Overlooked Classics: Reducing (1931)

 

If you are like me, you having probably also been extremely enjoying having Marie Dressler as the star of the month on TCM. It is fantastic to look at the career of this fantastic comedic actress. Having been watch TCM on Monday nights recently I have been constantly delighted in the talent of this woman.  So today we are going to look at a delightful, but sadly overlooked comedy staring her and Polly Moran called Reducing.

Though she is forgotten today Marie Dressler was a huge movie star in the 1930's. Though she started her film career in 1914 in Tillie's Punctured Romance (the first feature length comedian). Though that film was a hit her film career never really took off in the silent era. However in the early 1930's her career really took off. She was not your average Hollwood star. She did not look like Hollywood's traditional leading ladies. She was also not esspically young at this time. However her popularity was inmatched. She was in fact even a bigger star then Greta Garbo, and in 1930 she won an academy award for her performance in Min and Bill (she was 60 years old at the time). She passed away in 1934 but left behind her a fantastic film legacy.

This film was directed by Charles F. Reisner. Reisner had been the associate director on the Charlie Chaplin films The Kid, The Pilgrim, and The Gold Rush. You can also see him on camera playing the bully in Charlie Chaplin's The Kid. He also directed Buster Keaton's Steam Boat Bill Jr.. He would also later direct Lost in a Harem (with Abbott and Costello) and The Big Store (with the Marx Brothers). 

The film's story begins as Polly (played by Polly Moran) invites her sister to ask her sister Marie (played by Marie Dressler) to live with her after she discovers Marie has money problems. Marie's daughter Vivian (played by Anita Page) begins to fall for the boyfriend of Polly's daughter Joyce (played by Sally Eilers) making a fight rose up in the family.

This film is a simple but delightful comedy. The jokes are quite funny, the characters very likable, the cast is great and the whole film is just pleasant to watch. It is interesting to note that this movie followed Marie Dressler's academy award winning performance in Min and Bill. Even though this is a more lightweight film she turns out just as good of a performance here. In fact all the performances in this movie are great.

This film was not popular with critics, but audiences loved it. MGM soon put Marie Dressler and Polly Moran in another film. This film would be called politics and would also be directed by Charles F, Reisner.

-Michael J. Ruhland

Resources Used
http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/2155/Reducing/articles.html