Zeus

Ladies Love Brutes (1930)

Stars:

George Bancroft, Mary Astor, Fredric March

Though he plays an Italian-American character in Ladies Love Brutes, George Bancroft refreshingly avoids the ethnic stereotype so prevalent in films of the early 1930s. Bancroft is cast as Joe Forziati, a rough-and-tumble building contractor who is suddenly thrust into great wealth. He tries to remain his same down-to-earth self, but soon he's putting on airs in hopes of impressing attractive divorcee Mimi Howell (Mary Astor). Forziati ultimately drops his social pretenses and puts up his dukes when both his son Joey (David Durand) and Mimi's boy Jackie (Freddie Burke Frederick) are kidnapped by Capone-like gangster Mike Mendino (Stanley Fields). Billed third, Fredric March is rather wasted as Mimi's former husband. Ladies Love Brutes was based on Pardon My Glove, a play by Zoe Akins.