Should you watch
Marianne tonight?
If you like watching old Hollywood legends try to figure out how microphones work while being incredibly charming, then yes.
You will probably hate it if you want a gritty war movie or can't stand 1920s slapstick.
Marion Davies is just... a lot of energy. 🇫🇷
She plays a French girl running a farm while the soldiers are stationed nearby, and she has this
huge personality that feels like she's vibrating.
She does these impressions of the officers that are actually pretty funny if you like rubber-faced comedy.
There is a pig in this movie named Benedict.
I am not joking when I say the pig is a better actor than some of the humans.
He follows Marion around like a puppy and there is one scene where he gets into the barracks that feels totally unscripted.
The plot is basically just two American doughboys, Stoney and Sobel, trying to win her over.
Oscar Shaw plays Stoney and he has a very round, friendly face that makes him look like he should be selling you a tractor.
He’s fine, but he kind of disappears whenever Marion is on screen.
The movie is from 1929, so it’s got that awkward 'early talkie' feel.
You can tell they were hiding microphones in the flower pots and the bread baskets.
Sometimes a character will stand perfectly still and shout their lines at a vase.
It’s not as visually wild as something like
Metropolis, but it has its own clunky charm.
Marion’s French accent is
spectacularly fake.
It is the kind of accent where you just put the word 'the' in front of every single noun and hope for the best.
'The pig, he is hungry!' 'The heart, she is breaking!'
It’s ridiculous, but she is so likable that you just sort of forgive her immediately.
There are a few musical numbers because 1929 audiences were obsessed with the fact that movies could make noise.
Some of the songs feel like they were dropped in from a completely different planet.
I noticed a moment where a soldier in the background is clearly just staring at the camera waiting for his cue.
It’s those little mistakes that make these old films feel more human to me.
There is a scene in a cellar during a bombardment that actually gets a bit cozy.
They are all huddled together and for a second, it feels like a real movie instead of just a stage play on film.
Then someone trips over a bucket and we are back to the jokes.
Roscoe Ates does a stuttering bit that was probably hilarious ninety years ago.
Now it just feels a bit long, kind of like some of the side plots in
The Purple Mask.
I liked the mud on the uniforms.
Usually, in these old flicks, everyone looks like they just stepped out of a salon.
But here, they actually look like they’ve been sitting in a trench for a week.
The ending comes out of nowhere and wraps up in about two minutes.
It’s like the director looked at his watch and realized he had a dinner reservation.
It isn't a masterpiece or a 'profound exploration' of anything.
It’s just a cozy, weird, slightly loud relic of a time when movies were changing forever.
I’d watch it again just to see that pig one more time. 🐷
