This film is very interesting in several ways. One is the working class railroad setting. The film opens with a scene at the EATS lunchroom. The manner in which they relate to their jobs and to their fellow employees seems authentic. The male-female banter does too. The film conjures up a version of working class Eden, where there is not really much of anything to go wrong.
The melodrama centers on a love triangle between a best friend and the friend's young wife. Preliminary to his overtures, he takes some roughhouse liberties, poking her and rustling her up in a brotherly way which one could not get away with today. The romance never goes beyond a confession of love. This part is pretty dated but familiar ground nevertheless. In addition, Lilly's manner is so saccharine and inhibited that it is dated in this respect. Ultimately, although with due regrets all around, the husband, already blinded, conveniently loses his life in a railroad accident and the lovers destined to be together, end up that way. Even though we may think it was only a few heart-felt sighs. But side by side with this naive interaction, there is the gritty realism based on the power of the railroad machinery.
This film made me feel I had a real window into the 30's. Including the fact the first waitress is none too comely. And Joan Blondell at that stage in he career just about put the floo in floosie. Enjoy it!
The melodrama centers on a love triangle between a best friend and the friend's young wife. Preliminary to his overtures, he takes some roughhouse liberties, poking her and rustling her up in a brotherly way which one could not get away with today. The romance never goes beyond a confession of love. This part is pretty dated but familiar ground nevertheless. In addition, Lilly's manner is so saccharine and inhibited that it is dated in this respect. Ultimately, although with due regrets all around, the husband, already blinded, conveniently loses his life in a railroad accident and the lovers destined to be together, end up that way. Even though we may think it was only a few heart-felt sighs. But side by side with this naive interaction, there is the gritty realism based on the power of the railroad machinery.
This film made me feel I had a real window into the 30's. Including the fact the first waitress is none too comely. And Joan Blondell at that stage in he career just about put the floo in floosie. Enjoy it!