Cocktail Hour (1933)

Cocktail Hour is a 1933 Columbia pre-code romance with a touch of crime. It was directed by Victor Schertzinger.

Cynthia Warren (Bebe Daniels) is a successful illustrator who is sure that a woman does not need marriage, she just needs freedom. Men are just amusements.

Prince Philippe de Longville (Barry Norton) follows her around like a lovesick puppy dog. He wants to marry her. He’s a nice boy but he’s just a boy. Cynthia is only interested in men so even if she did not want to get married she wouldn’t marry Philippe.

Randy (Randolph Scott) is a different matter. He’s a man. She’s really attracted to him, but won’t marry him.

Randy knows about women. He pretends that he doesn’t care. That drives her crazy. Even if she doesn’t want to marry him how dare he stop pursuing her!

Cynthia heads off to Europe. On the ship she befriends tempestuous Russian pianist Olga Raimoff (Muriel Kirkland). Olga is really just Tessie Burns from Kansas.

And Cynthia has a shipboard romance with the handsome charming William Lawton (Sidney Blackmer). He sweeps Cynthia off her feet. He quotes poetry to her. No girl can resist that.

The affair sours a bit when the ship docks at Southampton and she is introduced to his wife. She heads for Paris. Philippe is there and he’s still mooning over her and he’s insanely jealous of her shipboard over. Randy is there as well, but Cynthia still won’t marry him.

What really bothers Cynthia is that William’s wife Pat (Marjorie Gateson) knows all about Cynthia and doesn’t care. She doesn’t take Cynthia the slightest bit seriously as a threat. There’s nothing more humiliating to a woman than to be not taken seriously as a romantic rival.

William wants to keep Cynthia as his bit on the side. That doesn’t please Cynthia and obviously it’s not to the liking of either Philippe or Randy. It leads to a moment of violence in a hotel room.

Usually I like Bebe Daniels but Cynthia is a character I couldn’t warm to. Too cold and then she switches to self-pity. Randolph Scott is good but doesn’t get enough to do.

I liked Sidney Blackmer’s restrained performance. He doesn’t overdo the charming seducer thing which makes it more plausible that a girl like Cynthia would fall for him.

Several things make this very much a pre-code movie. It’s obvious that the shipboard romance between Cynthia and William went beyond flirtation - had it been mere flirtation her angry reaction when she discovers he’s married would not have made sense.

Pat Lawton is indifferent to her husband’s love affairs of which he has had many, which is certainly very pre-code. Infidelity is not something that shocks any of the characters.

There’s a “battle of the sexes” element to the relationship between Cynthia and Randy and a conflict between traditional ideas on marriage (represented by Randy) and Cynthia’s ambition to be a career woman.

Cocktail Hour is reasonably enjoyable and I love movies set at least partially on board ships. Recommended.

Sony’s Blu-Ray offers no extras but the movie looks extremely good.