Really wonderful precursor to "The Women"; made on the cheap, but well worth the 65 minutes!

Edmund Breese, Natalie Moorhead, and Jack Mulhall in Love Bound (1932)

Virginia Grey, Danny Morton, Milburn Stone, and Kent Taylor in Smooth as Silk (1946)

Walter Byron and Evalyn Knapp in Slightly Married (1932)

Joan Marsh, Marian Marsh, and Kenneth Thomson in Daring Daughters (1933)

Mary Astor, Hale Hamilton, Kenneth MacKenna, and Lilyan Tashman in Those We Love (1932)

Alice Faye and George Raft in Every Night at Eight (1935)

Sidney Blackmer, Shirley Grey, and Noel Madison in The Girl Who Came Back (1935)

Randolph Scott, Joseph Cawthorn, Phyllis Lee, Buster Phelps, and Martha Sleeper in Broken Dreams (1933)

Adrienne Ames, Douglass Montgomery, and Evelyn Venable in Harmony Lane (1935)

Adrienne Ames, Esther Ralston, and Craig Reynolds in Slander House (1938)

Adrienne Ames, Edward Keane, George Meeker, and Dorothy Vaughan in Slander House (1938)

Adrienne Ames, George Meeker, and Craig Reynolds in Slander House (1938)

Adrienne Ames, Edward Keane, and Craig Reynolds in Slander House (1938)

Adrienne Ames and George Meeker in Slander House (1938)

Adrienne Ames, Robert Homans, Pert Kelton, and Craig Reynolds in Slander House (1938)

Adrienne Ames and Craig Reynolds in Slander House (1938)

Adrienne Ames

Craig Reynolds

Esther Ralston

Madeline Woods

John W. Krafft

Gertrude Orr

The owner of a salon catering to fat society dames deals with a dull fiance&apos;, a romantic stranger, the jealous blonde who loves him, and a client&apos;s lecherous husband.

Charles Lamont

Slander House

Really wonderful precursor to &quot;The Women&quot;; made on the cheap, but well worth the 65 minutes!

&quot;Slander House&quot; (1938) is actually a nice discovery, especially because it is a sort-of precursor to next year&apos;s (1939) &quot;The Women&quot;. No where near as stinging with acid remarks as &quot;The Women&quot;, nevertheless the breezy nonchalance, the drama, and the off-the-cuff humor that pervades &quot;Slander House&quot; is actually very well done. What it lacks is tighter direction and an even better script. The next year&apos;s film is a masterpiece. This is simply a cheap Progressive Pictures quickie with lots of old-time (though still young!) performers getting a check so they can eat. But...they did a very good job. The only problem as most see it: Craig Reynolds. Here was a performer who breezed through so many pictures in the early 30s, from features to serials, and may even have had a next decade stardom ahead of him, but WW II interrupted his career for four years, and when he returned his career plummeted. In 1949, after he&apos;d been married to Barbara Pepper and had two children, he went out on a motorcycle and was killed in an accident at the age of 42. Anyway, his performance in &quot;Slander House&quot; is so breezy it seems to contrast with all the other performers, as if he&apos;s there to practice in place of the real performer. It&apos;s not bad, but it just doesn&apos;t seem to fit. Whether it&apos;s the writing or the performer, or both, it takes the film down a notch. The star, though: Adrienne Ames. What a beauty! And she&apos;s quite marvelous. Her rival in the female department: Esther Ralston. This former silent star has lost some of her appeal in looks, but she&apos;s very on-target as &quot;the other&quot; girl rival for Reynolds&apos; affections. Then there&apos;s George Meeker. He&apos;s a doctor who&apos;s seemingly engaged to, or at least entangled with, Ames.

The setting: yes, it&apos;s the same as &quot;The Women&quot;: a salon, only this is a reducing and exercise salon, anything to get into shape and lose the monkey pounds that are gained through negligence or alcohol or age or, or, or... The other characters are cats - women cats! Dorothy Vaughan, Vivien Oakland, Ruth Gillette, Mary Field. Ames&apos; side-kick and partner is played by Pert Kelton. She dominates every scene she&apos;s in. She&apos;s wonderful. And there are Edward Keane and William Newell. They&apos;re the other men who interfere, who try to lech their ways into Ames&apos; life or cause trouble of some sort. Rich and infidel, these men have influence and money to do as they wish - they think. But not with Ames.

This is well worth the watch. Cheap, but really good. It&apos;s certainly NOT &quot;The Women&quot;, but it&apos;s 65 minutes I&apos;d spend again. For the record, throughout the movie people keep calling the salon &quot;Scandal House&quot;. Don&apos;t know if that was supposed to be the original title or not, but because there&apos;s a reporter involved throughout who does columns on the girls, it probably is worthy of the title &quot;Slander House&quot;, not because of him, but because of what the women say about each other!

"Slander House" (1938) is actually a nice discovery, especially because it is a sort-of precursor to next year's (1939) "The Women". No where near as stinging with acid remarks as "The Women", nevertheless the breezy nonchalance, the drama, and the off-the-cuff humor that pervades "Slander House" is actually very well done. What it lacks is tighter direction and an even better script. The next year's film is a masterpiece. This is simply a cheap Progressive Pictures quickie with lots of old-time (though still young!) performers getting a check so they can eat. But...they did a very good job. The only problem as most see it: Craig Reynolds. Here was a performer who breezed through so many pictures in the early 30s, from features to serials, and may even have had a next decade stardom ahead of him, but WW II interrupted his career for four years, and when he returned his career plummeted. In 1949, after he'd been married to Barbara Pepper and had two children, he went out on a motorcycle and was killed in an accident at the age of 42. Anyway, his performance in "Slander House" is so breezy it seems to contrast with all the other performers, as if he's there to practice in place of the real performer. It's not bad, but it just doesn't seem to fit. Whether it's the writing or the performer, or both, it takes the film down a notch. The star, though: Adrienne Ames. What a beauty! And she's quite marvelous. Her rival in the female department: Esther Ralston. This former silent star has lost some of her appeal in looks, but she's very on-target as "the other" girl rival for Reynolds' affections. Then there's George Meeker. He's a doctor who's seemingly engaged to, or at least entangled with, Ames.

The setting: yes, it's the same as "The Women": a salon, only this is a reducing and exercise salon, anything to get into shape and lose the monkey pounds that are gained through negligence or alcohol or age or, or, or... The other characters are cats - women cats! Dorothy Vaughan, Vivien Oakland, Ruth Gillette, Mary Field. Ames' side-kick and partner is played by Pert Kelton. She dominates every scene she's in. She's wonderful. And there are Edward Keane and William Newell. They're the other men who interfere, who try to lech their ways into Ames' life or cause trouble of some sort. Rich and infidel, these men have influence and money to do as they wish - they think. But not with Ames.

This is well worth the watch. Cheap, but really good. It's certainly NOT "The Women", but it's 65 minutes I'd spend again. For the record, throughout the movie people keep calling the salon "Scandal House". Don't know if that was supposed to be the original title or not, but because there's a reporter involved throughout who does columns on the girls, it probably is worthy of the title "Slander House", not because of him, but because of what the women say about each other!

The owner of a salon catering to fat society dames deals with a dull fiance', a romantic stranger, the jealous blonde who loves him, and a client's lecherous husband.

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Slander House

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