Review of The Girl from 10th Avenue

This movie is only at 70 minutes long, which was the norm in the 1930s. However, to make a movie fit into that narrow slot, a lot of storytelling has to be sacrificed. We're now used to grand, sweeping three hour sagas, where we do not have to read between the lines or guess at any missing chunks of plot. In this one, there's a lot of filling in the blanks. For instance, the movie starts with a large crowd gathering outside a church in NYC. Some big society do, and the bystanders are waiting for the bride and groom to emerge. The missing part of the story is that the bride is a woman named Valentine French and she is marrying the very wealthy John Marland. She has recently jilted Geoffrey Sherwood in favor of John, seemingly because --although Geoffrey is a lawyer, and from the moneyed set-- he is not as rich as John. So one of the people waiting in front of the church is a cute, perky blond Miriam Brady, a working girl out on her lunch break. While she's standing there, a man staggers up the sidewalk, steps all over her toes and then stands next to her, swaying from drunkeness as he ad-libs what is going on inside. Some bystanders laugh at his narration, but Miriam firmly takes him by the hand and around the corner to a little cafe to sober him up. He does not want food, he wants more to drink. As it turns out, he is Geoffrey Sherwood, the man that Valentine recently split from, and he is brokenhearted. Two ushers from the wedding track him down and are relieved to see Miriam has him under her care. They were worried he might try to crash the reception. One of them offers her $100 to get him home safe. A princely sum back in those days (About $1700-1800 in today's dollars!) made even grander by the fact that the company she works for sewing labels on new clothes has just announced they are laying off the better part of their staff. So, she may very well not have a job to return to after lunch... Geoffrey and Miriam end up drinking the afternoon away--or so we think--because in another huge lapse of story telling, it's the next morning and Geoffrey is horribly hung over and he and Miriam are married... This missing 'rest of the story' would have been fun to see...them overimbibing, someone suggesting marriage...rushing to the Justice of the Peace...waking up legally wed... In any case we learn that Miriam is ready and willing to annul, but Geoffrey talks her out of it. They make it casual, though, any time either wants out, the other is free to go, no fuss or muss. And so the two set up housekeeping, he starts his own business and they move into a nice little apartment with a wonderful landlady Mrs. Martin (Allison Skipworth) who lives downstairs and becomes great friends with Miriam. Allison and Bette worked in three movies together (Dangerous, Satan Met a Lady and this one) and they are always something to watch in their scenes together. Then Miriam discovers that Valentine has split with Marland, who corners Miriam and shows her an item clipped from the newspaper which--without naming names--makes it sound like Valentine and Geoffrey are dilly-dallying on the golf course. Well, this sure gets her ire up and with the help of Mrs. Martin she hatches a plot to crash a fancy party that Valentine is giving at the Waldorf. Miriam carries herself with dignity...until she doesn't... and pretty much tells Valentine to keep her meathooks off Geoffrey. Valentine responds by throwing a grapefruit at Miriam, and this little scenario of course ends up in the society pages. We also do not see dastardly Valentine rushing to see Geoffrey after this little set-to, but we do see him storming into the apartment he and Miriam share. He packs a bag and he invokes the 'we can call it quits anytime' clause he and Miriam put on their marriage at the beginning. They've been together a year now, and she is in love with him, but he cannot be stopped. He goes to the College Club to get his old room back while she runs downstairs and sobs on Mrs. Martin's shoulders. While checking in, Geoffrey bumps into none other than John Marland who is in his cups over his split with Valentine. He tells Geoffrey that they need to confront her together. So, off they go to the Marland home...but somewhere in the midst of all this, Geoffrey becomes aware he really doesn't care about Valentine...he wants Miriam. The next morning, Miriam opens her front door to get her paper and milk and finds her rumpled husband there too. Ring in hand, he slips it back onto her finger and all is right with the world.