Just what I expected

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

Philip Barry wrote many "smart" comedies of drawing room manners, champagne, martinis and sophisticated marital discord. This is the story of a Bohemian young man (Leslie Howard) who gives up his artist lover (Ann Harding) to marry into society. The wife to be is Myrna Loy, playing a manipulative, calculating passive/aggressive socialite who seems easy going at first. Indeed, she likes the buffoonish butler (William Gargan) at first but once married to Howard demands he be fired for constant drunkenness. In contrast, Harding isn't instantly likable, spewing subtle frustration when Howard ends things with her; He simply leaves her apartment while she continues to talk to the air. But in time, Howard misses his old life, beginning to see Loy for who she really is and starts to see Harding again socially.Loy doesn't play a totally one dimensional bitch; She has lady-like moments of kindness but like real people, switches back and forth naturally depending on the circumstances. Harding, "Queen of the Bun", is a husky voiced pre-code star who was sometimes confused with Irene Dunne, RKO's other major star of classy women's pictures. Harding's career in Hollywood had a brief hiatus in the late 30's, and when she returned, it was in character roles that made people forget she was once a major star. Gargan is very funny as the butler whom nobody will ever confuse with Arthur Treacher. The movie gets a little stagy in spots, but is never sleep-inducing. Howard is very good and sexy, a far cry from many of the other British leading men (such as Clive Brook) who were mostly too stiff upper lipped and overly dull. While not as remembered as "Holiday" or "The Philadelphia Story" (Barry's other plays successfully adapted for the screen), "The Animal Kingdom" is a pleasant marital drama with fine performances and amusing moments.

Leslie Howard, Ann Harding, and Myrna Loy are all members of "The Animal Kingdom" in this 1932 film based on the play by Phillip Barry. Barry in his way was a transitional playwright - he wrote about the upper class, usually negatively, but always gave a nod to the lower class - they were the ones that had more fun. Just a little bit later, plays about the upper class would go by the wayside for plays about the working class - Waiting for Lefty, Awake and Sing - as America moved through the depression.Leslie Howard plays a member of said upper class who has engaged in a Bohemian lifestyle, living with an intelligent artist (Harding). They have a no attachment, open relationship, and he takes her at her word and gets himself engaged to a gorgeous, wealthy young woman (Myrna Loy) just as Harding decides she wants to settle down and have a family. She accepts his decision, but not his offer of continuing friendship.There is a line about the "animal kingdom" in the film, but I prefer to think the title has to do with baser instincts. If Howard passionately desired Ann Harding, he wouldn't have wanted to be friends - and it's her desire of him that makes her reject his "just friends" suggestion. Let's face facts - Loy turns him on and knows it. In fact, she uses sex as a manipulative weapon, and he's putty in her hands. It's more blatant in this film than, say, "Harriet Craig" which was done under the code - but the power of sex is there.Of course, a relationship based on sexual desire and nothing else eventually grows tired, and Howard finds himself going back to talk with Harding and spend time with her. She smartly keeps running. Clearly, Howard is a man who wants to have his cake and eat it, too.Harding was an interesting leading woman - she was attractive but not beautiful and had a very low, distinctive speaking voice. She came from the Broadway stage, and her heyday in films was through the mid-thirties, though she worked consistently in films and television until the mid-60s. As was the case back then, at 31 years of age, her time as a leading lady was drawing to a close, and soon would be turned over to people like the younger Loy. Her performance in "The Animal Kingdom" is a very honest one. Loy is absolutely ravishing and wears beautiful clothes. She essays the part of the glamorous wife beautifully, reminiscent of Gene Tierney later on with the ultra-feminine facade hiding the steel underneath. Howard is handsome and thoughtful in the lead, and one can see it slowly occurring to him that he made a mistake.Very good.

No doubt about it, Loy commands the screen here, and is worth watching all the way through. Agreed, Ann Harding is stodgy and overdressed for her supposedly Bohemian lifestyle, but she does reflect the earnest sincerity of the Conscious Rebel. The original title "The Woman in His House," suited the story better... Define 'wife', for example. Tom Collier (Leslie Howard) is a man enthralled by a young beauty, and her hold on him is frankly sexual. His previous relationship with artist Daisy (Harding) certainly included sex, but was also built on warm friendship, mutual friends, shared values. They prided themselves on lack of "chains" which later turns into a lack of commitment. Long familiarity had cooled things off enough for Daisy to take an extended trip to Europe. While Daisy was off in Europe working on her art, Tom was at loose ends; his rich father thoroughly disapproved of him because he didn't make enough money. Tom's cozy house full of books looked great to me, but Daddy thought he needed a mansion. Tom had noted there was a depression on, and hired a washed up boxer as a butler so the man wouldn't starve. He appreciates Red Regan (Gargan) for his good humor and warm friendship. Tom loves a beautifully crafted book, and putting them together is his art. As Cecelia (Loy) draws him away from his other sources of joy, he finds pleasure isn't enough to fill the gap left by Daisy's departure, along with all his friends. He's continually pressured to sell his publishing house to the equivalent of Silhouette Romances, and that breaks the spell. The climax - and it does take awhile to get there - is Tom watching Loy display all her wiles while he keeps refilling her champagne glass, and you can see him think about that word "wife." And he's not confused any more. The acting in the last scene between these two is masterly, and well worth the wait.

This dreary adaptation of Philip Barry's Broadway play has two things going for it: a stunning Myrna Loy and some interesting exchanges of dialogue that would have been censored if the film had been released a couple of years later when Production Code enforcement was strengthened. On the whole, however, this film stagnates as filmed stage plays often do. The camera just sits there focusing on people entering rooms and talking, talking, talking. The story is familiar to Barry aficionados: the conflict between the old northeastern Puritan establishment values and the new, modern Bohemian mindset. This conflict is played out by Leslie Howard, nonconformist publisher of arty books whose upper crust traditionalist father disapproves of his offbeat lifestyle. Howard chooses to marry rich girl Myrna Loy while his old friend, whom he really loves but doesn't realize it at the time, is abroad. The latter character is a Bohemian enacted by Ann Harding who at one point says, and I paraphrase, "I have no money but it doesn't bother me." What?! This supposed "Bohemian" lives in a large, spotless, finely appointed apartment with a picture-window view of the East River, is dressed and coiffed as elegantly as any wealthy blueblood and seems to travel the world at the drop of a hat. Anyone with an apartment, wardrobe and lifestyle like that in 1932 could hardly "have no money." *** POSSIBLE SPOILER*** Harding is way too stodgy for her part and we end up sympathizing with the ostensibly cruel, superficial Loy who is actually so sweet, alluring, sexy, gorgeous and youthful that it comes as a shock when she is revealed to be a nasty, hard soul at the end. In addition, although Harding gets top billing with Howard, it is Loy who occupies the most screen time and who rivets our attention. Howard is at first too humdrum to be convincing as an unconventional rebel, but his later actions during intimate scenes with Loy fire up the screen, abetted by suggestive conversation. This is about as far as Hollywood would go in the carnal direction until the 60s. William Gargan is also on hand as Howard's butler who treats his boss as an equal, drinks excessively and launches into talking jags that intrude tiresomely on the business at hand. A similar subsidiary character from a later and far superior Barry film adaptation (Holiday, 1938) serves the story better. The ideal cast for this film would have been Franchot Tone as the lead and Loy/Harding in reversed roles.