Producer: Armand Deutsch. Copyright 27 February 1953 (in notice: 1952) by Loew's Inc. A Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer picture. No New York opening. U.S. release: 27 March 1953. U.K. release: 13 July 1953. Australian release: 25 May 1953. 6,242 feet. 69 minutes.
SYNOPSIS: Jean Latimer, daughter of a wealthy criminal lawyer, falls in love with one of her father's clients, Victor Ramondi, the crooked head of a gambling syndicate. Latimer warns his daughter against Ramondi, but she is determined to marry him. On the day before the wedding, Ramondi learns that Latimer intends to bring him before a Senate crime investigation committee. NOTES: A re-make of A Free Soul (1931).
COMMENT: Mediocre romantic drama. Were it not for the beautiful presence of Elizabeth Taylor, beautifully photographed and attractively costumes, the rating would be even less. William Powell looks old and tired and just goes through the motions on this last film of his M-G-M contract, while Fernando Lamas and James Whitmore are totally unable to convince us they are ruthless gangsters.
Thorpe's direction is at its best in the gangsters' action sequences (the senatorial hearing with flash-bulbs popping), but shows evidences of hasty shooting in the dialogue scenes (Miss Taylor is inadequate in the long take in which she tells Powell she is going back, though the camera is skilfully placed). Production values are not lavish. The film was obviously designed for the lower half of a double bill.
OTHER VIEWS: This Hollywood-lush tale has been handled by Richard Thorpe with routine competence but no imagination; dialogue and incident are of the same monotonous order. Of the cast, William Powell turns in a familiarly wise-slick portrayal and Elizabeth Taylor, decoratively satisfying, plays a limited character with limited skill. The whole adds up to a graceless pattern of screen melodrama. - Monthly Film Bulletin.
SYNOPSIS: Jean Latimer, daughter of a wealthy criminal lawyer, falls in love with one of her father's clients, Victor Ramondi, the crooked head of a gambling syndicate. Latimer warns his daughter against Ramondi, but she is determined to marry him. On the day before the wedding, Ramondi learns that Latimer intends to bring him before a Senate crime investigation committee. NOTES: A re-make of A Free Soul (1931).
COMMENT: Mediocre romantic drama. Were it not for the beautiful presence of Elizabeth Taylor, beautifully photographed and attractively costumes, the rating would be even less. William Powell looks old and tired and just goes through the motions on this last film of his M-G-M contract, while Fernando Lamas and James Whitmore are totally unable to convince us they are ruthless gangsters.
Thorpe's direction is at its best in the gangsters' action sequences (the senatorial hearing with flash-bulbs popping), but shows evidences of hasty shooting in the dialogue scenes (Miss Taylor is inadequate in the long take in which she tells Powell she is going back, though the camera is skilfully placed). Production values are not lavish. The film was obviously designed for the lower half of a double bill.
OTHER VIEWS: This Hollywood-lush tale has been handled by Richard Thorpe with routine competence but no imagination; dialogue and incident are of the same monotonous order. Of the cast, William Powell turns in a familiarly wise-slick portrayal and Elizabeth Taylor, decoratively satisfying, plays a limited character with limited skill. The whole adds up to a graceless pattern of screen melodrama. - Monthly Film Bulletin.