At the onset, I am going to say something that might sound horrible, but here goes....Kay Francis was a lovely actress in the early 1930s and could have easily carried off this role in 1933. However, by 1945, she was middle-aged and a bit "lumpy". Having her play the role of a super-vixen was great in the 30s, but here it just was too great a stretch--especially since the lady whose husband she took (Helen Mack) was prettier, sweeter and it frankly made no sense why Bruce Cabot would abandon his loving wife for Francis. Plus, having Francis play a four time divorced lady made her even less attractive to any sane man. So, the main premise for this dreary little film is flawed due to poor casting. Frankly, having Francis play the wife would have actually made much more sense--too bad that Francis (the co-producer) was stuck seeing herself as the 1930s vamp. She carried it off great a long time ago, but times had changed.
Now the idea of a marriage failing and its impact on the family is in itself an excellent idea. After all, in most films divorce is ignored and the consequences are invisible. However, in addition to the bad casting, the plot was just a mess at times and it looked as if they rushed this film into production before all the kinks were worked out satisfactorily. A few of the problems would include the occasionally laughable dialog, the idea of focusing almost all the anger and blame on Francis when Cabot was the one who abandoned his family (what a bad cliché--blaming it all on "the other woman" thus absolving the husband for infidelity), the ridiculous ending (none of it made any sense--it was just BAD) as well as the schmaltzy scenes (such as the family court martial scenes that were too stupid to mention further).
The bottom line is that Monogram Studios was known for its shoddy productions and this one is no exception. They simply cranked out second-rate B-movies like mad and quality was NOT a concern. Too bad, as this could have been a much better film.
Now the idea of a marriage failing and its impact on the family is in itself an excellent idea. After all, in most films divorce is ignored and the consequences are invisible. However, in addition to the bad casting, the plot was just a mess at times and it looked as if they rushed this film into production before all the kinks were worked out satisfactorily. A few of the problems would include the occasionally laughable dialog, the idea of focusing almost all the anger and blame on Francis when Cabot was the one who abandoned his family (what a bad cliché--blaming it all on "the other woman" thus absolving the husband for infidelity), the ridiculous ending (none of it made any sense--it was just BAD) as well as the schmaltzy scenes (such as the family court martial scenes that were too stupid to mention further).
The bottom line is that Monogram Studios was known for its shoddy productions and this one is no exception. They simply cranked out second-rate B-movies like mad and quality was NOT a concern. Too bad, as this could have been a much better film.