Dorothea wants Dick in the hardest way so he signs his manhood away on the Dot-ted line. A film about sustaining Patriarchal values and the consequence of sequestering a man’s self-worth, as the women play their patronizing parts of excessive and class-conscience judgments. It’s not flattering but has its moments of insight and empowerment.
Dot (Dorothy Mackaill) is the daughter of a wealthy steel magnate, a working man who earned his fortune. Dot’s mother is the typical hysterical socialite who looks down her nose upon working people. Dick Brunton is a hero at the factory and Dot’s father (his boss) invites him over to a dinner party. He is handsome and well mannered (a young Joel McCrae who looks 7 ft. tall!) and Dot wants him now: she’s like Veruca Salt in Roald Dahl’s book CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY. She bets her father that she can convince Dick to propose in four weeks. She fails and it’s actually Dot who proposes! So the hard working Dick becomes husband to a spoiled brat whose concerns are expensive clothes and a mansion, all paid for by her father. Dick just wants to work and earn his keep, live within his means but Dot makes this impossible. The story parallels the two homes during Christmas: the working class hero (small tree) and the wealthy magnate (gigantic tree). The two mothers are also depicted in contrast and here, it’s Dick’s kind and loving mother who wins our sympathies.
But the best part of the film is Ned Sparks as the dour and pessimistic boarder who rents a room from Dick’s mother. His relentless monotone idioms and sage advice, sometimes mixing metaphors and semaphores, is fucking hilarious. His character plays no part in advancing the plot, he has literally no impact upon the outcome of the story, yet steals every scene he’s in with his Buster Keaton-like visage.
Dick regrets being a kept husband and does his best to struggle against his wife’s limited ambition, and Joel McCrae’s performance may be a bit one-note and dull but Dorothy Mackaill tries to walk the thin line between specious and facetious. She even fends of a potential sexual assault from a boyfriend with humor and role-play until he gives up, so she has strength and willpower but hasn’t applied it to her marriage. Of course, this is a film of its Era and neither Dick nor Dot are given any alternative to their relationship: it’s just a man’s world, after all.
Final Grade: (C)
