In the era from about 1930 to mid 1934, Hollywood films were amazingly risque and most folks today wouldn't realize this. Topics like adultery, abortion, homosexuality and fornication were relatively common...and the commonness of this adult content led to a backlash. Soon groups were calling for the government to make Hollywood clean up its act...and to prevent outside interference, the studios agreed to a long list of demands to make movies more nice. Suddenly, all the taboo topics which were in films were now buried and films became squeaky clean...and in some ways, a bit dull.
One of the more notorious Pre-code films was "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde". And, apparently pairing Frederic March with Miriam Hopkins was assumed to be a key to the movie's success...as well as an ample dose of sex! So it isn't surprising that they'd bring the pair back for a few more films...including this late Pre-code film, "All of Me". While "All of Me" isn't nearly as salacious as "Dr. Jekyll", it did cover premarital sex and pregnancy!
When the film begins, Professor Ellis (March) is feeling dissatisfied at the university. But he's very happy with his girlfriend, Lydia (Hopkins) and wants her to marry him and go away with him to the West Coast for a new job. But she has other plans...she wants to live together without getting married in Paris. She also soon learns that she's pregnant...and this is about the same time Ellis leaves for his job on the coast. Now, due to her unwillingness to marry him and refusal to follow him to the West, Lydia is facing single motherhood and the ensuing ridicule.
Just before the Professor leaves, he and Lydia were out celebrating when they met a hood (George Raft) and his girlfriend. The four of them spend the evening together...and the hood ends up stealing Lydia's purse! Now this part makes little sense...a short time later, the hood's girlfriend contacts Lydia and asks for her help. They both are locked up and the lady is also pregnant...and Lydia carries messages between them. Why would she do this? And, why would she later help them both to escape?! I dunno...nor do I think the writer knew either! What happens next in this very strange and confusing film?
This film has lots of Pre-code content BUT that alone doesn't make it a good or bad film. Sadly, the writing isn't very good and the story simply makes little sense much of the time....as if story elements were being randomly tossed into the script! It clearly could have used a massive re-write, as there are a lot of plot elements but they never really seem to come together into a coherent story. I just cannot believe that the studio would green light such a film...especially with some of its top stars involved. But, somehow, this mess of a film was made....and not surprisingly it lost a lot of money...and deservedly so.
