The Idle Rich (1929) User Reviews

When the idle middle class meet the idle rich....

[mark.waltz · 7/10 · 24 June 2022]

Not exactly the song sung in "Finian's Rainbow" but appropriate nonetheless, this creaky and stagy early talkie (with no music) is an interesting comedy, focusing on a wealthy man (Conrad Nagel) who marries his secretary (Leila Hyams) and moves in with her wacky family. They certainly are an eclectic bunch, with Bessie Love (who was receiving Oscar nomination the same year for "The Broadway Melody") standing out as the younger sister even though she was older than Hyams, and the long suffering older sister in 1929's best picture choice. They seem to be getting along even though there are some minor disagreements and hectic moments, but everything turns upside down when Nagel announces that he's giving away his money to fund a hospital.

The editing in this indeed is rather weak, with the camera holding on a door for at least 15 seconds before anyone walks through it. But it begins to really work when the conflict ensues, and everyone begins yelling and talking over each other, acting like a real family. This is indeed like a stage play filmed, and I've seen much worse from the early days of sound motion pictures. Both Hyams and Nagel are really good, but then again, under the direction of William B. DeMille, the whole ensemble is.

Worst editing I've ever seen

[westerfieldalfred · 6/10 · 15 September 2014]

The Idle Rich presents very good acting and directing. I particularly liked that everyone talked over each other in a way that matches reality rather than waiting for the first person to finish.

However, the film has serious defects. There is no music, even for the titles. The camera is completely static; not a single movement. But worst of all is the editing that wouldn't pass muster in an introductory film course. A scene is broken up by a scene of a door, no talking or action and then back to the plot. Both action and reaction shots are included several times with deadly silence for the reactions. In one, a person's arm disappears in the reaction. Obviously one or the other shot or a combination of cutting was intended. Instead, it's all there. In other scenes the action stops but the film continues interminably. One mistake in a very early talkie is to be expected but these multiple errors make me wonder if this wasn't the final cut but rather a preliminary print that somehow snuck into the vault by mistake.

Reverse class consciousness in this fun early talkie

[AlsExGal · 8/10 · 15 July 2012]

The film is stage-bound due to early sound technology and existing elements are a little visually shaggy with quite a bit of noise in the sound recording, but it is still extremely watchable and most enjoyable.

The film opens in an office with wealthy William van Luyn (Conrad Nagel) giving dictation to his secretary Joan Thayer(Leila Hyams). Suddenly he declares his love to her and she to him. He proposes marriage and she heartily accepts. But practical Joan brings up a potential problem - the difference in their respective classes may cause their families to clash. Joan isn't worried Bill's family will not accept her - she's afraid her family will not accept him! This puts the film on a completely different footing as so many rich man/poor woman true love stories of the era in which the wealthy family distrusts the unwealthy fiancée and tries to disrupt the romance. Instead this is a case study on class consciousness in reverse.

Next we meet the Thayer clan at home ready to meet their relative to be. Joan's mom, dad, and brother are normal enough, but Joan's live-in cousin is a kind of Bolshevik for the middle class. He corners poor Bill at every opportunity and talks to him about the woes of - not the poor - but the middle class, those who don't have enough money not to worry but who do have enough money and pride not to qualify for or accept charity. As someone else has already written, though, Bessie Love steals the show as Joan's kid sister Helen. She is very anxious to climb that social ladder and have material goods and comforts and here her sister has brought in the possible means to all of her dreams.

After they are married, Joan insists that the couple live in their family's hot little flat in her old bedroom so that Bill can learn about the ways of the middle class. Mom and dad think she's a bit screwy, but of course won't turn them away. At first Bill seems to be putting on a brave face as he acts like Gulliver in Lilliput encountering closets, couches, and bedrooms two sizes too small, not to mention the lack of privacy. However, Joan's plan works better than she planned or desired, as two weeks into their stay Bill announces that he plans to give away all of his money to build a hospital and a foundation for "the great middle class". How will the family react? How will all of this work out? Watch and find out.

Conrad Nagel gives a delightful performance as a genuinely nice guy who just happens to be rich and just can't figure out what all of the fuss and hostility is about. Bessie Love really does seem like Leila Hyam's kid sister even though Ms. Love is actually seven years older than Ms.Hyams. Great ensemble acting by some of MGM's lesser known stars and highly recommended.

One of the finest of MGM's early talkies

[reelguy2 · 8/10 · 17 June 2003]

William DeMille, brother of Cecil, directed one of the finest of MGM's early talkies. Conrad Nagel plays a millionaire who marries his secretary and then sets out to change her middle-class family's bias against the upper class.

Although the film - based on a play - is confined to mainly one set, it never appears stagy, thanks to a good variety of camera setups and seamless editing. And the cast is uniformly excellent, with Nagel again proving why he was one of the most in-demand actors of the early talkies, with his strong speaking voice. The recorded sound is also very clear.

As far as I know, TCM has shown this gem only once, but it's high time they make it available again

Stagy But Effective

[drednm · 13 February 2008]

Bessie Love steals the show as the kid sister in this comedy about money and snobbishness.

Leila Hyams plays a working secretary who falls for her rich boss (Conrad Nagel) but agrees to marry him only if he moves in with her middle-class family. After the honeymoon poor Nagel moves in with the family in their hot and overcrowded New York apartment. The family is pretty stereotypical, especially the workhorse mom (Edythe Chapman) and the raving cousin (Robert Ober).

But Bessie Love saves the day in a loose and funny performance as the kid sister who WANTS the money while the rest of the family pretends not to be interested in Nagel's millions. Nagel also has fun as the displaced millionaire forced to live in a small apartment and listen to the neighbor's jazz records at all hours. Hyams is pretty and earnest in a one-note role.

Love has a great scene of hysteria when she learns that Nagel is giving away all his money to become "middle class." It's similar to her great scenes in THE Broadway MELODY and CHASING RAINBOWS.

Co-stars included Kenneth Gibson as Frank, Paul Kruger as the boy friend, and James Neill as the father.

Sound is quite good for a 1929 talkie, but it's funny when the actors muff their lines. The editing is lousy.

The Great Middle Class!!

[kidboots · 8/10 · 26 August 2019]

Even though by 1931 Bessie Love was looking toward Britain to continue her film work, "The Broadway Melody" proved a great boost to her career and 1929 was probably her busiest year. The problem was she was so good in B.M. as the type of sunny trouper she had made her own but she just didn't have enough clout to put her foot down and say "Stop! no more of these parts"!! So MGM used her to almost the same extent that they used Conrad Nagel who also happens to be in this movie!! He plays William Van Luyn (did you really think he would play the bread winner of the family!!) who is in love with Joan Thayer, his secretary (lovely Leila Hyams). It's a pretty creaky early soundie with some pretty ripe dialogue but MGM, as far as talkie innovation went was always behind the eight ball compared to the other studios. The conservative studio heads felt the talkies were only a passing fad and their late silents ("The Kiss", "Our Modern Maidens") were superb.

This tried to delve into class consciousness (as far as the elegant MGM could delve - not too deep). Joan is working class (only MGM could believe classy Leila Hyams as such) while William is a billionaire!! He is a lovely chap, a trifle patronizing but anyway Joan is worried that there is a big divide between his life style and hers. Her family are not poor but middle class and as cousin Frank is always eager to expound, their class misses out on things that the rich can afford and the poor get for free!! After putting up with the Thayer's cramped apartment (after their marriage Joan refuses to go to a motel) Will drops a bombshell - he is going to relinquish all his assets and build a hospital to help the great middle class - a phrase that's going to seem like a pain in the side by the end of the movie!!

Leila Hyams is patrician and shows why she was MGM's perfect leading lady but Bessie Love as her sister Helen shows plenty of spark and gets an emotive speech. The last part of the movie is pretty dramatic as the family come to the realisation that by their constant whining they may have driven William to philanthropic extremes - in fact Helen is the only one who accepts his wealth with open arms. Her emotive speech about what it's like to work in a typing pool where cabarets and dance halls are sought as an escape would have worked terrifically in a more dramatic movie. Even though the film was confined to mainly two rooms it never felt stage bound due to the good performances - all of the cast handled dialogue exceptionally and although it was hard to believe that Bessie could fall for gormless Tom Gibney even that was explained in her little speech.

Very Recommended.

packed with curiosities

[mukava991 · 31 October 2014]

In the first moments of this antique, the MGM lion emits more of a pained groan than a roar, suggesting that perhaps an older, infirm animal was tied down to keep still enough for the shot, then protested. That said, these startling sounds are followed by crackle-and-hiss (or dead silence, depending on the clarity of your hearing) accompanying the series of opening credit title cards in the staid style of the studio's early talkies. Next, an introductory title, "Mr. Van Luyn, The Millionaire." Then the drama begins strangely but vividly as Conrad Nagel (the boss) tries to dictate letters to his beautiful secretary, Miss Joan Thayer (Leila Hyams) but keeps losing his concentration. When Hyams drops a pencil the two of them kneel down simultaneously to retrieve it; as they rise facing each other, he puts his arms around her and they kiss. Within a minute he is asking her to marry him. She consents immediately but then realizes that her family may not approve (a reversal of the usual conflict between rich marrying poor); as they are debating whether he should be present when she breaks the news to her family, the audio of their dialogue slowly fades out along with the scene. If what followed were this good, it would make a stimulating cinematic experience, but unfortunately when the Thayer family joins the action, things get dreary and rather messy.

First of all, perhaps due to primitive miking setups, group scenes are too formally staged and ring false; director William deMille tries for overlapping dialogue but it sounds forced. Frequently, when two or three actors are engaged in conversation, the non-speaking actors appear to be standing around like zombies waiting for their cue. Attempts at casual background chatter look and sound fake. Then we have the bizarre juxtaposition of Bessie Love as Hyams's younger sister, an uncultivated typist with big dreams. Bessie Love was petite a la Mary Pickford and in this context she looks more like a little girl than a grown woman. When she and Hyams share the frame she looks almost like a marionette or Hyams's 10-year-old daughter. The effort behind her girlie-girlie behavior shows, and in fact she was about 34 years old when this movie was made. She was far more effective later that year in "The Broadway Melody" as the older sister to Anita Page. Generally, Conrad Nagel walks off with the acting honors. Never a false move, never a botched line, rich and deep speaking voice, completely believable Good Guy. All of the other males are stiff and unnatural, especially Robert Ober as an opinionated cousin.

One unintentionally funny scene: During a conversation in the kitchen we suddenly hear a whistling sound. An off-screen character who will momentarily enter the frame with pursed lips? a water kettle on the boil? No, it's the apartment's intercom! When Hyams engages the device to talk to the person on the other end, it is Nagel, or at least that's what we're supposed to think. His voice sounds like a solemn judge pronouncing a death sentence. Then another bizarre sound is heard when Hyams presses the button to admit Nagel into the building.

And while we're at it, let's mention another example of unconvincing movie dishwashing: The Thayers' manner of washing dishes is to fill a basin with tap water, deposit the dirty dinnerware, swirl a cloth around in the water for a few seconds, then dry the dishes without rinsing them. I wonder if there ever was an old Hollywood movie in which people actually used soap and then rinsed before drying, or if such a sequence of events might have been achieved through the magic of… brace yourself: editing.

The plot limps around the crisis created when Nagel decides to give away his millions and move in with the Thayers. For various reasons, the Thayers are very upset by this decision. SPOILER: Eventually, seeing how miserable they would be if he actually demoted himself to their lower socio-economic stratum, he decides to buy them a house in the suburbs and give them a wad of cash, which they joyously count bill by bill in the final fadeout. The movie (based on a story and play) makes the point, literally and clearly, that the middle class is the most class-conscious group in America, which is probably true.