Word: graystone
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Dates: during 1930-1939
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...Betters (RKO) is a well photographed version of Somerset Maugham's acrid comedy about U. S. parvenues in London society. Less a play than a gallery of portraits, it has the merit of showing its subjects in action: Lady Grayston (Constance Bennett), an heiress married to a penniless peer for his title, showing off with loud clothes and reconditioned epigrams; an aging duchess (Violet Kemble-Cooper), jealous of her gigolo (Gilbert Roland) who is making love to Lady Grayston; Thornton Clay (Grant Mitchell), a pee-wee snob trying to behave like a patrician; a U. S. Babbitt (Minor Watson...
...effect of Lady Grayston's misconduct upon her young sister may seem less important dramatic material now than it did when Our Betters was performed on Broadway in 1917, but the conversation adapted for the screen by Jane Murfin and Harry Wagstaff Gribble still crackles. Constance Bennett's mannerisms and her loud voice, possibly a shade more metallic than she intends it to be, become her part. Violet Kemble-Cooper and Gilbert Roland (Luis Antonio Damaso De Alonso, son of a Spanish bullfighter), are the other most noticeable members of an expert cast, expertly directed by George Cukor...
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