Honor Among Lovers

Directed by Dorothy Arzner, Honor Among Lovers follows Claudette Colbert’s Julia Traynor as she eventually finds herself caught between two men, Fredric March’s Jerry Stafford and Monroe Owsley’s Philip Craig. Filmmaker Arzner, armed with Austin Parker’s screenplay, delivers an erratically-paced yet ultimately satisfying endeavor that gets off to a less-than-spellbinding start, admittedly, as the picture opens with a meandering stretch that is, though agreeable enough, awfully light on plot and forward momentum – with the watchable vibe due mostly to the charming, commanding performances and Arzner’s periodically stylish visuals. There’s little doubt, then, that Honor Among Lovers improves substantially once it progresses into an increasingly (and agreeably) lurid midsection and second half, as the emphasis is eventually placed on the love triangle between the three central characters and, eventually, a series of fairly impossible-to-resist melodramatic happenings – which does ensure that the whole thing closes on an impressively compelling note. The end result is a relatively stirring piece of work that fares better than many similarly-themed contemporary efforts, which an impressive feat, certainly, given the decidedly far-from-flawless bent of the film’s opening half hour.

*** out of ****