A KISS BEFORE THE MIRROR
WIVES UNDER SUSPICION
A film review by Jeff Meyer
Copyright 1988 Jeff Meyer
The following films were part of William K. Everson's "Hollywood and the Code" series at the Seattle International Film Festival.
A KISS BEFORE THE MIRROR (USA, 1932) Director: James Whale Cast: Frank Morgan, Paul Lukas, Nancy Carroll, Jean Dixon, Gloria Stuart, Walter Pidgeon
WIVES UNDER SUSPICION (USA, 1938) Director: James Whale Cast: Warren William, Gail Patrick, Constance Moore, William Lundigan, Ralph Morgan
In this double-feature, Everson gave us a rare opportunity to see how the same film fared when it was shot before and after the institution of the code. What's more, it had the same director, and even better, an excellent one: James Whale, who is best known for FRANKENSTEIN and BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN.
A KISS BEFORE THE MIRROR tells the story of a husband in Vienna (Paul Lukas) who shoots his wife when he finds her in a tryst with her lover. His old friend and lawyer (Frank Morgan) takes on the case. Lukas tells Morgan how he slowly began to suspect his wife -- one incident in particular is used to illustrate the moment he *knew* she was cheating on him. Morgan begins to become obsessed with the case -- so much so that he first begins neglecting his younger wife, and then suspecting her of infidelity herself. There is a *lot* of playing with the characters and audience's heads; we're often wondering if it's all in his mind, or whether he has reasons to believe it's true. It becomes obvious about halfway through that it *is* true, and Morgan begins to use the case to psychologically torment his wife (ah, Vienna waits for you), describing how he will show Lukas was justified in shooting his wife for her unfaithfulness. Lukas, paradoxically, is telling Morgan not to kill his wife, because he realizes that his life is now empty without *his* wife, whether he is convicted or not. By this time Morgan is somewhat mad, and his speech to the jury is fantastic and impassioned -- which works, and Lukas goes free, waiting to leave the country long enough to convince Morgan not to commit murder. There is a scene at the house where Morgan and his wife reconcile -- an excellent scene, and really not melodramatic at all.
This is a quality film throughout, part thriller and part melodrama, but mixed well and given the sophisticated "European" flavor many of Whale's films had. The sets were, in fact, leftovers from FRANKENSTEIN, which could explain why the prosecutor's office looks like a dungeon in a castle (you ought to see what Lukas' cell looks like...). The film didn't create much of a stir with the reformists, apparently -- Everson says that films set in Europe could get away with a good deal more, since the public viewed Europeans as lacking the moral fiber of Americans. Good character performances and production values, and very well shot. Not a classic, but enjoyable to watch.
Years later, Universal wanted Whale to recreate his success of A KISS BEFORE THE MIRROR by refilming it in a B-picture, WIVES UNDER SUSPICION. It was something of a step down for Whale (he had finished SHOWBOAT and was then began being assigned to lesser films); apparently, the studio was trying to get rid of him -- while his films returned their investment several times over, they were usually more expensive than average. Anyway, the story of A KISS BEFORE THE MIRROR had to be horribly mutilated to fit within code guidelines. Everson pointed out that the lower quality of WIVES UNDER SUSPICION was partly because of it's B-movie status -- poorer actors, cheaper sets -- but the film obviously has a lot of other problems, as well. First, it's set in some big city, with Warren Williams playing a crusading DA who decides to prosecute a professor who kills his wife. The fellow tells the same story from the first film, and Williams begins to suspect his wife. However, here it is obvious that she is totally faithful to him, and that they are all delusions on his part -- the Code couldn't let any hint of impropriety *actually* be going on without the wife being punished. It ends in a particularly stupid, boring manner, which fits the rest of the movie.
The husband, as played by Williams, is supposed to be a crusading DA, but instead comes off as an insensitive dickhead, the kind whose noses Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin enjoyed twisting in Rex Stout's novels. And the wife is hardly sympathetic after uttering one of the worst intentional racial slurs I've ever seen on the screen (or Everson's -- he said this was crude even by late-thirties standards) to the horribly stereotyped black maid in the film. For all the Code's talk of censoring racially offensive material from the film industry, this is obviously evidence that it was paying only lip service to its doctrine.
I doubt you'll ever see this film, even on TV, but if so, switch it off. However, A KISS BEFORE THE MIRROR is worth a glance; an entertaining example of elegant melodrama, which they certainly don't make anymore.
Moriarty, aka Jeff Meyer
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