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Her Man (1930) Helen Twelvetrees Breakthrough
Posted on 10/8/25 at 3:29 pm
Posted on 10/8/25 at 3:29 pm
Helen Twelvetrees
Summary from Gork
An excellent restored version of this movie is available on youtube:
Summary from Gork
quote:
In the steamy underbelly of Havana's Thalia dancehall, Her Man (1930), a raw pre-Code gem directed by Tay Garnett, unfolds as a gritty riff on the "Frankie and Johnny" ballad. Helen Twelvetrees stars as Frankie, a jaded showgirl and thinly veiled prostitute deported from the U.S. due to her criminal past. Stranded and cynical, she hustles drinks and pockets in the seedy portside saloon, her life a cycle of exploitation under the thumb of her possessive pimp, Johnnie (Ricardo Cortez), a knife-wielding thug who "protects" her with brutal fists and threats.
Johnnie, enraged by an American sailor who wants to take Frankie away, rallies his henchmen for a deadly ambush. In a frenzy of Pre-Code excess—booze-soaked betrayals, implied sexual transactions, and moral ambiguity—Johnnie meets an accidental end in the crossfire. Frankie and Dan seize their chance, fleeing to America.
An excellent restored version of this movie is available on youtube:
2
Posted on 10/8/25 at 8:41 pm to blueridgeTiger
Yeah, I love Helen Twelvetrees. Some of her early films are actually lost, including most regrettably, "The Cat Creeps" (1930), a talkie remake of "The Cat and the Canary." She was one of RKO's top-flight stars of the early-talkie period. I'm partial to "Panama Flo" (1932), although it's pretty seedy, similar to "Her Man" (1930). Her craziest film is undoubtedly the bizarre gangster movie "Bad Company" (1931). It's a wild movie, with an intense gunfight finale, although the movie doesn't really show off Twelvetrees to advantage, keeping the spotlight on Ricardo Cortez as psychotic gang-leader.
Twelvetrees' star status waned pretty quickly after she left RKO, but I still like some of the modest programmers she was in, like "One Hour Late" (1935) for Paramount, and "The Spanish Cape Mystery" (1935) for Republic. There's actually a book out on her, but I never got it, figuring it would probably be a sad read (she committed suicide in the 1950s).
Twelvetrees' star status waned pretty quickly after she left RKO, but I still like some of the modest programmers she was in, like "One Hour Late" (1935) for Paramount, and "The Spanish Cape Mystery" (1935) for Republic. There's actually a book out on her, but I never got it, figuring it would probably be a sad read (she committed suicide in the 1950s).
Posted on 10/8/25 at 10:16 pm to blueridgeTiger
Boobs?
Posted on 10/8/25 at 10:51 pm to Aeolian Vocalion
It's heartwarming to see a Helen Twelvetrees thread get some response here. Maybe someone could start a Pre-Code thread?
quote:Never seen this - I need to rectify that (and if you've ever been rectified, you know how painful that can be)
"Bad Company" (1931)
Posted on 10/9/25 at 12:20 pm to Kafka
I'm sometimes wary about recommending "Bad Company" (1931) to folks, as it's a pretty oddball film, with some weird humor and overheated dramatics. But visually it has some very memorable scenes, and its direction is very fluid for an early talkie. I first taped a copy of it off the TNT network in the late-1980s, and probably revisited it five or six times over the years. It's hardly a typical gangster film, with its almost dreamlike aura, tied to a nervous unease. The then-current (and rather haunting) hit tune "Sweet and Lovely" is instrumentally heard behind the opening credits, and then again a few times later, including a surreal montage sequence. It's a very quirky film. Worth seeing, but admittedly not for all tastes. Mostly for deep-dive connoisseurs of old-time movies.
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