Susan Lenox (Her Fall and Rise)

Films in Focus

By Ed Garea

Susan Lenox (Her Fall and Rise) (MGM, 1931) – Director: Robert Z. Leonard (uncredited). Writers: Wanda Tuchock (adaptation & continuity). Leon Gordon & Zelda Sears (dialogue). David Graham Phillips (novel). Paul Bern, Lenore Coffee, Mildred Cram, Edith Fitzgerald, Becky Gardiner, George Kelly, Joseph Moncure March, Bayard Veiller & King Vidor (all uncredited). Cast: Greta Garbo, Clark Gable, Jean Hersholt, John Miljan, Alan Hale, Hale Hamilton, Hilda Vaughn, Russell Simpson, Cecil Cunningham & Ian Keith. B&W, 76 minutes.

Susan Lenox is a curiosity from MGM, a turgid little melodrama with a preposterous plot that marks the only pairing of Clark Gable and Greta Garbo. 

It’s the usual Garbo plot: a suffering, victimized, misunderstood woman for whom nothing matters except love. When she first saw the script, she was dissatisfied and pulled her timeworn stunt when dissatisfied – she threatened to go back to Sweden. To make sure she was happy, Louis B. Mayer brought in a number of writers to alter the script to her liking (see the writing credits above). However, when one is given a can of pork and beans to make for dinner, no amount of disguise or other sleight-of-hand can alter the fact that it’s still a can of pork and beans. And this is exactly what we have here. Add to this the fact that Garbo is playing a role essentially made for Joan Crawford and our disappointment is heightened after we finish watching.

Garbo is Helga, a farm girl who was born illegitimately in Lenoxville, Michigan. Her mother died during childbirth and she is left in the care of her stern, cruel uncle, Karl Ohlin (Hersholt), who treats her as an object of scorn. The brief scenes we see of her childhood remind us of a ‘20s German expressionist drama, as she is a shadow on the wall, practically mute, and considered not as one of the family proper, but as someone on the fringe. Uncle Karl gets it in his head that the only way to prevent her from turning out like her mother is to marry her off. He tells her, “You're not going the way of your mother. You're starting out just like her, reading novels, getting crazy notions in your head! Well, it ain't a-gonna happen in my family twice.” 

For the bridegroom he chooses a knuckle-dragging lout named Jeb Mondstrom (Hale). Fueled by a couple of belts of cheap whiskey, Jeb figures he’ll get the bridal night started early and slobbers his way into Helga’s bedroom to finish the job. She fights him off and escapes into the night, fleeing into a heavy rainstorm.

She makes her way to a nearby house and hides in the garage, where she is found by Rodney Spencer (Gable) and his dog Major. In his previous films Gable played various kinds of thugs and lowlifes, but here he’s a Boy Scout. Though she won’t tell him what she’s running away from, he recognizes her fear and goes out of his way to placate her. Since she wouldn’t talk, he’ll do the talking for both of them: “Never mind. We won’t talk about you at all. No sir. You know what we’ll do? We’ll talk about me. You know who I am? No? Well, I’ll tell you. I’m Rodney, Mr. Spencer’s little boy. I’m thirty, white and unmarried. I’m really a very fine fellow–never unkind to animals, never kick babies in the teeth, always courteous when drunk.” And a Boy Scout.

There is one scene where he gives her the use of his bedroom while he sleeps in the living room. After seeing her into the room, he leaves. He turns back, and for a brief instant, we think he’s going to back in and help himself to some Swedish cuisine. But he thinks better of it, smiles, and heads towards the living room as the scene fades out.

Over the next couple of days, it’s bliss for Helga. Rodney treats her ever so gently, and like any other Boy Scout, even takes her fishing. He tells her that he is an engineer and must go to Detroit on a job. Meanwhile she can stay in his home until he gets back, and when he does, he’ll be bringing something back with him: “But, you're going to have a ring Helga. I'm bringing one back with me.” 

However, no sooner has he left than Uncle Karl and loutish Jeb show up to bring her back. A deal is a deal and she is only a piece of chattel promised to Jeb. Once again she manages to get away and hops a circus train leaving town, where she is befriended by Madame Panorama (Cunningham), the outfit’s tattooed lady. When the boss, Burlingham (Miljan) comes into the compartment, Madame asks him to take her on as one of the dancers, introducing her as “Susie Lenox.” Burlingham agrees, and when the circus is performing in a nearby town, hides her from Jeb and Uncle, telling her to duck out in his private car. We soon find out that her choice is either to give herself up and be raped by Jeb or hide out and be raped by Burlingham. She chooses the latter, becoming the boss’ unwilling mistress. 

Writing Rodney to meet her in Marquette, he is shocked when he sees her and quickly figures out what she’s been up to. But rather than hear her explanation he storms off. As he leaves she gives him the old line about her bedroom being open to every man but him from now on, yada, yada, yada. 

Helga, heartbroken, goes from one man to another until she becomes the mistress of wealthy New York politician Mike Kelly (Hamilton). Rodney fares no better. His drinking has cost him a succession of jobs.

Despite now living in a penthouse, the mistress of a rich politician and known as Susan Lenox, she just can’t get Ol’ Rodney out of her mind. Thinking he’d crap green if he could see her now and how well she’s doing, she arranges to have him invited to one of her soirees without giving him as clue as to who he’s really there to see. He assumes it’s Kelly. He needs a contract and buttering up a politician is one of the surest ways to get it. But when he gets a gander at her he puts two and two together and comes to the realization he’s being played for a sap. And he doesn’t like it one bit. 

The dinner party quickly becomes a verbal joust that grows uglier with each passing line. Susan raises the ante when she proclaims, “I think the most amusing thing about men is that they mistake cruelty for character. They can’t forgive.” This little bit of twaddle is regarded as wisdom by some of the ladies at the table, but for Rodney it’s a verbal kick in the groin. He gets into a brief verbal altercation with Susan, then hightails it out of there, with Susan in hot pursuit. She still loves the big galoot.

Susan travels from city to city looking for her man. Eventually she finds him working on a project in a town in South America where she’s working as a singer-dancer in a waterfront dive. She is romanced there by Robert Lane (Keith), an American who arrives by yacht and wants to marry her and take her away from all this. 

When Rodney wanders by chance into the joint and sees Helga there, he comes onto her like he would any other waterfront girl. Disillusioned, she throws him out, and plans to meet Robert on his yacht. However, the next day she goes to see Rodney one last time. Finally sober, Rodney admits he’s has been wrong, and they both decide to stop hurting each other and start to love again.

Afterwords

This is one of the more unusual films in Garbo’s resume, a turgid melodrama that as mentioned above, is more suited to the likes of Joan Crawford than Greta Garbo. The source material is a 1912 novel by journalist David Graham Phillips that was still considered racy in 1931 America. The reason Thalberg green lighted the film was because three of his secretaries had read and recommended it.  

The working titles of this film were Suzanne Lenox and Susan Lenox. King Vidor was initially set to direct the picture, and actresses Lynn Bernager and Marjorie King were to have roles in the film. Robert Z. Leonard replaced Vidor in the director’s chair. Even though Thalberg purchased the rights to the book as a vehicle for Garbo, why she agreed to star in this film is a mystery. An even bigger mystery is why she requested Clark Gable as her co-star. Supposedly she requested him as her costar because as an up and coming star he wouldn’t overshadow her. 

For his part Gable wanted nothing to do with the picture. Learning he was cast by reading an item in the trade papers, he only agreed to take the role when he was convinced it would help him in his quest for bigger and better roles.

Gable was an actor who liked a good, healthy affair on the set with his co-star. But if he thought Garbo was willing he was barking up the wrong Swede. They came to despise each other during the course of filming. Gable thought she was extremely unprofessional and hated her aloofness. Garbo thought he was crude and later described him as a “wooden” actor, which was ironic coming from Garbo, herself much more of a movie star than an actress.

The state of their relationship was reflected in the lack of chemistry between the stars, though to be honest, Garbo only had chemistry with two people: John Gilbert and herself. The only scene where I glimpsed any hint of chemistry is the one of them in together in the cabin, where Garbo, who has been told and traded from birth as if she was worthless, has a really poignant and sad reaction when Clark tells her that when he comes back from Detroit, he’ll be coming back with a ring. Other than that, nada.

The first 20 minutes or so of the film is unremittingly bleak, a rumination on the situation of being a woman in a world of unconstrained patriarchy that can have its cake and eat it too. A brief opening in this desolate fog is when Helga meets Rodney. He functions as the proof that not all males of the species are brutes. But once he leaves it’s back to business as usual as Karl and Jeb track her down.  

The most interesting part of the movie takes place when Susan flees to the circus. Much like the later Freaks (1932), the circus is depicted as a place for those who can find no place in normal society, whether because of their appearance or social status. Susan’s scenes with Madame Panorama (Cunningham) are precious as the two outcasts start to bond.

Rodney lets Susan down when, after finding her at the circus, he refuses to listen to any explanations on her part. Susan takes Rodney at the extreme and decides that if he’s going to think she’s a whore, then she might as well be the best one in the country. Which is exactly what she does, changing her name to Susan Lenox and becoming a wealthy courtesan. She invites Rodney to one of her soirees. He, of course, has no idea who it was that invited him, but when he gets a good look at her, the venom comes out all over again, as he tells her that he returned to the circus to apologize, only to find her gone. After an argument that’s the posh equivalent of “That’s what you are, but what am I?” Rodney calls her a parasite and storms off. 

This is where the movie becomes ridiculous. Susan comes to believe he acted this way because he really loves her, so she decides to track him down. After finding him in Puerto Sacate, they argue and finally decide to try and start again. This despite the generous offer she has from Robert. The film ends on an ambiguous note. Will they work it out? Will she change her mind and go away with Robert? The only thing we know for sure is that, as with The Divorcee, a woman may have her fun, but she is nothing without a man, for it’s all meaningless and she is not quite a person. What begins as a brutally honest study of the relationship between men and women degenerates into a tawdry romantic potboiler that loses its steam after Gable walks out on Garbo in New York. 

Much of the blame for this can be laid at the feet of director Robert Z. Leonard. There is some splendid camera work along with nicely staged atmospheric effects, but the dialogue is too often choppy, with periods of silence that slow the film down, which is strange, because at other times Leonard seems as if he’s in a hurry to move the film along, come what may.

The hurried tone of the film robs it of any suspense and it often comes across like a by-the-numbers melodrama. We can see everything coming; there are no surprises. What saves the film from going under entirely is the strength of Garbo’s performance. She never fails to hold our attention and becomes the reason we stick around to see what happens next, even though we know what’s coming. 

It could be said in Leonard’s defense that he was not quite used to using sound, but I’m surprised that no one in the executive suite caught on to this, almost as if they were depending on Garbo alone to carry the load; that her fans would accept anything she was in, especially with the novelty of sound. What we come away with in the final analysis is a combination of poorly written dialogue and an exaggerated physical movement that only serves to illustrate, rather than deflect from, a poorly developed and preposterous narrative.

As I said before, Garbo is essentially miscast in a role that was better suited to Joan Crawford or Marlene Dietrich, though she gave a heartfelt performance that essentially saved the film. Indeed, Dietrich took the plot one step farther in 1932’s Blonde Venus in a performance that made Garbo’s look weak by comparison. Garbo is at her best when among the aristocrats, not among the hoi polloi. Though she acquitted herself well in Anna Christie, she was helped by strong supporting performances. After Susan Lenox, MGM had the good sense to limit her options and, because of her box office power in Europe. In the films where she did not play an aristocrat, such as As You Desire Me and Ninotchka, she still played a European, with a European mind-set, and the very setting in Europe gave her a patrician standing with American audiences. 

It was thought to team Garbo can with Gable in Red Dust, but MGM came to their senses. Where would she fit in? The only role for her would be the Mary Astor role and we can easily surmise that Garbo would not like being upstaged by Jean Harlow. Besides, not only was there a lack of chemistry between her and Gable, she detested him. 

Trivia

The film suffered many cuts upon release by local censor boards and was actually banned in England. However, with a few cuts the British censors, who knew of the source novel and heartedly disapproved it as well approved it under the title The Rise of Helga. As if the public wouldn’t find out.  

The role of Clark Gable’s dog, Major, was played by Gable’s own dog. There are two stories of how the actor acquired his animal companion: (1) The dog already belonged to Gable, and when he learned he was to have a dog in the film he volunteered Major, selling the studio on the fact that they didn’t need to shell out for a dog trainer since the dog did what Gable instructed him to do. (2) The dog was a trained movie dog that Gable came to love so much that he bought him from the trainer for twice what he was worth. Take your pick.

According to MGM’s records the film cost $1,142,000. It made $806,000 in the US and Canada and $700,000 elsewhere, resulting in a $364,000 profit.

Notable Quotables

Rodney (to Susan): “You know, you’re the only woman I ever wanted to build a fence around and have all to myself. Yeah, you built the fence–an army of men!”