| / Movies Online |
The Animal Kingdom (English Subtitled)
Comedy, Drama
Tom Collier owns a small press that publishes deluxe books. He has been living in the city with his best friend and lover Daisy Sage without being married. Daisy is a successful commercial artist for a fashion magazine. She has just returned from three months in Paris. While Daisy was away, Tom has fallen in love with Cecelia Henry.
Tom's wealthy banker father, Rufus Collier, describes his lifelong frustration with his son to Cecelia and Owen Fiske, a family friend and attorney. Tom has had every advantage, including education at both Harvard and Oxford, and a position at the bank, yet he is an idler and his friends are uncouth. His father is now afraid that Tom might actually marry Daisy.
Cecelia reassures him on that score: She is going to marry Tom in June. Owen is surprised and crushed - he thought that she loved him - but Tom's father doesn't notice and approves wholeheartedly.
Tom tells Daisy of his impending marriage. He assures her that nothing between them need change, but Daisy grows angry and sends him away, saying "Good-Bye... ’til Doomsday". Soon, Cecelia has persuaded Tom to publish a book that is "the worst tripe" that his press has ever published, but it sells wonderfully.
She talks him into publishing bad books that will make money and getting rid of his old friends, including "Red", his prize-fighter friend and butler. She wants Tom to sell his publishing company, live in the city with his father as a "proper gentleman" and take their place in society, a prospect that Tom has been resisting all his life.
Daisy tries to stay away, but she and Tom's Bohemian friends can't believe he's happy. She loves him deeply and wants to have children with him, but cares most about his well-being. Tom complains that he's losing his soul and integrity.
Finally, when Cecelia offers Tom champagne to toast selling his publishing company and moving in with his father, Tom realizes that Cecelia's bedroom suite reminds him of a brothel he used to visit, as he says, "in vino veritas". When Red tells Tom he is going back to the city, that he can't stomach being at that house any longer, Tom insists on driving him to the station, saying, "I'm going back to my wife", referring to Daisy.
As he leaves, he signs over to Cecelia a large birthday check from his father, and puts it on the mantle, just as he used to leave money for the girls in the bordello. (Wikipedia)
Movie Info
Directed by: Edward H. Griffith, George Cukor (uncredited), Tommy Atkins (assistant)
Screenplay by: Horace Jackson, Edward H. Griffith (uncredited), Adela Rogers St. Johns (uncredited)
Based on: The Animal Kingdom 1932 play by Philip Barry
Produced by: David O. Selznick
Starring: Ann Harding, Leslie Howard, Myrna Loy
Cinematography: George J. Folsey
Edited by: Daniel Mandell
Music by: Max Steiner
Production company: RKO Radio Pictures
Distributed by: RKO Radio Pictures
Release date: December 28, 1932 (US)
Running time: 85 minutes
Country: United States
Language: English, English subtitled
YOU MAY ALSO LIKE
