The Last of Mrs. Cheyney

The Last of Mrs. Cheyney

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MGM. 98 minutes. US release: 2/19/37. VHS release: 6/24/92.

Cast: Joan Crawford (as "Fay Cheyney"), William Powell, Robert Montgomery, Frank Morgan, Jessie Ralph, Nigel Bruce, Colleen Clare, Benita Hume, Ralph Forbes, Aileen Pringle, Melville Cooper, Leonard Carey, Sara Haden, Lumsden Hare, Wallis Clark, Barnett Parker.

Credits: Adapted from the 3-act play "The Last of Mrs. Cheyney" by Frederick Lonsdale. Screenplay: Leon Gordon, Samson Raphaelson, and Monckton Hoffe. Producer: Lawrence Weingarten. Director: Richard Boleslawski. (Boleslawski died in the middle of filming and the film was finished by Dorothy Arzner, who was uncredited.) Camera: George Folsey. Art Director: Cedric Gibbons. Music: Dr. William Axt. Editor: Frank Sullivan.

Notes:

• The film was in production from 11/27/36 to 2/3/37.

• Cheyney was Life magazine's movie pick of the week when Joan was named "First Queen of the Movies" in early 1937.

• The original play opened in London on September 22,1925, and was published as a book in England in 1926.

• The New York city run of the play began 11/9/25 and lasted for 385 performances. Helen Hayes starred. The play was published as a book in the US in 1929.

• Two other versions of the film were made: in 1929, starring Norma Shearer, and in 1951, as The Law and the Lady, starring Greer Garson.

• Myrna Loy was initially slated to play Mrs.Cheyney and Joan was supposed to play opposite Clark Gable in Parnell. The ladies switched roles after Joan refused to do another costume drama (after 1936's The Gorgeous Hussy).

• Co-star Robert Montgomery later said of the film: "I barely remember the thing. Joan was fluttering all over the place, as usual. I just came in and did my work and went home at night until it was over." (EB)

• Cheyney co-stars Frank Morgan and Jesse Ralph also appeared with Joan in 1935's I Live My Life; Morgan was Joan's father and Ralph was Joan's grandmother.

• Cheyney co-star Aileen Pringle ("Maria") was married to Mildred Pierce author James M. Cain during the time of MP's filming.

Thanks to Jon M. for contributing some of the information in the above Notes.

IMDb page.

Critics' Reviews:

Cecilia Ager (1937):

It is comforting to see in The Last of Mrs. Cheyney that Joan Crawford has at last attained the manner she's been striving for. Now she quietly looks any actor, no matter how English, straight in the eye, confident of the mastered casualness of her own pronunciation. No more 'beans' for 'beens' jut out from her speech naked and terrified; no more do unresolved trimmings distract from the compact and self-contained silhouette of her clothes. Instead of the mark of self-doubt that used to be--now Miss Crawford goes about doing right things, wearing right things, with deafening poise.

Marguerite Tazelaar in the New York Herald Tribune (1937):

Joan Crawford as Mrs. Cheyney was competent, besides giving the part considerable sympathy....The picture has been staged handsomely, the musical score accompanying it is good, and the lines glitter.

TV Guide Online review.

Our Reviews:

If you've seen The Last of Mrs. Cheyney and would like to share your review here, please e-mail me. Feel free to include a star-rating (with 5 stars the best), as well as any of your favorite lines from the film.

Jon M. (January 2005)

Rating: -1/2 of 5

The Last of Mrs. Cheyney is the second of three film versions of the Frederick Lonsdale play, a sophisticated comedy that is "Veddy, Veddy British" (at least by Hollywood standards of 1937).

Fay Cheyney (Joan Crawford) is an American widow/socialite from Minneapolis, now in England, who socializes with the upper crust of society. She has 2 potential suitors from the same family (Lord Dilling and Lord Kelton -- played by Robert Montgomery and Frank Morgan). Mrs.Cheyney is not what she seems to be; she is an impostor and has, of course, other motives. Her main partner in crime is "Charles," her supposed butler (played by William Powell). One of her main dilemmas: She actually has feelings for Lord Dilling, but her loyalty is with partner Charles.

The opening of the movie is a little slow, but many characters have to be introduced. It's a good idea, story-wise, that the English setting is retained; this way Mrs.Cheyney can and does put herself over as a socialite. The most interesting scenes are when the viewer discovers that everyone is not who they appear to be; it seems all of these characters involved have something to hide... More of these scenes (if added) could have made the film more of a crowd pleaser.

Performances are generally very good. I found the "Duchess of Ebley" (Jesse Ralph) to be especially enjoyable as the matriarch of the family. Joan Crawford's perfect diction serves her well in this film as she has much dialogue and appears very much as the "dignified lady" throughout.

The main problem with the film is that the original story was sanitized to fit the Production Code of the time (any suggestion of sex was not allowed, crime must be punished etc.). With the code in mind, somehow the talented writers succeed in telling an interesting story full of witty dialogue throughout.

Stephanie (January 2005)

Rating: of 5

Following the commercial flops of 1932's Rain and 1933's Today We Live, MGM ended Joan's brief run of serious films from '30 to '32 in favor of starring her for the next several years in a series of "safer," frothier films designed primarily, it seems, to showcase her clothes and bring in more money for the studio.

Cheyney was part of this strategy, and the new formula had, after a few years, grown a bit stale at this point. There's the usual love-triangle, the by-now usual "high society" backdrop accompanied by occasionally witty patter, as well as Joan's ever-more-carefully enunciated diction and variety of gowns. (Also on hand is Joan's frequent '30s co-star Robert Montgomery, who never fails to annoy--me at least--with his smirky and insincere "charm.")

The film was more-than-partially redeemed for me, though, by William Powell, a quiet and graceful presence amid all of the accompanying high-pitched chatter. This is the only time he and Joan co-starred together, and he seems to anchor her own performance with his sense of assurance.

And it's an assured performance from Joan, as well. In her previous films to this point, whether light or dramatic, she'd always seemed a little ungrounded--a little too intense at times, either giddily or angrily so. Here she seems like an adult for possibly the first time---not a giddy flapper or socialite in the throes of a whirlwind romance, not a wronged woman, not a kept woman... Still a jewel thief, to be sure, but however unlikely the character and the accompanying goings-on, her "Mrs. Cheyney" remains a calm and sustained characterization.

Cheyney is also a treat for those who just like to look uninterruptedly at Joan! That may sound silly, since obviously we get to see her plenty in most of her films. But Cheyney lavishes more close-ups than usual, and it's one of the films where the viewer has the chance to really dwell on Joan's face for long stretches (notably when she's planning and executing the heist of pearls amid the shadows).

Joan later said that had her performance not been affected by her marital difficulties at the time, Cheyney might have garnered her an Oscar nomination. That's a bit of a stretch, given the limitations of the rather dated material she had to work with here. But the film is, nonetheless, very much worth watching for one of the first glimpses of the mature Joan that would appear in later MGM efforts like 1940's Strange Cargo and '41's A Woman's Face, and re-emerge full-force in her early Warners pictures Mildred Pierce and Humoresque.