Even before he was typecast as a Hollywood he man Clark Gable found work playing toughs and gangsters in secondary roles with the exception of this role against type before or after stardom as a sincere Salvation Army worker trying to save good time cabaret girl Bunny Stevens from the wages of sin. Toned down from the macho self assuredness that would carry his career he gives a more than adequate performance supporting leads Joan Crawford and Neil Hamilton (yes, Inspector Gordon).
Bunny (Crawford) is a modern flapper out for a good time when she get's the gate from her married traveling salesman boyfriend Howdy Palmer (Hamilton). Thunderstruck she attempts to toss herself in the river but is prevented by Salvation Army officer Carl Loomis (Gable) who after a long walk and talk and a night to think it over gets her to sign up. Rewarding as it is she runs into Howdy a year later who wears her resistance down.
The blonde Crawford does her usual solid desperate depression era every-woman sch tick with her tremulous voiced struggle with the world while letting her piercing eyes and delicate toned figure fill in the rest. Neil as the heel (couldn't resist) wears the moustache in this film as he fast talks Bunny into bed. Loathsome and unctuous as he is he does not kid himself he is anything else and in doing so attains a scintilla of dignity in a role that is all sleazy creep.
Scene stealers Guy Kibee ( a mortician salesman who deals in "underground novelties") and Roscoe Karns along with Hamilton do yeoman work in perpetuating the traveling salesmen stereotype while Gert Short buying an O'Henry candy bar has a brief but hilarious center stage moment. It's Crawford's vehicle from start to finish but with 20/20 hindsight Gable's toned down soul saver shows him gaining fast.
Bunny (Crawford) is a modern flapper out for a good time when she get's the gate from her married traveling salesman boyfriend Howdy Palmer (Hamilton). Thunderstruck she attempts to toss herself in the river but is prevented by Salvation Army officer Carl Loomis (Gable) who after a long walk and talk and a night to think it over gets her to sign up. Rewarding as it is she runs into Howdy a year later who wears her resistance down.
The blonde Crawford does her usual solid desperate depression era every-woman sch tick with her tremulous voiced struggle with the world while letting her piercing eyes and delicate toned figure fill in the rest. Neil as the heel (couldn't resist) wears the moustache in this film as he fast talks Bunny into bed. Loathsome and unctuous as he is he does not kid himself he is anything else and in doing so attains a scintilla of dignity in a role that is all sleazy creep.
Scene stealers Guy Kibee ( a mortician salesman who deals in "underground novelties") and Roscoe Karns along with Hamilton do yeoman work in perpetuating the traveling salesmen stereotype while Gert Short buying an O'Henry candy bar has a brief but hilarious center stage moment. It's Crawford's vehicle from start to finish but with 20/20 hindsight Gable's toned down soul saver shows him gaining fast.