Ann Harding Movies

Enchanted April was adapted for the screen from the novel by "Elisabeth" and play by Kane Campbell. Neglected by her novelist husband Mellersh Wilkins (Frank Morgan), repressed Lotty Wilkins (Ann Harding) and her best friend Rose Arbuthnot (Katherine Alexander) impulsively rent an Italian castle during the month of April. Like Lotty, Rose hopes to briefly escape her humdrum marriage to pompous barrister Henry Arbuthnot (Reginald Owen). The two ladies are eventually joined by bejeweled dowager Mrs. Fisher (Jessie Ralph) and young heiress Lady Caroline (Jane Baxter), likewise seeking a respite from a male-dominated society. For the next 30 days, the convivial foursome revels in their newfound liberation, leading to all sorts of unexpected complications. A mixed bag, Enchanted April was better served by director Mike Newell's 1991 remake. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this wartime drama, set during WW I, the adoring wife of a German officer soon finds herself falling for a handsome British soldier while her husband is off to fight the war. Her husband returns. Not only has he inhaled poison gas, he has also lost an arm. His guilt-ridden wife tries to help him, but she cannot prevent him from discovering her infidelity. The gallant, dying man understands and forgives her. He tells her that he is happy that she has found a worthy replacement. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Joan Colby (Ann Harding) is the unmarried older daughter in a once-wealthy family. She's always been the mature, level-headed one among the two sisters, but she is feeling the pressure to find a husband especially strongly these days, as her much more flighty and impetuous younger sister Valerie (Lucille Brown) is about to marry. Joan has been lately seen in the company of John Fletcher (William Powell), the wastral heir to a once-great shipping company -- he doesn't care a bit about the family business, but still has enough money to live an upper-class lifestyle without worry, and is a well-known playboy, and enjoys Joan's company. With her sister's help and the unwitting participation of her well-meaning father (Henry Stephenson), Joan manages to set up a situation in which John is forced to do what they used to call "the decent thing" and marry her. Joan is secretly torn by guilt about how she got his name, however, and tries to be a truly good wife for John over the months that follow -- she gets him to clean up his life a bit, and to take himself more seriously and look past the next game of polo, and even starts to convince him to take more of a role in his family's moribund shipping line, which is about to pass into outside control as a result of his neglect. But when Valerie, in a fit of anger, blurts out the truth about how their marriage came about, John loses all interest in Joan, returning to the company of his ex-girlfriend (Lillian Bond) and turning the matter over to his lawyers. Now Joan has to fight on two fronts, to help save her husband's business, and also to save their marriage before it's too late. Given this plot, it may seem odd that Double Harness was presented as a comedy, but it is, and a good one, too. The humor lies in the way the upper-class are shown "coping" with the Great Depression, and the witty presentation of the romantic flirtations in the lives of Joan, Valerie, and John (and their friends), as well as the tone of John and Joan's marriage -- Joan, in particular, has a wryly detached side that comes out even at her most unhappy moments. It's all very sophisticated, a comedy by adults, about adults, for adults, and it holds up amazingly well as a piece of entertainment across 75 years. In some ways, Double Harness is also a bit reminiscent of the 1930 version of Holiday, which is perhaps not entirely accidental or surprising, as the latter also starred Ann Harding, although Cromwell's 1933 film is a far more skillful and accomplished cinematic work by modern standards. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide

Overworked and fearing that life is passing her by, eminent plastic surgeon Margaret "Peggy" Simmons (Ann Harding) takes an impromptu trip to California in this lifeless romance from RKO. She meets and falls in love with playboy Bobby Preble (Robert Young), who seems to sustain himself by little more than the ability to party and fly an airplane. Much to the consternation of fellow physician Dr. Heppling (Nils Asther), Peggy accepts Bobby's impulsive proposal. But life among the young elite does not prove as fulfilling as Peggy had hoped for, especially when flighty debutante Lee Joyce (Sari Maritza) reenters the picture. "I let myself forget that I was grown up," our heroine sighs before falling into the arms of the always-accommodating Dr. Heppling. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

This Depression-era morale-booster looks at the ups and downs of a banking family from the 1870s to the 1930s (and borrows plentifully from the previous year's hit Cimarron, another empire-building saga that also starred Dix). Following the financial collapse of 1873, Roger Standish (Richard Dix) starts a bank that he guides through various panics. Despite the adversities, he and his wife Caroline (Ann Harding) ultimately establish an American banking dynasty. Note Richard Dix in a dual role, also appearing as Roger's grandson when he joins the Lafayette Escadrille during World War One. (Director Wellman was a former member of the Lafayette Flying Corps.) ~ Nicole Gagne, All Movie Guide

A starry-eyed girl marries an impoverished but talented young writer. Though easily frustrated and given to temperamental outbursts, the wife's presence soothes him and their marriage is happy. Then she gives birth to their daughter. The child grows up to be a mischief maker and this causes the break up of the marriage. Following the divorce, the woman marries a wealthy man. Many years pass before the former lovers meet again. With both in more stable circumstances, it doesn't take long for their old love to reemerge. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Whenever a vaudeville comic of the 1920s wanted to get a quick laugh, he'd announce to his audience "Next Week: East Lynne." To many playgoers, this hoary stage adaptation of Mrs. Henry Wood's 1861 novel represented the height of Victorian nonesuch. Still, there were several silent film versions of East Lynne, all of which made money. 1931 yielded no fewer than two adaptations, one set in modern times and retitled Ex-Flame. Fox Studios' version restored the original title and the 1860s setting, but couldn't do much with that creaky plot. Ann Harding portrays Lady Isabel Carlisle, who nearly a decade of family hardships learns that her son has fallen ill. Despite being nearly blind as the result of a bomb explosion, Lady Carlisle returns home to see her son one last time--just before dying herself. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this, its third cinema incarnation, David Belasco's hoary old Girl of the Golden West received the full swagger treatment from the otherwise lady-like Ann Harding as the gun-toting saloon belle who falls for a handsome outlaw (James Rennie). Again, the story's climax is the dramatic poker game between Harding and Sheriff Jack Rance, the stakes of which is the outlaw's freedom. Unfortunately, Miss Harding insisted that her husband, phlegmatic stage actor Harry Bannister, play the sheriff, a casting decision that somewhat upset the story's apple cart. A Broadway veteran but a cinematic novice, Bannister reportedly insisted on lecturing director John Francis Dillon on the finer aspects of art in general and film-making in particular. Needless to say, Mr. Bannister's screen career, like his marriage to Ann Harding, proved short-lived. The "Girl" herself, however, enjoyed incredible stamina and would experience two subsequent remakes: a lavish 1938 musical version starring (of course) Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy (with Walter Pidgeon as Rance) and a 1942 war-time Italian production featuring Isa Pola, Michel Simon and Rossano Brazzi as the leads. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

This drama is an adaptation of a popular 1927 play and tells the story of a pair of married liberals who are content to remain faithful in spirit only. The ends up having an affair with a musician while her husband heads for Europe. When he returns he tells her about his affair with a French woman. The wife is devastated, for never did she believe her husband would actually sleep with another. In the end, they decide to re-adopt traditional marital morals and remain monogamous. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide