Glamorous Joan’s screen image is now fully defined, and her improved acting carries her pictures with grace and assurance. Director Clarence Brown makes a soapy story play like high drama. It’s rags to riches again, as one woman captivates the three men in her life. Sexy Sadie elopes with one man, marries another and resents a third, but guess who ends up the winner?  Edward Arnold’s performance is the standout; Franchot Tone and Gene Raymond do well enough, but we prefer the smart comic touch of Jean Dixon. And it takes a minute to accept the sight of Arnold, Akim Tamiroff and Leo G. Carroll looking far younger than we ever thought they could.

Sadie McKee
Blu-ray
Warner Archive Collection
1934 / B&W / 1:37 Academy / 93 min. / Street Date March 25, 2025 / Available at MovieZyng / 21.99
Starring: Joan Crawford, Gene Raymond, Franchot Tone, Edward Arnold, Esther Ralston, Earl, Jean Dixon, Leo G. Carroll, Akim Tamiroff, Ethel Griffies, Samuel S. Hinds.
Cinematography: Oliver T. Marsh
Art Director: Cedric Gibbons
Costumes: Adrian
Songs by Arthur Freed, Nacio Herb Brown
Film Editor: Hugh Wynn
Original Music: William Axt
Screenplay by John Meehan from the story Pretty Sadie McKee Viña Delmar
Produced by Lawrence Weingarten
Directed by Clarence Brown

Joan Crawford discs must sell better than movies by other golden-era film stars, because the Warner Archive keeps putting them out in striking remastered encodings. A few months back we were given a picture-perfect restoration of  Dance, Fools, Dance, a much-earlier MGM pre-Code. Released just as the Code regained its censorial bite, Sadie McKee toes the line, observing the new rules governing sex behavior. Technically, at least.

1934 saw Joan Crawford at the top of her game. Her romantic screen persona was bolstered by some of classic Hollywood’s best glamour photography, by greats like George Hurrell. Her acting had certainly improved, even if her range of characterizations remained fairly narrow. At that time Jean Harlow was the only MGM star that could match Joan’s image as a screen goddess. But they were never competitors in the struggle for good movie roles. Joan’s rivalry with Norma Shearer, the ‘Queen of the Lot,’ had not yet advanced to open warfare.

Four years into the talkies, Crawford’s roles were alternating between rich women with romantic problems, and working-class women striving to better themselves. Sadie McKee is a mix of both. It’s taken from a story by Viña Delmar ( Bad Girl), a writer expert in self-promotion. Delmar’s popularity can be judged by the fact that she appears in the film’s trailer.

Sadie McKee makes going from rags to riches look easy. Sadie (Crawford) is the daughter of a cook for the wealthy Alderson family, that owns the factory in Sadie’s small town. She and her boyfriend Tommy Wallace (Gene Raymond) were friends with Michael Alderson (Franchot Tone) back in school. Helping serve at a big Alderson dinner party, she is noticed by the handsome Michael, but makes a scene when he talks about the need to prosecute Tommy, who has been fired for stealing company money. Sadie impulsively leaves with Tommy for New York, even though all they have is a few dollars. Sadie overestimates Tommy’s commitment to their future.

Instead of getting married on her first day in the big city, Sadie is left on her own. Tommy runs away to sing with Dolly Merrick (Esther Ralston), a flashy entertainer. Sadie is befriended by her flophouse neighbor Opal (Jean Dixon of  Holiday), who helpfully finds her a chorus job in the nightclub of Riccori (Akim Tamiroff). There she meets the alcoholic millionaire Jack Brennan (Edward Arnold) — and re-meets Michael Alderson, Brennan’s attorney. Sadie finds Jack to be sweet and harmless, and becomes protective of him. She marries him almost to spite the judgmental Mike, who calls her a gold digger.

Sadie’s apparent matrimonial duty is to accompany Jack on his drunken nights in town. His alcoholism is enabled by Phelps, his butler (Leo G. Carroll). Michael again tries to interfere in Sadie’s marriage, wrongly assuming that she is seeing Tommy Wallace on the side. When the doctor advises that Jack is killing himself with liquor, Michael even hints that it’s part of Sadie’s plan. Sadie has been faithful to Jack, but knows she’s still in love with Tommy. Even if Jack recovers, how can she remain a loyal wife to him?

Sadie McKee benefits greatly from direction by Clarence Brown, who had directed Crawford three times before. His sensitive touches smooth over every predictable plot turn. The billing tells us that Sadie and Michael will end up together, a happy ending that requires several very convenient story developments. As everything is tailored to the needs of Crawford’s star persona, the narrative skips neatly from one Sadie ‘blow-up’ to the next. She tells off Michael’s dinner guests, counters Michael’s charges of gold-digging, and rallies the Brennan servants to help her dry out her husband. She finally puts the man-poaching Dolly Merrick in her place, shoving her off her feet. She caps the picture with a full-out hospital deathwatch scene.  What more does the Academy want of an actress?

It’s the kind of star-driven story that would have been a good structural fit for the young Tom Cruise. Sadie is always in the right. She stands up for herself even when everyone assumes the worst of her. She wins the day, mostly by telling other people what to do. Her forthright honesty pays off, when one good man gallantly steps aside to clear her way to another. A deathly illness steps in to ‘correct’ another romantic problem. If Sadie had a fourth man in love with her, the writers would have had to invent a cartoon safe to fall on his head.

The show moves swiftly between key scenes — Sadie and Opal waiting all afternoon at the Marriage License bureau, Sadie being harrassed by an oafish patron in the nightclub, Sadie being sweet to the drunken Jack Brennan, just because he treats her like a lady. The role was reportedly a favorite for Edward Arnold, who immediately graduated to some of his best movies —  Come and Get It,  his 3 Frank Capra movies,  All That Money Can Buy.

Alcoholism had figured often in pre-Code movies, but the Production Code would take the edge off of the problem … drunks were more frequently used as comic relief. The popular Nick & Nora Charles movies assured us that heavy drinking made people witty and sophisticated. But Edward Arnold’s Jack is frequently incapacitated, and even nauseated once. He also strikes Sadie, when she refuses to give him a drink. The script skips over his recovery period. The newly-cured Jack is of course so grateful for Sadie’s affection and tough-love care that he’ll do anything for her. He gives everything and demands nothing — how did he ever amass a fortune of 18 million dollars?

First boyfriends in Crawford dramas often turn out to be losers of one ilk or another. We don’t see much of Gene Raymond’s Tommy after he runs off with Dolly, the bad news floozie with the weak cabaret act. We know he’s Sadie’s weak spot … a tragedy would have her do wrong to old Jack, out of misplaced love. Tommy plays the ukelele and introduces Arthur Freed & Nacio Herb Brown’s ‘All I Do Is Dream of You,’ the tune familiar from  Singin’ in the Rain. The song is all over the picture as underscore. Gene sings it several times, and a nightclub trio do a nice table-side rendition when Sadie sits up all night with the drunken Jack.

Sadie McKee would appear to be a Production Code ‘transition’ movie. We get familiar pre-Code situations, such as landlady with a flexible attitude towards marriage licences. But sinful activity is bracketed with plausible deniability. Tommy and Sadie elope, but he sleeps in a chair. Dolly picks Tommy up for what looks like sex, but the conversation soon turns to a job. The ‘highly moral’ Sadie seethes at Michael’s accusations, but won’t put up with Dolly’s insults. When Dolly all but calls her a whore, saying, “I never sold myself for money,” Sadie gives her a good shove.

An inavdvertent surprise line comes when Sadie and Opal end up sitting all day at the Marriage License office. A cop comes up to the two women and asks, “Do you two girls want to get married?”  I guess they’ll have to wait 70 or 80 years to do that.

It’s implied that Jack Brennan is too plastered to have sex with his new bride. Just the same, Crawford has one of her best and most subtle moments when Sadie helps the inebriated Jack back home after their marriage. They finally embrace, and Joan’s face reflects something she really should have thought about sooner: now she’s going to have to sleep with this walrus!

Of course, the upright and noble Michael is waiting in the wings. Franchot Tone and Crawford hit it off and married the next year; in interviews she credited him with encouraging her to attempt more high-toned dramatic material. Esther Ralston is best in her first scene, coming on to Tommy, but the film’s biggest supporting impression is made by Jean Dixon, who really knows how to sell a funny line. Dixon’s hefty showgirl Opal shows Sadie the ropes of nightclub work, and as a reward accompanies her on spending sprees. If this were a pre-Code picture, we’d take certain cues as implying that Dolly and perhaps even Opal make money on the side turning tricks … maybe.

↖  Earning special mention is Leo G. Carroll’s butler, Phelps. Carroll is at first directed to act so shifty that we think he might be after Brennan’s millons. But like the rest of the servants, Phelps rallies behind Sadie to help save her husband. Carroll, Arnold and especially Akim Tamiroff impress us just because they look so youthful. Well, Carroll does already look a lot like  Droopy Dog.

Making the real difference is the direction of Clarence Brown. He invests the sketchy story with integrity and manages a classy fade-out finale. Most of Crawford’s big scenes land well; Brown was always good at extended close-up dramatics. This is actually one of Crawford’s better films.

The Warner Archive Collection Blu-ray of Sadie McKee is the expected major face-lift for a film now 90 years old. Joan Crawford’s killer close-ups have the look of her glamorous still photography. MGM’s standard production values deliver packed theaters and Akim Tamiroff’s busy nightclub, plus the palatial Brennan mansion and close-ups of what are probably real diamonds. Cinematographer Oliver Marsh is not a classic-era Hollywood name, yet his credit adorns several of Joan Crawford’s better pictures.

Breaking from habit, the Warner Archive hasn’t duplicated the extras from the old 2008 DVD. We instead get a trio of Merrie Melodies cartoons from 1934, remastered in HD. The third is in very clean 2-Color Technicolor. Each features weird characters, animals and household objects singing and dancing to pop songs; the ‘Toontown’ effect is almost nightmarish. The original trailer, introduced by Viña Delmar, appears to be remastered as well.

Reviewed by Glenn Erickson

Sadie McKee
Blu-ray rates:
Movie: Very Good
Video: Excellent
Sound: Excellent
Supplements:
Trailer
Merrie Melodies cartoons:
Pop Goes Your Heart
Shake Your Powder Puff
Why Do I Dream Those Dreams?
Deaf and Hearing-impaired Friendly? YES; Subtitles: English (feature only)
Packaging: One Blu-ray in Keep case
Reviewed: April 2, 2025
(7308sadi)

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