Powerful

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Here's the chance to see what I've been waiting for for years: Kay Francis singing (obviously dubbed) "Home on the Range" in an operatic voice to Edward G. Robinson. That standard American ditty is heard over the opening credits, and later on when Robinson requests it. It becomes their love theme, albeit a silly one, but somehow it adds charm to this saga of a meat baron's life from taking over the family business to his later years after he's pretty much lost everything and ended up like Michael Corleone in "The Godfather Part III": All alone.Robinson as usual is commanding, although this is very similar in nature to his 1932 drama "Silver Dollar" and another 1933 Warner Brothers film about a wealthy man's rise and later disappointments, "The World Changes", with Paul Muni. His character's rise is often sketchy, as the film focuses on the various scandals that plague his years in the business, including his relationship with his pretty wife, Genevieve Tobin, who is obviously shallow at the start and never completely stands by her man. She loses his love to opera singer Francis who is faithful to him for years, but suddenly leaves him for another man, turning him cold and bitter and ruthless in his quest for power.There are political and historical references in this film with passing mentions of the Spanish/American War, McKinley's shooting (which eventually lead to Teddy Roosevelt becoming president and fighting the wealthy barons like Robinson's) and World War I. This was a Warner Brothers "A" picture running in at 90 minutes, so there's plenty of time for various details to be explored, but sometimes it does seem to be missing some important ones to fully explain everything which was going on at the time this took place. Robinson's character remains consistent in his manner and desires, often torn so his performance is one that deserves re-discovery.As for the two women, they couldn't be any more different. When first seen, the beautiful blonde Tobin is sitting in her fancy wagon in the middle of the mud in the Chicago slums, and Robinson quickly charms her with his memories of their childhood friendship. But she quickly reveals to the viewer that she never really loved Robinson and only married him for status, eventually becoming a bitter older woman still beautiful but the hatred in her displayed on her soulless face. She reminded me of Miriam Hopkins in the film version of Theodore Dreissler's "Carrie" without the spitting venom.The always ravishing Kay Francis is the true strength behind Robinson's character, prompting him to go after what he truly wants and encouraging him to be ruthless in getting it, something she is obviously doing in her efforts to become an A class opera star. I had first thought that Francis was the gypsy girl who sings to Robinson as he stands on his balcony, later returning as a hopeful star to be, but my research in the credits proved that to be incorrect. So the women in Robinson's life are far from perfect, far from completely loyal, and this is much more realistic than the many films which had the long-suffering wife willing to put up with all sorts of trauma as her husband neglected her for success. A far from flawless film, this is aided in its lavish presentation and the performances by the three stars plus a gallery of familiar faces in the supporting cast.

Bohemian Edward G. Robinson has to take over his late father's meatpacking business. He tries to run it honestly but eventually becomes corrupt. Meanwhile, he takes opera singer Kay Francis as his mistress, which doesn't sit well with wife Genevieve Tobin. Slow-moving melodrama with moments of unintended hilarity. The romantic scenes are especially bad. Kay Francis hams it up, as was her tendency. You either like her or you don't. I dare you not to laugh when she sings "Home on the Range." Eddie Robinson does fine, except for the aforementioned romantic scenes. He has zero chemistry with Francis. Genevieve Tobin is badly miscast as the villainous wife. She was better suited playing likable characters. It's a pretty boring effort. Final line of the movie sums it up best: "I'm sleepy."

I Loved a Woman (1933) * (out of 4) John Hayden (Edward G. Robinson), an art lover staying in Greece, receives word that his father has died so he returns to Chicago to take over the family meat packing business. Hayden sticks fast to his morals of running a good, clean business until the day he meets an opera singer (Kay Francis) and decides to do whatever it takes to make money to keep her happy. If you own a Leonard Maltin movie guide then you know it's quite rare for an older film from this era to receive a BOMB rating. If you go through every single page you'll notice that very few receive such a bad rating but this is a film that does get that. Even though I didn't find it that bad there's still no question that this is one of the worst from Hollywood's golden age. I guess the first place to start is the fact that this thing moves as slow as molasses. At 91-miutes the film seems three times as long and I couldn't help but feel as if I was watching two or three moves rolled into one. I say that because by the time you're at the thirty-minute mark you've already forgotten everything that happened previously. You hit the hour mark, bored out of your mind, and you're shocked to realize how much has happened in the film and how much you don't care. The film takes place in the late 1890s and you go through various things from a marriage to a childhood sweetheart (Genevieve Tobin) to the affair with the singer. The big turning point in the film has Robinson being too good of a nice guy and then out of no where he's an evil, money hungry idiot who kills some American soldiers without feeling bad. This turn in Robinson's character is never explained and how it comes off is unintentionally hilarious. The performances really aren't all that memorable, although they do contain some camp value. Francis is OK in her part but you can't help but laugh when it comes time for the singing. Tobin is unintentionally funny playing the wife who has her own ideas of revenge. Robinson isn't too bad here but you really have a hard time believing that he's a lover of art. I also didn't buy his transformation into the bad guy but then again the screenplay can be blamed for this. As bad as I LOVED A WOMAN is, it's almost hard not to recommend it to film buffs just so they can see how bad it actually is.

Here is yet another of the films from early in Edward G. Robinson's career that has inexplicably and unfortunately been forgotten. A tale which anticipates "Citizen Kane" in an astonishing number of ways, it tells the moving story of a multi-dimensional character transformed from an idealistic and impetuous young man into a ruthless, demanding, ultimately abandoned force in business and politics. Robinson's character, John Hayden, knows how to get what he wants, but is never sure what that really is. Solid performances by a first-rate cast complement a scenario able to cover decades with crisp efficiency.There are some unfortunate sequences in which the dialog becomes florid, stilted, and too much in the manner of a lesser Victorian romance. And the use of "Home On The Range" as a Rosebud motif comes across as ludicrous, to put it charitably. Such flaws, however, do not seriously lessen the impact and entertainment value of this undeservedly obscure picture.