Clarence Brown's Sadie McKee has the reputation of being a lesser Joan Crawford vehicle from 1934. Certainly the trades of the day didn't herald it as anything special with Motion Picture Daily comparing it unfavorably to Crawford's previous hit, Dancing Lady. Perhaps because my expectations were so low, I found it to be a better than average romantic melodrama with a stellar cast: including Gene Raymond, Franchot Tone, Edward Arnold, Esther Ralston, Jean Dixon, Leo Carroll (no G. yet), and Akim Tamiroff.
I grew up with the latter day image of Crawford as a Gorgon, but have grown to appreciate her as an actress in viewing her pre-World War 2 work during my dotage. Her work in Sadie McKee is superb, full of the spite she became known for, but also palpable romantic longing. As he did for Garbo, director Brown flatters his leading lady with gorgeous close-ups whether la Crawford is gazing with adoration or malice at her co-stars. Cast as the servant daughter of a millionaire's cook, Crawford's humble background is designed to build sympathy for her with an audience wallowing in the depths of the Great Depression. A hungry Crawford in an automat early in the film has only enough money for coffee. She looks longingly at a piece of half-finished lemon meringue pie which a patron uses to stamp out his cigarette; a moment echoed by Jessie Royce Landis snuffing out a fag in her eggs in To Catch a Thief. Brown and Crawford milk the moment for all it is worth in a film bubbling with more class resentment than the usual MGM fare.
Brown has less success with the allegedly comic moments. A scene where Crawford and Carroll attempt to lead a sozzled Arnold up a long staircase is especially misjudged. As Crawford's youthful love, Gene Raymond is a bit callow. Yet, a scene of Raymond plucking his ukulele and warbling "All I Do is Dream of You" (most famously used in Singing in the Rain, but introduced here) to Crawford successfully evokes the innocence of first love. The film has a number of musical sequences, all memorable. I particularly enjoyed the appearance of now forgotten duo, Coco and Candy.
Crawford had just divorced Douglas Fairbanks Jr. prior to filming. She hit it off with Tone and the two were wed in 1935. For much of the film, Sadie Mckee resents the rich attorney Tone is playing for his snobbery. Much of Crawford's behavior, such as marrying the uber rich Arnold, is motivated out of spite for the lawyer. Yet, though Crawford is throwing daggers with her eyes at Tone for much of the film. the attraction between the two is as undeniable onscreen as it was in real life.
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