The Scoundrel 1935 / Ben Hecht, Charles MacArthur

[@heatherbowlan1961]

Thank you for sharing we all us fans of old classics , God Bless you and your family in these dark scary time ,stay safe .

[@steveweinstein3222]

The first 52 minutes is a Wilde display of witty epigrams in service of a simple plot; in the last 20, the swerves 180° into a supernatural gothic melodrama. Worth watching for those who like brittle, sophisticated storytelling.

[@laurenceschwartz8606]

Yes. There is fine repartee and ascorbic dialogue and devilish duplicity for the first 3/4 s of the film, but it then devolves into a sentimental moral fable, second-rate Frank Capra.

[@steveweinstein3222]

@@laurenceschwartz8606 Excellent analysis. I totally agree. It gets mawkish, out of synch with the rest of the film's tone.

[@vino140]

Many thanks for posting...have wanted to see this for years....pic is pretentious twaddle, of course. But we can see how bad Coward is and how wonderful Hope Williams....(Again, thanks)

[@minyhillchere9467]

Worth watching for grown ups. It's about the power of love , guilt conscious, forgiveness in all forms etc... It also shows what's important towards the end of our life. Very educative.

[@suzette7849]

I'm so glad I came across this brilliant movie 🎬 million thanks for the upload

[@HMinot]

Such an important film! Thanks for preserving and projecting it!

[@austinbrantley3923]

pro trick: you can watch movies at flixzone. Been using them for watching loads of movies during the lockdown.

[@armandonicolas2651]

@Austin Brantley Definitely, been watching on flixzone for since december myself :)

[@stephenbru]

What a great movie!!....better than the stupid movies Hollywood puts out!!...I hope other people get to watch this because those with the eyes to see and the ears to hear will truly understand it...

[@pablobrown3152]

One of the my top five favorite movies ever. Saw it 60 years ago on public t.v. and then it disappeared. Take the time to watch it and you'll see superb acting and and even better plot.

[@sabrinamassie5606]

Wow!! What a surprise!! I love old movies, but this one snuck up on me! Thanks!

[@alex1oss]

I watched this on TV on PBS like 35 years ago, and never forgot the torrent of magnificently dry, despairing witticisms, or Noel Coward's rendering of them (or the head-scratching jump into religious/morality play). I've been looking for it on and off since then; it was one of the few things not available in the seemingly-infinite Netflix disc library (at least in its early days). I'm deeply indebted to D D for posting it here. Hopefully someday there will be a higher-quality copy...!

[@alex1oss]

@@Themanwhocameback2 The PBS TV station I was referring to was WNET, channel 13 out of NYC :)

[@Themanwhocameback2]

@@alex1oss Yes. My taping was the same. I even got half of "Winterset"(1936), a similarly arty, highly literate drama which came on 13 after it.

[@juliavalevska5677]

It is quite special. And acting!!! Very, very interesting movie

[@carlosayala8171]

Wow excellent 👏

[@heatherbowlan1961]

What a great drama !! Thank you ,fr.Canada

[@Zackary-nd7cl]

Just discovered this. I love it. Beautiful film.

[@isabele537]

Thanks, for posting!

[@genegoodman9879]

This is incredible Thank you.

[@renaissance5300]

made me cry. what a movie! thank-you ddc

[@magloyd4907]

Thank you so much for this. So very interesting to see stage actress Hope Williams ( in her only film?) who influenced Kate Hepburn. The blonde actress.playing Cora, whose name slips my mind, was only in films for another two years, I believe, and then turned to the stage at 27. A pity, really, she wasn't bad.

[@lindamcdermott2205]

Wow! Interesting food for thought!

[@donnamartin2294]

I love watching old movies

[@maryrekar2150]

Loved this movie

[@laurenceschwartz8606]

This is a fascinating film.

[@stevenfromer3816]

This a great movie

[@jamiconroy7841]

Wow what a movie..... !! and the theme music.... love that piece...cant remember the name...so deep, so sorrowful, so moving, and perfect....

[@Themanwhocameback2]

It's from Rachmaninoff's "Piano Concerto No. 2"

[@iignorerepliesfrombores4010]

Charles MacArthur, husband of Helen Hayes, wrote the screenplay. Their son, James, played on Hawaii 5-0. "Book 'em, Danno!"

[@steplumpkin5432]

GRIPPING!!!!!!!!! THANKS 3MIll. UPLOADER!!!!!!!!!!!

[@davidvalensi8616]

One of the greats , a man faces the fact that he's no good, and for the first time does the right thing , through an unselfish act he finds redemption. Rachmaninoff plays through out.

[@boudusaved4719]

Initially, I thought Tony was still being selfish because he knew the un-mourned could never find peace, but when he begs God to bring back Paul and make it as though Tony had never lived...is that the unselfish thing...or does he know that will bring Cora to tears and then he can have peace? I'm not sure. He was a douche bag through most of the film.

[@davidvalensi8616]

@Boudu Saved I think for the first time he was unselfish, he's acknowledging that the world would have been better without him, this might have inspired "It's a wonderful life".

[@boudusaved4719]

@@davidvalensi8616 His need to find someone who cared for him to live in peace still seems like a selfish act, but I think when he saw how Cora was tortured after Paul's death and was willing to sacrifice his peace if God would bring Paul back, that was unselfish.

[@alexandragurieva7940]

That's kind of a good film through the years.

[@dongaetano3687]

Quite a movie. But what brought the tears that saved him? Looked to me like his full admission of his complete depravity - And his genuine guilt for ruining their lives - and his prayer of absolute sincerity not for himself - But for the healing and well being of those he had harmed - regardless of what happened to him. "Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for his friends." He had found the Love of God and eternal rest.

[@Themanwhocameback2]

Yup!

[@seethevolcane]

Many thanks for posting this. Noel's first movie...lol, but I really wanted to see the legendary Hope Williams (Maggie). Her "style" influenced Kate Hepburn. The pic is maudlin drivel....a mad stinker.

[@philipleather3496]

Aah...most excellent Coward....and now I have discovered the secret. RACHMANINOV.....he knew the secret....when it came to filming "Brief Encounter "....only took me half a century to work that out....but the film has also evaded me for half a century.....

[@MrJimirox]

wow!

[@esmeephillips5888]

Hecht had adapted 'Design for Living' so drastically that he challenged audiences to spot the one line that survived from the play. Perhaps giving Coward his only star part in Hollywood was a penance. The Master stressed his wish to broaden his range by making his first appearance not in evening dress but with ruffled hair, shirtless like Gable. The uncredited source is Hecht's 1920s novel 'Fantazius Mallare', when the eager young autodidact newsman was taken quite seriously as a literary value- part of the Hemingway/Fitzgerald wave. Hecht was soaked in Nietzsche and Schopenhauer. Mallare is a would-be Ubermensch, like Claud Rains's cynical lawyer in H-M's previous movie, 'Crime without Passion'. The deal these two wordsmiths did with Paramount ( the most cosmopolitan and arty of the five major studios) can be compared with Orson Welles"s at RKO. Theatrical wonder boys hit the Coast, re-injecting expressionism into talkies with the aid of a gifted photographer: for Toland, read Lee Garmes. They did not retain control after their third project, 'Soak the Rich', but the results remain intriguing. Fun fact: Coward was fussy about his Christian name being pronounced as two syllables, hence it was always printed with a diaresis over the 'e'. But the credits of 'The Scoundrel' left it off.

[@laurenceschwartz8606]

There are many publishers who do not publish good novels.

[@keithharvey7230]

Everley Gregg Brief Encounter

[@antoniod]

My Father would have called this a "Bubbe Meinser"(Old Grandma's Tale).

[@carolswarbrick1722]

Amazing. Sickening selfishness. Evil selfishness. 🇬🇧

[@ginnylorenz5265]

Gadzooks!

[@BegoneJonah]

Everyone speaks that stagey 1930s Transatlantic dialect in this one. Noel Coward pretty much owned the part of the upper-class prick ("I don't approve of the masses"), and the screenplay in this is almost as pungent as in "The Sweet Smell of Success." A singular movie.

[@paulmitchell359]

Based loosely on Shakespeare's play ' The Tempest ' .

[@jayhershey7525]

I love the grammar and highfalutin irony. How wonderfully snide! Too bad it had to end morally.

[@dillynmykal9795]

I saw the ending as Tony tricking god. I wouldn't believe he would turn righteous in less than a month after living his whole life as a scoundrel.

[@jasoncollins1702]

Oscar Wilde goes to the movies. Sort of. This film bristles with the sort of ambiguous wit that would be utterly lost on a modern audience. It bursts with vocabulary. Anyone who doesn't get the irony of the title is beyond redemption; although the film does want to have its cake and eat it. There's a pretty odd idea of love on display; no wonder he's afraid of it, like the pure romantic he is: he can't stand to have the dream shattered. He does warn people; is it his fault if no one believes him? Honesty is a virtue most people just can't take. No one wants that "dreadful pious look". Do we? Coward isn't to blame for Paul's state; actually, neither is she. Paul is. The script works on the Wilde principle: superficiality gives way to unfathomable depth; only Wilde had the courage of his artistic convictions and never had the bad taste to rupture the contrivance of his art for the sake of simple moralizing and base sentiment (although, since Coward didn't write it, the blame can't be laid with him). The greatest evil here is the uneven tone; he isn't even redeemed! Doesn't Coward look like Andrew McCarthy! and what a good performance.

[@Themanwhocameback2]

Uh, no. Noel Coward looks nothing like Andrew McCarthy. And his performance here is variable: ranging from good to moments of simple theatrical posturing. It's the idiosyncratic wit and stunningly literate dialogue that make this film worth repeated viewings People often claim "All About Eve" as the wittiest film ever made. And its dialogue is on the level of an excellent Restoration Comedy. But this, I think, is the wittiest movie I have ever seen.

[@DeepSouthExperience]

Uncle Forry sent me.

[@checkeredflagfilms]

such a pompous character, I nearly stopped watching. the character for half selfish reasons, finally finds redemption in a bizarre turn of events only Hollywood could dream up. I was pissed they used Rachmaninoff's music throughout yet failed to give him, of all people, proper credit! Talk about...Unforgivable pomposity!

[@deborahrigby5428]

No comment about this movie 😳

[@thiabrabson2533]

I agree😳

[@laurenceschwartz8606]

Tony, pull yourself together, we're your friends. Terrible non actress who delivered this line.

[@childofGodsKingdom]

Too religious for folks. Evil doesn't know itself.....people prefer to live in darkness than come to the light! That light is God! May the Lord have mercy upon us. Repent and strive to know your maker before you go back to the dust and your soul goes back to God! We all will have to stand before our Creator. Repent!

[@rwffolkes3039]

Such pomposity.

[@childofGodsKingdom]

@viking saxon They work through men right now! Men sell their souls for success. Men prefer to live in darkness than in the light.

[@childofGodsKingdom]

God is the greatest! We will stand before him and give account. No pomposity here sir.

[@rwffolkes3039]

I'm a Bishop Apostolate. I write about God and you don't. Many fantasise about the Holy Father. I don't. Go to: rffolkes.blogspot.com

[@keemm1]

why to show such poor quality of picture and sound!!! :(:(:(

[@serling3520]

Watch something else then. No one and nothing is perfect. Post your own videos. Please.

[@Bonapartist07]

Public domain movie, Likely a third or fourth generation print.

[@TheMoonflwr671]

keemm1 hmmm, I can’t imagine. maybe it’s because the film is 85 years old.

[@gailjarvis2592]

Be happy to glimpse even a shadow of such greatness. Actually a super-terrific job well done! The film was easy to watch, understand, and enjoy.

[@sandrahelmuth8320]

Complete waste of time...poor sound quality and visual

[@jamiconroy7841]

... and what side of the fence do you walk on....

[@namanshah8354]

@@jamiconroy7841 loll

[@Themanwhocameback2]

I think rather it is you who may be a complete waste of time.