than not they were also intelligent and decent individuals under the outwardly gruff exteriors. His Rodney Spencer is one of his better performances from this early 30's period and his famous "roughing up" of Garbo around the time he was giving the same treatment to the likes of Norma Shearer, and Joan Crawford earned him a huge number of female fans and helped make him the uncrowned King of Hollywood. "Susan Lenox", is certainly one of Garbo's more earthy roles from this time but even in this film's surroundings of carnivals and cheap nightclubs Garbo still manages to exude that special magic thanks to the superb lighting of veteran technician William Daniels who was her favourite lighting man, and of course through the special magic of legendary designer Adrian who manages to create just the right look for Garbo whether the scene takes place in the lowly carnival or in an exclusive penthouse. Being a pre-code effort "Susan Lenox", also manages to be a bit more open and honest about Garbo's status as a "kept woman" despite her choosing the right path at the film's conclusion. Supporting performances are uniformily fine with MGM regular Jean Hersholt shining in his brief role of Helga/Susan's hateful uncle.

For anyone like myself who is an MGM buff "Susan Lenox: Her Fall and Rise", is required viewing if for nothing else but to experience the once only meeting on screen of Greta Garbo and Clark Gable. It certainly is a curiosity item in tracing Garbo's screen progression from her early vampish and "fallen women" roles to the grand dames of tragedy she became renowned for later in the thirties decade. There is alot to enjoy in this film despite its at times unbelievable premise and as stated previously Garbo, by her sheer star power is once again mesmerizing on screen. Highly recommended viewing for film buffs. January 29, 2004

OFFBEAT CASTING=MEDIOCRE FILM.

Garbo plays the illegitimate daughter of a brutal farmer (Jean Hersholt); he plans to marry her off to a low-class but wealthy farmer played by Alan Hale. Garbo (as Helga) runs off to escape her fate and hides out in a mountain cabin which belongs to young engineer Rodney Spencer (Gable, natch); they fall in love...The picture wasn't ever considered a box-office or artistic success, but it's a curio for those who would like to witness the unlikely pairing of two legends of the screen when they were young (Garbo was 25 here, Gable was 30). Garbo makes up for a great deal of the film's weaknesses by a clever study in alternating moods, while Gable gives a fairly strong, straightforward portrayal as her lover. Even back in 1931, the picture was considered rather scrappy and unpalatable - yet the acting and personalities of the leads still have the ability to mesmorize, even in a hopelessly hokey plot such as this. Interestingly enough, the book on which the film was based was written in 1917 by Graham Phillips; he was shot in the early twenties by a crank who objected to the treatment of women in the novel. His work subsequently aroused a storm of protest in America. July 16, 2002

After a little of this, you'll want to be left alone too

A few years back, I was on a Clark Gable kick and went through many of his movies, so naturally, "Susan Lennox" was rented in due course. This is not a winner. Nope, Garbo was too bad to be endured this time, so I had to stop watching and returned to my dinner. You may differ, so view and decide for yourself. August 28, 2001

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