Paris Bound (1929) is a weird, crunchy time capsule about open-ish marriages

Is this worth watching today? Honestly, only if you have a soft spot for the crackly, awkward energy of very early talkies. It’s a great pick for people who love 1920s fashion or those who want to see the literal birth of the 'sophisticated' comedy-drama. If you need fast pacing or characters that don't talk like they're reciting a poem to a wall, you will probably hate it.

The movie starts with a wedding that feels like it lasts about ten years. You get the sense the director was just so excited that the actors could actually speak that he forgot to tell them to move. James (Fredric March) and Mary (Ann Harding) are the happy couple, and they make this big, bold pact. They decide that if one of them has a 'slip up' while traveling, it shouldn't destroy their home life. It’s very modern for 1929, though it feels a bit like they're trying to convince themselves more than the audience.

Ann Harding is really the whole show here. She has this incredibly still face that makes her look like a statue, but then her eyes do something tiny and you realize she’s devastated. There is a specific moment where she’s sitting at a piano—I think she’s playing something by Chopin?—and the lighting is so bright it almost washes her out completely. It’s a bit distracting, like the cinematographer was still figuring out how to light people who weren't wearing silent-film cake makeup.

Fredric March looks so young it’s almost confusing. He doesn't have that heavy, serious 'Great Actor' vibe yet. He’s just a guy in a very nice suit who goes to Europe and immediately does exactly what the marriage pact said was okay, but then feels terrible about it. It’s not quite as cynical as The Rage of Paris, but it has that same obsession with how rich people behave behind closed doors.

I noticed this one scene in their living room where the sound is just... rough. You can hear every single footstep on the floorboards like it’s a percussion instrument. It makes the whole thing feel like you’re eavesdropping on a real conversation through a thin apartment wall. Sometimes the dialogue gets swallowed up by the hiss of the old film stock, but you get the gist of it.

The 'other woman' is played by Carmelita Geraghty, and she doesn't get nearly enough to do. She mostly just lurks in the background of the plot like a ghost of Jim’s bachelor days. It reminds me of those secondary characters in Stocks and Blondes who are just there to move the story along and then disappear. She’s manipulative, sure, but the movie doesn't really let us see why she’s so hung up on Jim.

There is a lot of talk about 'the soul' and 'the body' being different things. It’s the kind of stuff people say when they’re trying to justify being messy. The script is based on a Philip Barry play, and you can really tell because nobody ever leaves a room without a witty exit line. It’s very stagey, but in a way that’s kind of cozy if you’re in the right mood.

One reaction shot of Mary lingers for way too long. She’s just looking at a letter, and the camera stays on her for what feels like a full minute of silence. I think it was supposed to be emotional, but I mostly just started looking at the wallpaper in the background. The set design is actually pretty great, very Art Deco and expensive-looking for a movie this old.

I kept thinking about The New Babylon while watching this, mostly because the technical styles are so opposite. Where that one is all wild movement, Paris Bound is like watching a very high-end slideshow. It’s static, but the words have a bit of a bite to them. Some of the jokes actually land, which is surprising for a movie that's nearly a century old.

The ending is... weirdly abrupt. It doesn't give you a big 'moral of the story' speech, which I actually liked. It just sort of peters out once the main conflict is addressed. It feels like the actors had a dinner reservation and needed to wrap things up. 🍸

I wouldn't call it a masterpiece, and it’s definitely not as visually interesting as something like The Fall of the House of Usher. But as a look at how people in 1929 were trying to figure out 'modern' romance? It’s pretty fascinating. It’s a movie about people trying to be cool and failing because emotions are just too loud.

Also, keep an eye out for the kid, Douglas Scott. He’s one of those movie kids who acts like a 45-year-old man in a small body. It’s a little creepy, but it adds to the overall strange, stiff charm of the whole production. Anyway, it’s a short watch, so if you’ve got an hour and you want to see Fredric March be a cad, go for it.