Constance Bennett is incredibly icy in Bought! (1931) and I loved it

You should probably watch Bought! if you have ever looked at a luxury car or a fancy dress and felt a little bit of soul-crushing jealousy. It is for anyone who likes 1930s dramas where people talk fast and wear very heavy silk. 👗

If you hate movies where the main character is kind of a jerk, you will probably want to turn this off after ten minutes. Stephanie Dale is not exactly a sweetheart.

She is a shop girl who thinks she is better than her neighbors. She wants the finer things and she is pretty blunt about it.

I like that the movie doesn't try to make her a saint. She is actually quite annoying in the way she looks down on her poor boyfriend, Dave.

There is this one scene in the beginning where she is just staring at some fancy books and clothes. You can see the gears turning in her head like she is planning a heist, but her only weapon is her own face. 💄

The pacing is a little bit wonky in the middle. It feels like the movie forgot it was a drama for a second and tried to be a fashion show.

Constance Bennett has this way of walking that makes it look like she is constantly annoyed by the floor. She is very glamorous but in a way that feels a bit sharp, like you might get a paper cut if you touched her sleeve.

She reminded me a bit of the characters in The Forbidden Path, always looking for a way out of their current life. Except Stephanie isn't quite as tragic; she's just very determined to be rich.

I noticed the sound in this print was a bit crunchy. It adds to the charm, I guess, but I had to squint with my ears a few times to hear what the father was saying.

Speaking of the father, Richard Bennett plays her dad in the movie. And he was her actual father in real life! 😲

It makes their scenes together feel very strange. He plays this rich guy, Meyerstien, who takes an interest in her, and there is this heavy secret hanging over them.

When he looks at her, it’s not that creepy old-man-look you usually get in these Pre-Code movies. It’s more like he’s looking at a ghost, which makes sense once you figure out the plot.

The script is full of these little lines that feel very 1931. Like when they talk about "breeding" and "background" as if those things are actually real.

It’s a bit like What Every Woman Wants but with more bitterness. Stephanie thinks money will solve her personality problems.

There is a guy named Nick who is supposedly the "good" option for her. He is played by Ben Lyon, and he is fine, I guess, but he is a bit boring compared to the high-society snakes.

I found myself rooting for her to fail just so she would be forced to be interesting again. When she finally gets into the big parties, she looks bored out of her mind.

Maybe that’s the point. The movie tries to tell us that being rich is empty, but then it spends 20 minutes showing us how cool her new apartment looks.

One reaction shot of her in a library lingers for way too long. I think the director just liked the way the light hit her hair that day.

The ending feels a bit rushed, like they realized they only had five minutes of film left in the camera. It’s one of those "everything is fixed now" endings that doesn't really fix anything. 🎬

I kept thinking about The Old Hokum Bucket while watching the party scenes. There is something so fake about movie parties from this era.

The extras in the background are always doing this weird pantomime of talking. They move their mouths but their eyes are totally dead.

I also noticed a very small mistake in one scene where a shadow of a microphone seems to dip into the top of the frame. It’s only there for a second, but once you see it, you can't un-see it.

It’s not a perfect movie, but it feels very human. It’s about that ugly feeling of wanting to be someone else.

If you are looking for a masterpiece, this isn't it. But if you want to see Constance Bennett wear a dozen different hats and look miserable in mansions, you'll have a good time. 🥂

I think I liked it more because it was a bit messy. It doesn't feel like it was made by a committee; it feels like it was made by people who really wanted to show off some furniture.

The dialogue isn't always smart, but it's fast. And sometimes fast is better than smart when you're watching something from ninety years ago.

I’m still thinking about that scene with the stockings. It was such a small detail, but it told you everything you needed to know about her life before the money.

Anyway, it’s worth a watch on a rainy Sunday. Just don't expect it to change your life or anything.