Arianna Moses
Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.
Matho
The biggest problem with this movie is it’s a little better than you think it might be, which somehow makes it worse. As in, it takes itself a bit too seriously, which makes most of the movie feel kind of dull.
Jenni Devyn
Worth seeing just to witness how winsome it is.
dukeakasmudge
Here's the way I see things..... Norma Shearer's character Jan falls in love with a gangster played by you know who even though she's going out with a nice guy.The gangster is something exciting while the nice guy is quickly forgotten.What girl wouldn't want to be in constant danger of being shot at instead of horseback rides on the beach? Daddy, who's a lawyer & alcoholic, was OK with the gangster (Hey he's bringing in business, right?) until he found out the gangster is going out with his daughter.Now there's a problem & this causes a rift in the once tight bond between father & daughter, her family as well.Eventually the daughter realizes her & the gangster's relationship is going nowhere & he realizes that she's never going to publicly acknowledge their relationship (She always sneaking in the backdoor to see him) She sees what a mistake shes made & that she was actually better off with the nice guy.The gangster let's her know he's never, NEVER going anywhere & in steps the nice guy to save her from the gangster.BOOM.Now they go & find her father who was doing well but slipped & fell off the wagon a little ways back & hopped a train to ??? to bring him back to try & help the nice guy beat the case.THE END.I wasn't into this movie as much I hoped or thought I would be.It was just something to sit back & watch.I think I might have dozed off once or twice & had to rewind it back.Go ahead & give A Free Soul a shot.You'll probably enjoy it more than I did
gavin6942
An alcoholic lawyer who successfully defended a notorious gambler on a murder charge objects when his free-spirited daughter becomes romantically involved with him.Clark Gable made such an impression in the role of a gangster who pushes Norma Shearer around that he was catapulted from supporting player to leading man, a position he held for the rest of his career. That is really the only redeeming thing about this film, seeing Gable in an early role really busting out.Not that the film is a bad one, but there's a good reason you never hear anyone talking about "A Free Soul". It's not a classic, and it doesn't need to be rediscovered.
Edgar Allan Pooh
" . . . you must acquit," amoral drunken defense lawyer Stephen Ashe says to spring "white slaver" boss pimp Ace Wilfong from a capital murder charge. Ace may be running an illegal casino in addition to his bordello, but it's his speakeasy that makes him Stephen's new bosom buddy. To get on Ace's "good" (all-the-complimentary-booze-you-can-hold) side post-acquittal, Stephen sets Ace up with his only child, Jan, during the Ashe clan's 80th birthday party for their Blueblood family matriarch. When this leads to months of hot, steamy, unwed sex, Stephen gets jealous. He's had his own (possibly unconsummated) life-long love affair with his daughter, Jan. They'd been inseparable in the Pre-Ace Days, calling each other "Darling" and "Dear." Now Jan has disappeared down Ace's rabbit hole. So Stephen agrees to give up booze if Jan gives up Ace, but Darling Dad falls off the wagon three months later and disappears. Granny croaks, Aunt Helen locks Jan out of the Family Manor, with Ace getting pushy when Jan crawls back to him as her only remaining port in the storm. Lionel Barrymore wins an Oscar for getting Ashley Wilkes off after he guns down Rhett Butler with his dying breath. Jan is so confused that she hops a train to New York.
calvinnme
If you are a serious student of the early talkies and pre-code entertainment in particular, this is essential viewing. It has a great cast. Lionel Barrymore plays alcoholic defense attorney Stephen Ashe in a role that won him an academy award, and Norma Shearer plays his daughter Jan, the "Free Soul". Barrymore's performance is great, and he has the best lines of anyone in the film. He does a great job of projecting guilt over and shock at his daughter's behavior as well as giving us an idea of why he feels he must drink -"I must drink the way other men must breathe", he says at one point. Also, James Gleason shows why he was one of the great character actors of the 30's and 40's in his role as Barrymore's assistant, stealing several scenes. The rest of the cast seems to be a bit stuck in silent film-era performances, as they pose and posture for the camera and utter largely unmemorable dialogue. Much of this has to be the fault of the director, since many of the members of the cast - Norma Shearer and Clark Gable in particular - had given very good and natural performances in past "talkies".The jist of the story is this - Stephen and his daughter Jan have always lived a lifestyle of which the rest of their socialite family disapproved. Stephen has always taught his daughter to go her own way and not pay attention to what other people think. Now this may be good advice when it has to do with priggish conventions rooted in tradition rather than right and wrong. However, what Stephen has failed to point out to Jan is that people also generally think it is a bad idea to walk into a busy intersection blind-folded, and just because this is a majority opinion does not make it a convention ripe for the testing. Thus, completely blindfolded, Jan walks into the busy intersection that is the world of gangster Ace Wilfong, a murderer that her father has recently managed to get acquitted in one of his more sober moments. Stephen Ashe is faced with a parent's worst nightmare - he has given his daughter what turns out to be very bad advice, and she has not only listened but followed it.I love this movie for several reasons. One is the starkness of the pre-code relationship between Ace and Jan. For example, when Jan returns from a long trip, Ace tells her "make yourself comfortable, your things are still hanging in my closet". It is also great to see Clark Gable in the supporting role that finally made him a star, plus we get a look at him and Leslie Howard on screen together eight years before "Gone with the Wind". Another reason I love this film is that it conveys a subtle, probably unintended message. This movie, one of the favorite targets of the pro-decency and pro-code crowd in the early 30's, takes place during prohibition. However, that doesn't even seem to slow down Barrymore's character when it comes to drinking himself to death. It just takes his alcoholism off the main streets. Thus what did the Hayes code proponents really expect to accomplish by making mainstream American feature films unrealistically G-rated sanitized fluff? Illicit behavior and illicit movies just didn't go away because some law was passed. It just took the behavior off the screens of the mainstream theatres. If the real purpose of prohibitions on personal behavior and the art forms that portray it are so that Puritans won't have to see it, why didn't they/ don't they, just look the other way in the first place and leave everyone else alone?
