SYNOPSIS: A tenement girl has "that certain thing" (when I went to college, we called it "that certain something") and she knows it. She wants to marry a millionaire.
COMMENT: Although many viewers accord Capra's first Columbia picture high marks, I was disappointed. The story is not only slight to the point of stupidity but, if taken seriously, it's rather obscene on at least two fronts: the heroine puts money first in both romance and business. She has no honor and no ethics and we are supposed to like her fixation on marriage-for-a-price and then even admire the fact that she sells out her customers and employees to a man who purchases her business for the sole purpose of closing it down. (Don't be fooled by any icing the script half-heartedly contrives to gild this bitter pill. When all's said and done, there's no way in the world the restaurant man is going to keep the heroine's concern operating if it will put his restaurants out of business).
The plot has fatal flaws and the characterization of the heroine is tainted. A really skillful director could easily overcome the first, and even a half-talent could alleviate the problem by simply insisting on one or two alterations in the title cards. You could, for example, have Charles exclaim that he's going out of the restaurant business. That may not solve the dilemma one hundred per cent but at least it's now reasonably disguised. But Capra does nothing. Absolutely nothing.
But if Capra lets the side down, it's a trifle compared to Miss Dana's lack of histrionic ability. Does she manage to gain audience sympathy for Molly so that we like her and are rooting for her despite her callow fixation on money-for-virginity? Well, she didn't come through to me on any front. A rather ordinary looking girl, and thoroughly unlikable at that! This was a role for someone who really possessed "that certain thing". Someone like Clara Bow, or Joan Crawford, or Gloria Swanson.
Ralph Graves does his best with a rather unrewarding role as a soppy hero who knuckles down to both father and wife. That the movie has any appeal at all is almost entirely due to the sterling efforts of Burr McIntosh as the father who puts up a great fight before he is finally forced to capitulate.
COMMENT: Although many viewers accord Capra's first Columbia picture high marks, I was disappointed. The story is not only slight to the point of stupidity but, if taken seriously, it's rather obscene on at least two fronts: the heroine puts money first in both romance and business. She has no honor and no ethics and we are supposed to like her fixation on marriage-for-a-price and then even admire the fact that she sells out her customers and employees to a man who purchases her business for the sole purpose of closing it down. (Don't be fooled by any icing the script half-heartedly contrives to gild this bitter pill. When all's said and done, there's no way in the world the restaurant man is going to keep the heroine's concern operating if it will put his restaurants out of business).
The plot has fatal flaws and the characterization of the heroine is tainted. A really skillful director could easily overcome the first, and even a half-talent could alleviate the problem by simply insisting on one or two alterations in the title cards. You could, for example, have Charles exclaim that he's going out of the restaurant business. That may not solve the dilemma one hundred per cent but at least it's now reasonably disguised. But Capra does nothing. Absolutely nothing.
But if Capra lets the side down, it's a trifle compared to Miss Dana's lack of histrionic ability. Does she manage to gain audience sympathy for Molly so that we like her and are rooting for her despite her callow fixation on money-for-virginity? Well, she didn't come through to me on any front. A rather ordinary looking girl, and thoroughly unlikable at that! This was a role for someone who really possessed "that certain thing". Someone like Clara Bow, or Joan Crawford, or Gloria Swanson.
Ralph Graves does his best with a rather unrewarding role as a soppy hero who knuckles down to both father and wife. That the movie has any appeal at all is almost entirely due to the sterling efforts of Burr McIntosh as the father who puts up a great fight before he is finally forced to capitulate.