Supporting mainstay Aline McMahon gives a moving performance in the lead in this brief melancholy drama about a spinster furrier and her rocky relationship with a sailor in San Francisco. Just over an hour in length it has more than its share of melodramatic moments that McMahon reigns over with a quiet restrained dignity that infects the entire film.
Down and out Paul (Paul Kelly) crosses paths with Bertha at the zoo when he attempts to steal some peanuts she is feeding to the monkeys. Non-plussed by it all she saves him from being pinched and takes him in to help with the fur business she runs. Eventually they marry and have a child but Paul's wandering eye threatens to bring to an end.
Whether dealing with the business or the obstacles of her marriage Bertha displays a kind of weary resignation to all that befalls her. McMahon conveys this beautifully with sad eyed stoicism and without hysteria creating scenes of great power with less being more while Kelly, Dorothy Tree, Ann Dvorak and Helen Lowell offer strong counterpoint to her.
Alfred Green's direction takes the same unromantic view (before softening up a touch at the conclusion) as he did in Stanwyck's Baby Face with both coarse and cynical characters and situations evoking both the period and pre-code freedom. It also has the same rapid pace as well making it worth the brief time it requires to watch.
Down and out Paul (Paul Kelly) crosses paths with Bertha at the zoo when he attempts to steal some peanuts she is feeding to the monkeys. Non-plussed by it all she saves him from being pinched and takes him in to help with the fur business she runs. Eventually they marry and have a child but Paul's wandering eye threatens to bring to an end.
Whether dealing with the business or the obstacles of her marriage Bertha displays a kind of weary resignation to all that befalls her. McMahon conveys this beautifully with sad eyed stoicism and without hysteria creating scenes of great power with less being more while Kelly, Dorothy Tree, Ann Dvorak and Helen Lowell offer strong counterpoint to her.
Alfred Green's direction takes the same unromantic view (before softening up a touch at the conclusion) as he did in Stanwyck's Baby Face with both coarse and cynical characters and situations evoking both the period and pre-code freedom. It also has the same rapid pace as well making it worth the brief time it requires to watch.