Transient Lady (1935) Review: A Loud, Dusty, 70-Minute Frame-Up

Is Transient Lady worth your time tonight? Only if you have a soft spot for dusty, fast-talking 1930s dramas where everyone wears high-waisted pants and yells in small courtrooms. 🏛️

If you want a polished thriller, you're probably gonna hate this. It is far too messy and fast for that.

The plot kicks off with a traveling group of roller skaters who arrive in a sleepy town to open a skating rink. Almost immediately, the local senator's brother gets himself killed, and the senator decides to blame one of the skaters.

The senator is played by Henry Hull, and oh boy, does he chew the scenery. His hair looks like it is constantly trying to escape his head, and he spends most of his scenes pointing his finger and shouting at people. 🗣️

Honestly, the movie gets noticeably better once the court case starts and everyone just stops pretending this is a romance. The romantic subplot between Gene Raymond and Frances Drake is pretty flat, mostly because they have about as much chemistry as a pair of old shoes.

There are some really cool things here if you look closely. For one, Eddie 'Rochester' Anderson and Hattie McDaniel show up in very small roles.

They are totally underused, which is a bummer, but Rochester's gravelly voice is always a treat to hear. He has this one reaction shot during a chaotic moment that made me laugh out loud. 🍿

The writers' room on this thing had like seven different people listed. Seven! For a movie that runs barely over an hour, that is absolutely wild.

You can tell because the tone is constantly tripping over itself. One minute they are doing silly physical comedy with roller skates, and the next, we are dealing with a dark, sweaty lynch mob scenario.

It has that stagey, slightly awkward vibe of early sound cinema, reminiscent of other talkies from that era like Kismet. People just stand in a semi-circle and wait for their turn to speak.

If you want something with a bit more of a cohesive, modern story flow, you might want to try Half a Hero instead. But if you like old-school studio programmers that feel like they were written on a Tuesday and filmed on a Wednesday, this one has its charms.

Random Notes From My Couch

• The murder scene happens in a dark room and you can barely tell who is hitting who. 🤷‍♂️
• The local sheriff has a mustache that looks like a tiny caterpillar fell asleep on his lip.
• One of the courtroom spectators has a fan and they wave it so fast I thought they were going to fly away.
• The ending wraps up so fast it might give you whiplash. Seriously, the credits roll and you are left wondering if they ran out of film.

It is not a masterpiece, but it is a fun little time capsule. Just do not expect it to change your life.