Never the Twain Shall Meet (1931 film)

Never the Twain Shall Meet is a 1931 talking film produced and distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and starring Leslie Howard and Conchita Montenegro. It is based on the book by Peter B. Kyne. The film was directed by W. S. Van Dyke and was filmed in Tahiti like Van Dyke's two previous south sea adventures The Pagan and White Shadows in the South Seas. The film is a remake of a 1925 silent film of the same name.^[1][2]

Plot

The film centers around Dan Pritchard (Leslie Howard) who is a partner along with his father, played by C. Aubrey Smith, in a San Francisco-based shipping company and who has been in an extended engagement with socialite Maisie Morrison, played by Karen Morley. Dan is called to the ship of his father's friend, Capt. Larrieau, played by Mitchell Lewis, who informs him he has contracted leprosy and needs someone to look after his daughter, Tamea, whose mother was a Polynesian queen. Tamea, who is played by Conchita Montenegro, is a barefoot native girl, skimpily dressed, her hair wild and her aspect wilder. Pritchard and Tamea seem to be taken by each other from the start. Once Pritchard agrees to care for and educate Tamea and see to it that she marries respectably, her father unexpectedly goes topside and kills himself.

Over the next few days, Dan can't help becoming infatuated with Tamea who constantly throws herself at him. She seems to have grown up with no filters or concept of personal space and proceeds to maul Dan who is shocked and surprised by her behavior but can't seem to control her. While attending a party, Dan is put off by his friends' prejudice and his affections transfer from his fiancé to Tamea, who then seduces him. Dan's father, afraid that his son is losing control, puts Tamea on the next boat back to the Islands. Dan soon follows.

The two live together happily at first, although it is evident from the start that Dan feels out of his element in the tropics with nothing to do but lay about all day and drink in the local bar. Things start to go terribly wrong when Dan realizes that because Tamea has none of the sexual repressions of his Western world she is a bit too free with one of the barely dressed native Island boys, Tolongo (Bob Gilbert), and Dan becomes jealous of her attentions towards him. The enchantment has worn off and Dan proceeds to become an angry drunk.

Fortunately for Dan, his fiancé Maisie did not give up on him when he deserted her and she follows him to the Island, rescuing him from the tropical paradise which has become his nightmare. Although Tamea is sad about Dan's departure, she immediately takes up with her bare chested native boyfriend to help her forget.

Cast

• Leslie Howard - Dan Pritchard
• Conchita Montenegro - Tamea Larrieau
• C. Aubrey Smith - Mr. Pritchard
• Karen Morley - Maisie Morrison
• Mitchell Lewis - Capt. Larrieau
• Hale Hamilton - Mark Mellenger
• Clyde Cook - Mr. Porter
• Bob Gilbert - Tolongo
• Joan Standing - Julia
• Eulalie Jensen - Mrs. Graves

Production

Woody Van Dyke, who directed the film, is better known for his work on Tarzan the Ape Man (1932) starring Johnny Weissmuller, The Thin Man (1934) with William Powell and Myrna Loy, and San Francisco (1936) starring Clark Gable and Spencer Tracy, receiving Oscar nominations for the latter two movies. Van Dyke was known as "One Take Woody" because he brought his films to completion on time and under budget. He directed four actors (William Powell, Spencer Tracy, Norma Shearer and Robert Morley) in their Oscar nominated performances.

In 1931, Howard was new to Hollywood, having only appeared in two films, Outward Bound (1930) and Devotion (1931). In the spring of 1931, Howard was filming Never the Twain Shall Meet, A Free Soul with Norma Shearer and Clark Gable, and Five and Ten with Marion Davies—shooting one movie in the morning and another in the afternoon.^[3] This led to Howard's lifelong distaste for film acting, the studio system, contracts and the typical schedules required of a Hollywood actor. Howard said that a "typical 'talkie'...is manufactured on the conveyor-belt system" and that the script is "handed to the actor anywhere from a few days to a few hours before he reports for work...The cast is not even gathered together to read the script before it goes into production."^[4] Add into the mix a director who gets the scene in one take and it is not hard to understand Howard's frustration. It is obvious why Howard would return to the theater over and over again during his career.

It was long rumored that Conchita Montenegro, the sexy barely 18 year old Spanish actress who played Howard's love interest in the film, and Howard had a brief affair either during filming or shortly thereafter. Spanish author José Rey Ximena refers to an affair in his book, El Vuolo de Ibis [The Flight of the Ibis],^[5] however the book has never been translated into English. It is clear that Howard and Montenegro were fond of each other as evidenced by photos taken of the two in Madrid, Spain, in May, 1943, shortly before Howard's death. Rey Ximena's book also discusses the claim by Montenegro that she facilitated a meeting between Howard and Francisco Franco at the request of Winston Churchill to convince Franco not to enter WWII on the side of the Axis powers.

Norma Shearer's brother, Douglas Shearer, served as Sound Director. Shearer, who came up with a recording system that eliminated background noise, was a pioneer in sound technology and during his career received seven Academy Awards, with many more nominations. Shearer's credits include every notable MGM film made between the years 1930 to 1953. He won an additional seven technical Academy Awards during his time as MGM's Director of Technical Research (1955 to 1968).

Arthur Freed whose works include "Singin' in the Rain," "You Were Meant for Me," "All I Do Is Dream of You" and "You Are My Lucky Star," wrote the theme song, "Islands of Love."

Reception

Although Never the Twain Shall Meet is not considered to be one of Leslie Howard's finest films, he did receive a positive review in The New York Times in which was stated "Mr. Howard comes through with another of his specimens of finished acting, investing his character with humor and personality" and that the movie was worth seeing.^[6]

According to the file in the Motion Picture Association of America Production Code Administration Records (MPAA/PCA) Collection at the AMPAS Library, the film was only approved by the Hays office because MGM's treatment of the picture was "all right from the point of view of miscegenation because the father of the girl is white and he is the only one shown in the picture. The mother was a Polynesian queen and Polynesians are not black."^[7] Hays office official, John V. Wilson, also stated that "it might be dangerous to have the son (Leslie Howard) already married and that it would be better to retain the idea in the original story that he has been engaged to the girl a long time and is just on the point of marrying her...If in the beginning of the picture a great deal of audience sympathy is created for the situation surrounding the son and if in the end of the picture the audience is made to feel with him the fallacy of his action is deserting his former life, the tone of the picture will be kept at a level sufficient to satisfy the standards of the Code."

References

External links

• Never the Twain Shall Meet at IMDb.com
• synopsis at AllMovie
• slide to the film
• Southseascinema.org