Tonight's Movie: Once to Every Woman (1934) - A Sony Blu-ray Review

ONCE TO EVERY WOMAN (1934), releasing this coming week, is the newest in a series of pre-Code Blu-rays out from Sony this year.

Sony previously released MAN'S CASTLE (1933) and COCKTAIL HOUR (1933). Like those films, this is a sparkling Blu-ray. The movie looks great and is also quite entertaining. Can't beat that!

ONCE TO EVERY WOMAN was released by Columbia Pictures in March 1934, in the final months of the pre-Code era. That said, other than a doctor and nurse dallying on a rooftop, there's nothing particularly "pre-Code" about it. (Well, on second thought there is a patient, played by Kathrin Clare Ward, whose husband has beaten her and broken her ribs, and she seems strangely unperturbed by it.)

What we do have in this film is a fairly typical hospital melodrama of its day, and that's not a bad thing; to the contrary. This type of film is exactly my "cup of tea."

Jo Swerling's screenplay, based on a novel by A.J. Cronin, deftly weaves several stories concerning both hospital staff and patients into a brisk 66 minutes.

The film chiefly revolves around supervising Nurse Fanshawe (Fay Wray), who juggles both patient care and managing her staff. She's kindly when needed, excusing a tired night nurse (Bess Flowers) who's forgotten to complete a report, while treating flirtatious, lazy probational Nurse Andros (Mary Carlisle) more skeptically.

Nurse Fanshawe believes herself to be in love with Dr. Preston (Walter Byron), who's secretly a cad carrying on on the rooftop with Nurse Andros.

The honorable doctor Nurse Fanshawe should actually be paying attention to is Dr. Barclay (Ralph Bellamy), who's caught up in his own drama, as his close friend Dr. Selby (Walter Connolly) is no longer capable of offering the latest surgical treatments but is loath to admit it.

Wray and Bellamy are always welcome when I see their name in the opening credits and they are quite good here, with Bellamy particularly charming in his final scene; his interactions with his mentor, movingly played by Connolly, are well acted and give the movie depth. For her part, Carlisle is an entertaining floozy somewhat reminiscent of Alice White, and I especially enjoyed her final scene with Wray.

It's fun to see well-known extra Bess Flowers in a small part with dialogue in this film. There are several familiar faces in the cast including Ben Alexander (later of DRAGNET), Jane Darwell, J. Farrell MacDonald, Nora Cecil, and Sheila Darcy (who offscreen was Mrs. Preston Foster for many years).

This entertaining hour-plus was directed by Lambert Hillyer, who also directed many "B" Westerns I've enjoyed, such as the excellent Buck Jones films UNKNOWN VALLEY (1933) and THE MAN TRAILER (1934).

The movie was economically made on a handful of hospital room sets, filmed by John Stumar. The film looks terrific on this Blu-ray, which also has a strong soundtrack.

Like the previous releases mentioned at the start of this review, the disc has no extras. The movie boots up immediately after going into the player, without a menu.

As a side note, some of the posters and publicity photos for this film are quite amusing, inasmuch as Fay Wray is never seen in the film other than in her white uniform and nurse's cap.

These Sony releases have been a marvelous surprise, and I hope we'll be seeing more in the future.

Thanks to Allied Vaughn and Sony for providing a review copy of this Blu-ray. ONCE TO EVERY WOMAN may be purchased from Movie Zyng, Amazon, and other online retailers.

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