She Made Her Bed: A Domestic Mess in the Circus

Is it worth it?

If you have a thing for dusty, black-and-white dramas where everyone is constantly shouting or looking miserable, sure, give it a go. It’s not exactly a barrel of laughs. If you need your movies to be fast-paced or have a clear moral compass, you’re probably gonna hate this. It’s messy, kind of sad, and lingers on uncomfortable domestic tension for way too long.

I kept waiting for the circus stuff to actually be the point, but the lions are basically just props. They’re background noise to a couple that clearly should have divorced five years ago.

Cinematic perspective: Exploring the visual vocabulary of She Made Her Bed (1934) through its definitive frames.

Robert Armstrong is playing the lion tamer, and man, he’s a piece of work. He treats his wife like one of the animals, which is meant to be the whole metaphor, I guess. It’s not subtle. At all.

Oddly specific observations

• The sound of the lions roaring in the background during the kitchen scenes is just hilarious. It’s like the movie is saying, 'Hey, remember, this is a circus movie!' every thirty seconds.
• Sally Eilers looks like she’s trying to hold the entire production together with just her eyebrows. She’s doing a lot of work with very little script.
• The kitchen lighting is weirdly bright for a movie that’s supposed to be about such a dark situation.

There’s this one moment where Laura is just washing dishes while Duke is yelling about nothing in particular. The camera stays on her face for, like, an eternity. It makes you feel trapped in the room with them. I found myself actually wanting to leave the apartment.

Cinematic perspective: Exploring the visual vocabulary of She Made Her Bed (1934) through its definitive frames.

It reminded me a bit of the suffocating vibe you get in Back of the Man, though this is definitely more focused on the kitchen table than the open road. Not that it matters much.

The pacing is all over the place. Sometimes it feels like a stage play that someone forgot to film properly. Then, suddenly, there’s a big dramatic argument that comes out of nowhere. It’s jarring.

Cinematic perspective: Exploring the visual vocabulary of She Made Her Bed (1934) through its definitive frames.

I don’t think the writers knew how to end it, so they just kind of stopped. It feels like the last page of the script went missing. 🦁

You can tell the studio was trying to make something 'gritty' for the time. It works in little bursts, but it mostly just feels like a long, bad afternoon with neighbors you can't stand. Still, there’s something honest about how miserable they are. Nobody is having a good time, and for once, the movie doesn't try to force a happy ending down your throat. That’s something, I guess.

Maybe it’s worth watching if you’re a total fan of 1930s cinema, but otherwise? It’s a bit of a slog. Don't go in expecting a thrill ride, even if the title sounds like it should be.