The Silver Lining (1932) User Reviews

O'Sullivan and Compson carry the film

[garyjack5 · 7/10 · 13 December 2020]

O'Sullivan's character evolves from an irresponsible partying heiress to a reformed and socially responsible landlord in this short film. She does this with the help of street smart tenement girl Compson and her social activist guy-friend Warburton.

Some of the plot is developed by the obvious fact that both O'Sullivan and Compson are interested in Warburton for more than his social activism.

We see both ladies survive 30 day sentences, which appear to be the standard court punishments from the stern judge. However, Warburton and Compson don't know that O'Sullivan is really the absent landlord that is neglecting the welfare and safety of the tenants. How will they react when they find out their new friend is actually the cause of all their despair?

O'Sullivan overplays her wild side early on but Compson is masterful at subtle facial expression throughout. Warburton is just......there.

The film has a good depression-era feel. Not a great film, but not that bad either.

Betty Compson and Maureen O'Sullivan as Cellmates

[drednm · 14 October 2013]

Interesting social drama about a spoiled heiress (Maureen O'Sullivan) who owns slum tenements but doesn't care about fixing them up. A boy falls through the rotten stair railing and smashes on to floor. He's paralyzed. Good-hearted Kate (Betty Compson) is also a tenant and does something illegal (prostitution?) to help the boy but gets arrested on the same night that O'Sullivan gets drunk at a party and wanders away from her apartment into the city park where's she's mugged and then picked up for prostitution because she has no identification.

The two women serve 30 days and become friendly with a kindly lawyer (John Warburton) who decides to help them "reform." Of course O'Sullivan falls for him, but he thinks she's a Jane Doe. Compson also falls for him but he only has eyes for O'Sullivan.

Stark lesson in reality for O'Sullivan, who tells her society friends she's been away at a "sanitarium" for a rest cure. But she's determined to mend her ways, pay back her friends, and hold onto the lawyer. Can she do it? O'Sullivan is good as the spoiled society girl, and Compson steals all her scenes as street-smart Kate. Warburton is OK. Co-stars include Montagu Love (the uncle), Mary Doran (fellow prisoner), Martha Mattox (matron), Wally Albright (the boy), Grace Valentine (his mother), and Cornelius Keefe (society boyfriend).

An interesting film for O'Sullivan the same year as her debut as Jane in the Tarzan series. The beginning of Compson's descent from top studios in cheaper films, but she still has star power. Oddly, this film was released through United Artists by Patrician Pictures.

I'm still looking, but no silver lining after this cheap programmer!

[mark.waltz · 3/10 · 16 November 2018]

The very same year that she had her chest thumped by Johnny Weismueller with identifying names, Maureen O'Sullivan slummed it a bit by going over to independent studio United Artists and ending up with a stinker of a movie that provided no real art, just disappointment. Prints for this extremely short melodrama are very faded, and perhaps with good reason that nobody thought it important enough to try to restore. O'Sullivan is the niece of wealthy Montague Love and owner of a crumbling tenement who has no interest in helping the tenants with their issues, preferring to party her life away instead. Somehow, she is abducted from a party, found drunk (or drugged) in the park, and sentenced to 30 days in jail for public intoxication.

While trying to avoid dealing with the nasty matrons, O'Sullivan befriends Betty Compson, a tenement reconstruction organizer who is unaware of who she is. After the 30 days pass, O'Sullivan visits the tenement, meets the attorney (John Warburton) involved in a suit against her, and they begin a romance as O'Sullivan tries to change her attitudes towards the plight of the poor. It all becomes very talky and preachy, often static and lifeless, and not enough time is given to real character development to make it interesting, believable or profound. O'Sullivan, quite lively as Jane, seems rather stiff here, as if she knew that she was appearing in dreck, and only wanted to get out of there as quickly as possible.