The Woman I Love [The Woman Between] ** (1937, Paul Muni, Miriam Hopkins, Louis Hayward, Colin Clive) – Classic Movie Review 11,928

Director Anatole Litvak’s 1937 romantic triangle drama The Woman I Love [The Woman Between] stars Paul Muni, Miriam Hopkins, Louis Hayward and Colin Clive.

During World War One, French fighter pilot Lieutenant Claude Maury (Muni) and his buddy Lieutenant Jean Herbillon (Hayward) feud over Lieutenant Maury’s wife, the lovely Madame Hélène Maury (Hopkins), after Hayward falls in love with her just before the two men have to go back to serve at the front together.

Uninspired, stiff performances from the normally reliable star trio, a stodgy script and low-flying direction keep the project grounded.

Director Litvak, in his Hollywood début, was hired because he had directed a hit French film version of the tale, L’Equipage (1935), based on Joseph Kessel’s novel L’Equipage.

RKO Radio Pictures’ best decision was to reuse the outstanding original score (by Arthur Honegger).

It is the final film of Colin Clive, as Captain Thelis. He suffered from severe chronic alcoholism and died from complications of tuberculosis in 1937 at only 37. His film debut was in Journey’s End (1930) as Captain Denis Stanhope, followed by Frankenstein (1931) as Henry Frankenstein.

Principal photography began on 12 December 1936 and concluded at the end of February 1937. The shoot was divided between RKO Radio Pictures’ studios in Hollywood and the RKO Ranch in Encino, California, where an entire World War One airfield was built, along with a bombed French village nearby.

Aerial coordinator Paul Mantz assembled period aircraft modified to look like the planes in Litvak’s L’Equipage. Mantz and stunt pilot Frank Clarke flew contemporary Stearman C3 and Curtiss Fledgling aircraft modified to resemble French World War One biplanes. Stock footage, studio process scenes and new aerial photography by Elmer Dyer are blended.

The Woman I Love cost $725,000, but it was weak at the box office, taking $783,000, with a reported loss of $266,000.

Miriam Hopkins (October 18, 1902 – October 9, 1972) is best known for Trouble in Paradise, Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, The Story of Temple Drake, Becky Sharp, These Three, The Richest Girl in the World, Barbary Coast, The Old Maid (1939) and Old Acquaintance.

Hopkins made two films with Bette Davis, The Old Maid and Old Acquaintance. They did not see eye to eye and had well-publicised fights. Davis described Hopkins as a ‘terribly good actress’ but ‘terribly jealous’. Hopkins believed Davis was having an affair with her director husband, Anatole Litvak, whom Hopkins met while making The Woman I Love. They were married from 1937 to 1939.

The cast are Paul Muni as Lieutenant Claude Maury, Miriam Hopkins as Madame Helene Maury, Louis Hayward as Lieutenant Jean Herbillion, Colin Clive as Captain Thelis, Minor Watson as Deschamps, Elisabeth Risdon as Madame Herbillion, Paul Guilfoyle as Bertier, Wally Albright as Georges, Mady Christians as Florence, Alec Craig as Doctor, Owen Davis Jr as Mezziores, Sterling Holloway as Duprez, Adrian Morris as Marbot, Vince Barnett, Don ‘Red’ Barry, William Sterling, Richard Tucker, Roland Varno, Richard Lane, Doodles Weaver, Alan Curtis, Dudley Clements, Otto Hoffman, Maxine Jennings, Leonid Kinskey, William Corson, Art Lewis, and Mary MacLaren.

© Derek Winnert 2022 Classic Movie Review 11,928

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