His openly gay lifestyle a thorn in the side of his bosses at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, irreverent screen idol William Haines was left vulnerable when his star vehicles began to fail at the box office. Once hailed as one of Hollywood's top tier wisecracking male leads (whose leading ladies included Joan Crawford, Marion Davies, and Leila Hyams), Haines was recast by MGM as a dramatic actor and plugged into Are You Listening? (1932), in a role rejected by Robert Montgomery - Metro's "next William Haines." Playing a radio writer who becomes a fugitive from justice when his nag of a wife (Karen Morley) is found murdered, Haines is surrounded by an able cast of studio players, among them frequent costar Anita Page, Jean Hersholt, Neil Hamilton, Wallace Ford, Charles Grapewin, and Hattie McDaniel in an unbilled early role as a singer. Like Haines, Page had fallen from the good graces of studio head Louis B. Mayer (rumor has it she threw a chair at him), who shunted her into this project as punishment. In an effort to regain Mayer's favor, Haines considered entering into a sham marriage to boost his box office potential and proposed to Page during filming - but the actress turned him down and the two remained friends. Are You Listening? proved to be Haines' last film for Metro. He made only three more films before abandoning acting to take up a more satisfying second career as an interior designer.

By Richard Harland Smith