This could possibly be the most boring film ever made.
Although this film has no merit whatsoever, that it was actually made is of some interest to us here in the 21st century simply as it shows how attitudes have changed. Topics for popular entertainment then were gangsters, murderers, vampires and..... people living together out of wedlock! As a piece of social history it is amazing that back in 1931 an unmarried couple living together was considered shocking and weird enough to make a movie about. The past really is a different world!
The irrelevance to us however is not why this film is so interminably dull. The real reason is that it's just terribly made. Besides the script being totally lifeless, it's the direction which is so bad - it's embarrassingly atrocious. Archie Mayo was considered not just to lack any particular style, imagination or indeed technique, he relied on his sound man and camera man to create the mood and he relied on his actors to develop their own characters: this lack of any direction is horribly evident with this. The first half hour is virtually just one static camera sitting in a room filming two people talking. Occasionally someone else comes in the room, reads their lines then goes again. It's like watching a cast sitting around a table doing their first read-through before someone wisely decides that it's a non-starter. Being made in 1931 is no excuse for bad film making. There were plenty of very decent films made in that year: Frankenstein, Blonde Crazy, The Public Enemy to name just a few.
Although her script is lamentable, Barbara Stanwyck does however give a good performance. Although she's just 24 and in her first staring role, she easily outshines everyone else in this film. She brings a refreshing and natural style to the stale and contrived proceedings with a twinkle of naughtiness in her eyes tinted with a sense of vulnerability.
Besides Barbara Stanwyck's completely wasted talent, there is one highlight in this film. That is offered from Joan Blondell in a very early supporting role. She's at a party and says: 'You're so old fashioned that you still wear underwear.' Us Joan Blondell obsessives will immediately need to take a cold shower!
Although this film has no merit whatsoever, that it was actually made is of some interest to us here in the 21st century simply as it shows how attitudes have changed. Topics for popular entertainment then were gangsters, murderers, vampires and..... people living together out of wedlock! As a piece of social history it is amazing that back in 1931 an unmarried couple living together was considered shocking and weird enough to make a movie about. The past really is a different world!
The irrelevance to us however is not why this film is so interminably dull. The real reason is that it's just terribly made. Besides the script being totally lifeless, it's the direction which is so bad - it's embarrassingly atrocious. Archie Mayo was considered not just to lack any particular style, imagination or indeed technique, he relied on his sound man and camera man to create the mood and he relied on his actors to develop their own characters: this lack of any direction is horribly evident with this. The first half hour is virtually just one static camera sitting in a room filming two people talking. Occasionally someone else comes in the room, reads their lines then goes again. It's like watching a cast sitting around a table doing their first read-through before someone wisely decides that it's a non-starter. Being made in 1931 is no excuse for bad film making. There were plenty of very decent films made in that year: Frankenstein, Blonde Crazy, The Public Enemy to name just a few.
Although her script is lamentable, Barbara Stanwyck does however give a good performance. Although she's just 24 and in her first staring role, she easily outshines everyone else in this film. She brings a refreshing and natural style to the stale and contrived proceedings with a twinkle of naughtiness in her eyes tinted with a sense of vulnerability.
Besides Barbara Stanwyck's completely wasted talent, there is one highlight in this film. That is offered from Joan Blondell in a very early supporting role. She's at a party and says: 'You're so old fashioned that you still wear underwear.' Us Joan Blondell obsessives will immediately need to take a cold shower!