blanche-2 Joel McCrea and Miriam Hopkins star in the 1935 "Splendor" also starring Helen Westley, Paul Cavanagh, Billie Burke, and David Niven.The Larrimore family lives in a luxury New York City mansion - you know, the kind that were turned into museums later -- but they're broke. The matriarch (Westley) is desperate for her son Brighton (McCrea) to marry a woman he's seen from time to time who has so much money she doesn't know how to spend it. However, Brighton comes home married to Phyllis, and she's not rich. The family resents her and makes her feel uncomfortable.The elder Mrs. Larrimore decides on another tack. She puts Phyllis into events involving her smooth cousin Martin (Cavanagh), a sleaze. He gives Brighton a job, but in order for Brighton to move up, Phyllis is going to have to come across. She refuses. When she realizes how much Brighton's self-esteem depends upon being sent on an important business trip, she gives in.I can understand the story getting through the Hayes office, but normally with the Code, the miscreant would have to pay for her infidelity. In "The Rains Came," Myrna Loy croaks because she was cheating on her husband. That's just one example. So-so film, very much of its time. One person reviewing on this site said David Niven had a "British accent and we don't know where it came from." Back then, upper class people spoke with quasi-British accents, better known as Mid-Atlantic speech. Examples being Katharine Hepburn, Bette Davis, Tallulah Bankhead, and many others.Miriam Hopkins is very good if a little on the stagy side. Joel McCrea was a real hunk and an appealing actor. David Niven is the playboy son always mooching money from Phyllis once Brighton had a job. He's ideal in the role.

marcslope How did this Goldwyn production ever sneak past the Hays Office? It's a frank drama of a once-wealthy but now-bankrupt New York family, still living in a Fifth Avenue mansion, whose hopes are pinned on son Joel McCrea's marrying a wealthy girl he doesn't love. Instead he returns from a Southern journey with impoverished bride Miriam Hopkins, who's snubbed by the family, and who captivates a wealthy cousin, Paul Cavanagh, who will hire and overpay McCrea if she'll sleep with him. It's quite frank about that, and to watch Hopkins balance pride, guilt, and ambivalence is a pre-Code-like treat, though she does tend toward the actressy, self-serving side. Helen Westley, often one-dimensional, is a multilayered and quite frightening monster-mother, alternately loving and manipulating her children, who also include a young David Niven, here an entertaining wastrel, who has a British accent and we don't know where it came from. It's elegantly produced and quite well directed by Elliott Nugent,also an actor, who usually wasn't this comfortable in the director's chair. Quite an eye-opener, and, though the contemporary reviews weren't good, quite entertaining today.

drednm Miriam Hopkins continues to climb my list of favorite 30s actresses.... SPLENDOR is a terrific, hard-hitting drama about a once wealthy family of leaches who pin their hopes of son (Joel McCrea) marrying money. Instead, he marries penniless Hopkins.To further McCrea's chances in business, the mother (Helen Westley) encourages Hopkins to be nice to wealthy cousin (Paul Cavanaugh). Hopkins also has to put up with sour sister (Katherine Alexander) and frivolous brother (David Niven) as they all leach off McCrea's newfound success.But it all comes to a crash when the cousin will only keep McCrea on if Hopkins will sleep with him. Later, when she having great guilt the family offers to forgive her if only she will not tell McCrea. Crash! Hopkins is luminous. All the acting is terrific, especially Westley as the greedy matriarch who won't give up any single comfort. Billie Burke, Arthur Treacher, Ivan Simpson, Torben Meyer, and Ruth Weston (excellent as Edith) co-star.

sobaok I sat stunned at the story-line for this film. It goes into emotional-romantic territory usually associated with pre-code films. Miriam Hopkins plays a young woman of great integrity who marries into a family of blue-bloods who's financial resources have all but drained. Joel McCrea, plays the loyal son to Helen Westley's controlling mother. His initial concern with his family's "prestige" puts his and Miriam's dreams and plans at bay. What follows is pretty risky business for a film in 1935. Westley is frightening and compelling as the controlling mother-in-law. All performances are top-notch. The challenges for Hopkins as an actress and the character she plays are believable and "she holds her own." A very unusual film that belongs in any film buffs collection.