I liked both movies too, for totally different reasons, which I think you pegged well, Maven.
This is my second time through for
The Animal Kingdom, and it is preoccupied, like a lot of Barry's plays, with the duties of man or artist to himself, whether man should be happy when being stifled creatively, and when a woman is really a Woman. It's theatuh, and I do enjoy seeing what it was all about back then, from a very popular playwright.
It's got free love stamped all over it, and it has taken me two showings to really get into the spirit of it. Though it doesn't seem like it, due to the talky nature of the thing, I think it was probably very racy for it's day, with suggestions of husband and wife relations, and the final suggestion left for the audience to imagine - two people living in sin
happily, one of whom is married to someone else. The tone of the language masks these themes in heady, high minded words, making it difficult to feel much sympathy for any of the characters. Thank goodness we have Leslie Howard (who I believe created the role onstage), Myrna Loy, and Ann Harding to make it all just a bit more believable. The movie lacks pace, with heavy pauses in which someone expected us to note double meanings that are clear long before the camera cuts away. I still enjoy it for the drawing room drama that it is and as a glimpse into that time period when manners were so important. It seems to me we could all take at least one step backward when it comes to that.
I totally could see the two actresses switching roles, Maven. But I am glad we have Myrna as such an out and out Femme Fatale here... it's so much fun to watch her wind Howard around her finger.
I very much enjoyed
One More Tomorrow, and you know what? I didn't even realize it was a remake when I watched it! DUH.
I find that really really amusing, but that just goes to show you that these two movies are like apples and oranges. Alexis was quite the beeyotch, and you know, I think she's never been better than here. I actually liked watching her machinations, except for the effect they had on Annie, who was wonderful as usual. I wish Jack Carson had been in the thick of it more, and what a supporting cast! Loved Thurston Hall and Sig Arno. It was nice to see Jane Wyman cast not as Jack's crazy dumb girlfriend, but as a smart gal Friday to Annie, engaged to the delightfully Bohemian Reginald Gardiner....though he didn't know it yet. I really loved the way they translated the story to the magazine world, keeping the high mindedness with a little lowbrow earthiness. A much better mix actually.