A Free Soul (1931) is so misleading. Hot off her smash hit The Divorcée, Norma Shearer seems like she'll be playing another empowered woman. With Lionel Barrymore, Clark Gable, and Leslie Howard backing her up, you'd think this film would be a classic of pre-code. Shearer plays a hard-drinking lawyer's free-spirited daughter who takes up a passionate affair with a gangster; however, her liberated sexuality comes with an awful price.And boy is it awful! The film goes out of its way to humiliate and chastise the heroine (and in turn, the audience) for her sexual exploration. It's complete with Barrymore giving a courtroom speech that reeks of Oscar bait and Leslie Howard being given next to nothing to do but sit back and make goo goo eyes at Shearer.Of course, it's not an entire waste. The first half of the picture is fun and full of hot material, like Shearer in a sheer evening gown. She never looked sexier (how I yearned to be Gable in this movie). Barrymore and Gable give solid supporting performances, though the material does not allow them to be at their best. We can only dream of what could have been, alas.

A Free Soul (1931)Clark Gable says, "I'm telling you." And Norma Shearer, dressed in a sexy silk dress, replies, "Oh no, you're not. Nobody is."That sums up this astonishing movie. I can't believe A Free Soul is so little known, or that so many viewers don't get the depth of its meaning then...and now. Throw in three of the most amazing actors of the early 1930s--Lionel Barrymore, Clark Gable, and Norma Shearer--and you can't help be impressed, and moved, and intrigued. It's about strength of character (three or four characters, in fact). It's about being a modern person, and having modern problems. And it's about facing them, openly, honestly.So what holds it back? Well, for one thing, it has a lot of talk, a lot of simple dialog about some very not simple things. If you accept the characters and their need to talk, you will see a very honest confrontation with alcoholism, and with what is at first a kind of sex addiction, or what is later developed to be simply unbridled love for a man outside of marriage. But the parallel between two temptations is real, and rather powerful, and the sacrifices each of the two afflicted characters make is intense. Barrymore (as the one nipping the bottle) and Shearer (as the one too much in love, or in love with lovemaking) play their parts perfectly. They have moments of extraordinary clarity, and moments of abandonment. And they confront each other in a way that is completely reasonable.There are other aspects here worth at least lifting an eyebrow at, namely the very close relationship, almost as platonic lovers, between these two. Gable as a lovable but brutal and deceptive gangster is perfect, too--gorgeous and hard, charming and untrustworthy. The milieu is well developed, from barroom to hotel room to courtroom. This isn't a Warner Brothers knock-you-out crime film, it isn't even Three on a Match, for an example of a compromise between a woman's picture and a gangster flick. It's a heady drama, beautifully laid out and progressively involving, with director Clarence Brown (famous for a whole string of such interpersonal, romantic dramas over several decades) knowing what makes a film really matter.

For years Norma Shearer had portrayed "sweet young things" in films such as "Their Own Desire" (1929) - until she rebelled. "The Divorcée" was one of the most sought after roles - everyone wanted to play Jerry but Norma pulled rank (she was married to Irving Thalberg) and not only surprised her critics but won a Best Actress Academy Award!!!. "A Free Soul" was based on a magazine serial Adela Rogers St. John wrote about her attorney father and it was a film with intense performances. Both Lionel Barrymore and Norma Shearer won Academy Award nominations with Barrymore winning because of his shattering performance as an alcoholic lawyer. Gable's performance as an aggressive but sexually exciting gangster was electrifying. The film was extremely popular because, it was said, the female audiences wanted to see Gable push Shearer around (although I, also, saw no slap). Fans could see Gable at his most brutish in "Night Nurse", made the same year, where he actually knocks Barbara Stanwyck out cold.Jan (Norma Shearer) is the beloved daughter of alcoholic attorney, Stephen Ashe (Lionel Barrymore). Because of his drinking and his unreliability his clients represent the dregs of society and he is oblivious to Jan's exposure to the seedier side of life. Jan has also an addiction - to living life as she wants, with no restrictions - a free soul. When accompanying her father to court she meets Ace Wilfong (Clark Gable) a notorious gangster and there is an instant sexual attraction between them. That night, after celebrations, Ace drops Stephen off at his home but when Jan sees how Ace's presence and Stephen's inebriation get the cold shoulder from other guests, she leaves with Ace in disgust. Once they leave, they are involved in a drive by shooting and Jan is exhilarated by the danger and excitement. They begin an affair and Ace wants to marry her. Stephen sobers up enough to tell him that he is from the gutter and will never be good enough for Jan. That night Stephen gets drunk and is bought to Ace's suite. There he encounters Jan and both of them reach a pact - he to keep on the wagon if she will stop seeing Ace. They go to a mountain retreat but Stephen can't stay sober and Jan, disillusioned goes back to Ace. But Ace has changed and reveals his true nature by his brutish behaviour of her. He is more than ever determined to marry her and "show her who's boss" but Jan flees to her apartment and he follows for the showdown.Jan goes looking for her father to defend Dwight (Leslie Howard)(he has gone to Ace's suite and killed him) and she finds him in a seedy doss house. Lionel Barrymore turns in a magnificent performance as the alcoholic Stephen, who is riveting in his final court room appearance. Barrymore more than deserved his Academy Award.Today Gable comes across as sympathetic in his genuine love for Jan. His down to earth portrayal is out of place in a sea of high society brittleness.Highly, Highly Recommended.

One of the interesting things for me was seeing Clark Gable and Lesley Howard act together 8 yrs prior to Gone with the Wind. Kind of the same casting type-Lesley Howard the smart,cool headed guy and Clark Gable hotheaded, physical type.Maybe that was why I was shocked at how the LH character handled the situation with CG. This is the first time I've seen Lionel Barrymore in a lead role and was thinking he should have at least been nominated for an Oscar,so looked it up,and was pleased to see he won! Very deserved.I have an etching done by Lionel that my Mom had that shows his great talent in that area also. I saw this on Turner Classic Movies, after seeing the documentary about why the codes started. For it's time this is a very in your face movie. Alcohol abuse,co-habitating with no marriage. The obvious threat of an abusive marriage,or worse if she refuses the marriage. Also loved the scenes of 1931 San Francisco thru the window at the beginning, Yosemite and other areas.