Clevercell Very disappointing...

Matialth Good concept, poorly executed.

Cleveronix A different way of telling a story

Dynamixor The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

kapelusznik18 ***SPOILERS***Hedy Lamarr rightfully billed as the most beautiful woman in the world is half-cast French Asian belly dancer Manon de Vargnes in this tragic love story about forbidden love and the consequences that goes along with it. That in her getting involved with this good for nothing self admitted playboy or moocher who lives off the women that he romances American party boy Bill Carey played by the devilishly handsome, you can almost see the horns sticking out of his head, Robert Taylor. Carey who's to be hitched up or marry millionairess Dolly Harrison, Mary Taylor, drops her like a hot potato when he laid his eyes on the beautiful Manon at a swanky restaurant in Siagon-French Indo_Chins-while smooching off a free meal that Dolly's parents are treating him to.Even though already planning to marry rich and also half-breed French/Asian millionaire nobleman Pierre DDelaroch, Joseph Schildkraut, who's really got the hots for her Manon falls heads over heels for the handsome American Bill Carey who never worked a day in his life and doesn't have a penny to his name! We soon find out that Manon is torn between getting a passport to get out of the country that only Pierre, with his money and political connections, can provide her with or marrying the dirt poor but handsome Bill Carey. With whom she can only look forward to a life of living off the charity and kindness, as well as grubbing & scratching, of others! Madly in love and not willing to lose the beautiful Manon to a commoner as well as, what he thinks of him, bum on the street Pierre sets Carey up at first to have a job, the first one in his life, as a rubber inspector of pencil erasers at one of his rubber plantations and then marry Manon while he's out at work-which Carey hates with a passion-in the field.***SPOILERS**** The tragic ending in this crazy and confusing film has Manon in order to keep the outraged Carey from killing Pierre for taking her away from him by doing the job-shooting to death- on Pierre herself. Manon then shooting herself now peacefully dying in her lover Carey's arms, how touching, and about to breath her last breath has Father Antione,Earnest Cossart, summoned in to give her the last rites before she finally checks out for good. We see in the last few frames of the movie the passport that Pierre the lover that she killed got for Manon is in fact legit not fake which we were, by Pierre, lead on to believe. which Bill Carey was to use to get her out of the country but now totally useless for her! Since the beautiful Manon will never be able to see "The City of Lights" Paris the Eiffel Tower and most of all go sightseeing down the Champs-Elysee which she so long was dying, and in fact did, to do!

JohnHowardReid Although some reviewers disagreed, I thought Jack Conway's direction was very smooth. I also found Robert Taylor's acting reasonably convincing, despite some of the hokey dialogue he was sometimes forced to handle. But the film belongs to sultry Hedy Lamarr who is efficaciously cast in this one as a beautiful half-caste in French Indo-China, whom American playboy Robert Taylor pursues and marries. Costumed by Adrian and strikingly photographed by George Folsey - often in film noir style - Hedy not only looks very young but suitably vulnerable. As noted above, co- star Taylor plays the hero with reasonable conviction, but is creamed in the acting stakes by Joseph Schildkraut who contributes a fascinating study in ego-maniacal cunning and evil. Others worth mentioning in the topflight cast include Mary Taylor – no relation of Robert Taylor. She was a New York model who – between 1936 and 1941 – made only four films (this is the second). She married producer Al Zimbalist in 1952. Despite her intriguing face, fetching figure and great performance here as Dolly Harrison, Mary Taylor was overlooked by reviewers who had eyes only for the dazzling Lamarr. Another in the great support cast that I would single out is Ernest Cossart, who often played priests and authority figures. Here he shoulders the white man's burden – an attitude which is now dated and even abhorrent! But to end this review on a more positive note, watch out for Gloria Franklin (in her second of only eight movies). She sings (or Harriet Cruise dubs) "Each Time You Say Goodbye (I Die a Little)" by Phil Ohman and Foster Carling.

MartinHafer Despite a large budget and the usual MGM gloss, this is not a particularly good movie. Perhaps when it debuted in 1939 people knew nothing of Vietnam--this is the only way I can explain the insane casting of the Viennese Hedy Lamar as a woman who is half Vietnamese! Now if the casting of Austrian-born actress in the lead was the only problem, the movie still could have been interesting. However, the film has many more strikes against it--most notably the very, very limited range of the starlet in this film. Much of the time, she utters her lines as if almost half asleep and had practically no emotion to her performance. Part of this might have been because she was relatively new to America or perhaps she needed better direction. All I know is that she was beautiful to look at but rather vacant.To make things worse, although she is NOT a rich woman in the film, repeatedly she sports gowns that were right out of Vogue magazine--yet she is supposed to live in Vietnam, not Paris. Now the movie seemed to imply she was possibly a prostitute or a mistress--but even then, it seemed silly to have her traipsing around in one glamorous gown after another in a third world nation. One reviewer faulted the problem with the movie to be Robert Taylor's fault--I think it was all Hedy's.The bottom line is that aside from saying the film was set in Vietnam, you'd never guess it by watching the film. It is instead a sanitized and ridiculous Vietnam as seen by Hollywood.As for the plot, it's only okay. In many ways it's a bit reminiscent of Robert Taylor's earlier film, CAMILLE, as both are about fated romances. Most audience members will figure out rather quickly that this romance will not end well! So due to predictability, the plot wasn't able to counteract the lousy casting decisions. While I disliked the film, it seems most other reviews were very positive--so who's to say you may not enjoy it.By the way, just who or what was Joseph Schildkraut supposed to be in the film?! With his silly fake eyelids and lack of any conventional accent, I was left confused. Again, maybe 1930s Hollywood thought it was okay to say pretty much ANYTHING or ANYONE was Vietnamese--after all, who in the audience at the time would have known differently?

blanche-2 Certainly two of the most beautiful stars in films were Hedy Lamarr and Robert Taylor, and here they are together in "Lady of the Tropics," a 1939 film directed by Jack Conway. It's the story of a half-caste named Manon who, as a second class citizen, can't get a passport to leave Saigon. Taylor is a playboy who falls for her; the two marry, incurring the wrath of Manon's sometime boyfriend Delaroch (Joseph Schildkraut).Made under the Hays code, the ending of the film is obvious and inevitable; also, it closely follows the story of Manon Lescaut, told twice in opera, once by Puccini and once by Massenet. There's a scene from the Puccini version in the film.The film is beautifully photographed. Lamarr has a lovely, tender quality as Manon, and she is stunning in her Adrian gowns and hats. Taylor has a role similar to his Alfred in Camille, and he does it well, resplendent in his white suit and brilliant smile. One of the posts suggested Francis Lederer in the role. Lederer was a handsome and wonderful actor, very romantic, and would have brought a more exotic persona to the part. I admit, however, to liking the rugged, earthy, American quality Taylor brings, as the character should be truly out of his element in Saigon. This makes Manon's inability to get a passport all the sadder and more desperate.Joseph Schildkraut was a master at portraying the kind of evil manipulator he did as Laroch, so while his Oriental makeup is a little disconcerting, his performance isn't.A lovely film. Too bad about the code.