Stubs - Chances

Chances (1931) Starring: Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Rose Hobart, Anthony Bushell. Directed by Allan Dwan. Screenplay by A. Hamilton Gibbs. Based on the novel Chances by Arthur Hamilton Gibbs (Boston, 1930). Producer Not Credited. Run time: 72 minutes. USA Black and White. Pre-Code, Drama.

There is no one way that you can become aware of a particular movie. In the case of Chances, for me, it was purely by accident. One morning while I was getting ready for work, the film happened to be on TCM and I happened to be watching. Since I didn’t have the time to watch it, I decided to DVR it and watch it later, which I recently did.

There were several things that attracted me to the film. I haven’t seen a lot of Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. films, and those I have seen, especially from this time period, I have liked. Then there is the backdrop to the story, World War I. For most of my life, World War II has been so dominating, and rightly so, that the first World War is somewhat forgotten. However, during the 1920s and 30s, it was the last major war that most people had lived through, so it was used quite often for a backdrop for films. And then there was the obvious story detail that becomes quickly apparent, two close brothers fall in love with the same woman. I’m happy to say that on all these points, the film does not disappoint.

The film opens in 1914 London. Heavy fog covers the city. Two inseparable brothers, Jack Ingleside (Douglas Fairbanks Jr.) and Tom Ingleside (Anthony Bushnell) are home on a three-day leave from the Army. While they are walking down the street on the way to a pub, Jack bumps into an attractive woman. Jack is the ladies-man of the two and he naturally flirts with her. To his surprise, she seems to know him, though she won’t say more, though she is amused that he doesn’t seem to know her. He begs her to have a drink with him, but she refuses him. Before he puts her on a carriage home, she gives Jack her phone number. Even though he says he never forgets a number, he does, writing it down incorrectly before joining Tom in the pub.

Tom Ingleside (Anthony Bushnell) and Jack Ingleside (Douglas Fairbanks Jr.) 
are brothers on leave from the military in Chances.

The next day, the two brothers travel together to visit their mother (Mary Forbes). To Jack's surprise, one of the guests at his mother's is the woman from the night before, whom he still can’t place. Tom immediately recognizes her as Molly Prescott (Rose Hobart), a childhood neighbor and the only woman he has ever loved.

Jack is smitten and arranges to accompany Molly, who paints when she goes out in the morning to capture the sunrise in watercolors. While they are alone, Jack makes his feelings for her clear, though she is obviously still trying to figure out her own.

Molly (Rose Hobart) shares a kiss with Jack before he learns Tom loves her.

That night, at a charity ball their mother is throwing, Jack manages to get Molly alone in the garden, where he finds out that she shares his love. However, when his mother confides to him of Tom's feelings, Jack decides to step aside. He flirts with Sylvia (Florence Britton), another guest, in front of Molly, and on the rebound, she agrees to wait for Tom when they receive telegrams recalling the brothers to active duty.

Jack congratulates Tom on his engagement to Molly.

At the front, Jack successfully completes a difficult mission and is given a week's leave by Major Bradford (Holmes Herbert). Tom gives Jack a letter to give to Molly and to ask her why she doesn’t write.

Molly and Jack run into each other at Calais and decide Tom has to be told.

By accident, Jack runs into Molly in Calais, where she works as a driver. Once together again, they realize the depth of their feelings. They make plans to spend his last day of leave together. Molly hasn’t been able to write a letter to Tom, explaining her feelings have changed, and asks Jack to tell Tom that she cannot marry him. She also gives Jack a photo of her with a loving message on the back. When Jack arrives back at the front, Tom is called to duty and accidentally takes Jack’s coat with him. While searching for cigarettes, Tom comes across the photo in the pocket of the coat. Thinking Jack had forgotten to give it to him, he jokes with him about it as the company is moving out for a mission.

When Jack demands the photo back, he explains to Tom that Molly is now in love with him. Devastated by the news, Tom doesn’t retreat when the rest of the company falls back as ordered. He ends up getting shot. Jack makes his way back to his brother and the two make amends before Tom dies.  

Jack and Molly together after he is injured in the war.

Later, Molly meets wounded war hero Jack, who has lost an arm, at the train station. As a bookend to the story, the two walk into a thick fog night together to start their life without Tom.

While Chances is not well-known today, it did receive positive reviews, if the one by Mordaunt Hall of The New York Times was typical. He called the film, “a thoroughly human story of war and love, taken from A. Hamilton Gibbs's novel. It rings true in every episode, nothing being overdone, for which Alan Dwan, the director, deserves much credit. The fighting scenes are vividly produced and the romance is etched splendidly.”

I can not disagree with Hall’s opinion in this case. The war scenes are well presented and you have to be impressed at how big the battle scenes are. This is not something put together in a studio, but borders on the epic in both scope and the number of participants. Quite an achievement.

The romance is also believable and one can imagine the issues when two close brothers fall in love with the same woman. The scenes are underplayed by the actors involved, so there is no sense of melodrama. A lot of the believability has to do with the actors involved, and all seem to do really well with the material, keeping it from getting overly mushy.

Rose Hobart was somewhat new to films when she appeared in Chances. Signed by Universal, she was loaned out to Warner Bros. for this film. This same year, she would also appear in Paramount’s take on Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, though her character takes a backseat to Fredric March and Miriam Hopkins in director Rouben Mamoulian's film. She has a certain fresh face here, having only appeared in two films in 1930, Liliom and A Lady Surrenders, the previous year. In her two-decade-long career, Hobart would be known for playing the other woman.

She is the subject of one of America's most famous surrealist short films, Rose Hobart, from artist Joseph Cornell. Apparently, Cornell bought a 16mm print of East of Borneo at a junk shop. To make the 77-minute film less tedious for repeated viewings by himself and his brother, Cornell would occasionally cut some parts, rearrange others, or add pieces of nature films, until it was condensed to its final length of 19 minutes, mostly featuring shots of the lead actress, with whom Cornell had become obsessed.

Hobart would see her career in films ruined by The House Un-American Activities Committee, which investigated the actress as a communist for her commitment to improving working conditions for actors in Hollywood. Hobart never worked in film again, although she did work on stage, and, as the blacklist eased in the 1960s, she later took on television roles, including a part on Peyton Place.

Douglas Fairbanks Jr., the son of his more famous acting father, Douglas Fairbanks, had his own successful career in films. He is a good actor, who seems to easily be cast as being British. Here he plays a ladies-man who gets very serious about a woman. What obviously started as a physical attraction was more than skin deep. He is good in this role.

It might seem to be an unenviable role to play the other brother opposite Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., but Anthony Bushell was more than up to the challenge. He plays a more reserved man and while his little deathbed speech might be slightly melodramatic, it is not overly so. Bushell would appear in 56 films between 1929 and 1961 but he is probably best remembered for playing Colonel Breen in the BBC serial Quatermass and the Pit (1958–59).

In Hollywood, he was often cast in military roles. He appeared in such films as Journey's End (1930), Three Faces East (1930) with Erich von Stroheim, Five Star Final (1931) with Edward G. Robinson, Vanity Fair (1932) with Myrna Loy, and A Woman Commands (1932) with Pola Negri in her first sound picture.

Director Allan Dwan’s career dated back to silent films. After writing for Essanay Films, Dwan would also direct westerns and comedies before directing Mary Pickford, as well as her husband Douglas Fairbanks, in such films as Robin Hood (1922). Dwan directed Gloria Swanson in eight feature films and one short film made in the short-lived sound-on-film process Phonofilm. He would also go on to direct Shirley Temple in such films as Heidi (1937) and Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm (1938).

Dwan obviously knew how to balance an epic backdrop like World War I with a personal story of romance. The success of the film lands squarely on his shoulders.

While I happened upon Chances, I would recommend that you seek it out. I’m not sure if it is generally available or not but the next time it appears on TCM, I would encourage you to watch or at least record it to watch later. I don’t think you will be disappointed.