With this sudsy woman's picture complete with songs, Claudette Colbert proved there was no genre she couldn't do well - she even handles the songs okay.
Sally Trent (Claudette Colbert) meets Dora (Lyda Roberti) at a maternity hospital and they become friends. Dora has a little boy and Sally, a little girl, but although at first she tries to make a go of it, Sally is , at last, forced to put her baby up for adoption.
Trying to rebuild her life and career - after many tryouts she is told she must learn to suffer!!!! She then refines her singing to become a "torch singer" (a woman who sings of love gone wrong). She picks up a manager, Tony (fascinating Ricardo Cortez) and soon becomes "Mimi" - the most notorious torch singer in town!!!! When she fills in for a woman with "mike fright" she picks up a new career and is a sensation as "Aunt Jenny" on a daily children's radio show. Cards and letters pour in, including one from a little girl called Sally - it brings back memories of her own little girl. She then uses the radio show in her quest to try to find the child she gave up for adoption four years before. She finds her, as well as Mike (boring David Manners), the father of her child. Yes, the ending is unsatisfactory but it would have pleased audiences at the time.
Baby LeRoy's name was featured quite prominently in the credits but he only had one scene. He was riding on the crest of a wave then, being Paramount's great find of the year but unfortunately he stopped being quite so popular when he grew up - which was within a year or two. Cora Sue Collins, who played Sally's little girl (in a quite self conscious way, I thought), because she wasn't under contract to any studio spent most of her career way down the cast list playing "little girls". Her most prestigious role was in "Queen Christina" (1933) where she played Garbo as a child and her most memorable came at the end of the thirties as Amy Lawrence, Tom Sawyer's little girlfriend before Becky Thatcher moved into town. I would definitely have liked to see more of Lyda Roberti. I was hoping she would reappear but she never did. Her delightful way with the English language gave the movie a much needed brightness.
The song "Give Me Liberty or Give Me Love" became a popular song hit of the day, with recordings being made by Bing Crosby and Annette Hanshaw.
Sally Trent (Claudette Colbert) meets Dora (Lyda Roberti) at a maternity hospital and they become friends. Dora has a little boy and Sally, a little girl, but although at first she tries to make a go of it, Sally is , at last, forced to put her baby up for adoption.
Trying to rebuild her life and career - after many tryouts she is told she must learn to suffer!!!! She then refines her singing to become a "torch singer" (a woman who sings of love gone wrong). She picks up a manager, Tony (fascinating Ricardo Cortez) and soon becomes "Mimi" - the most notorious torch singer in town!!!! When she fills in for a woman with "mike fright" she picks up a new career and is a sensation as "Aunt Jenny" on a daily children's radio show. Cards and letters pour in, including one from a little girl called Sally - it brings back memories of her own little girl. She then uses the radio show in her quest to try to find the child she gave up for adoption four years before. She finds her, as well as Mike (boring David Manners), the father of her child. Yes, the ending is unsatisfactory but it would have pleased audiences at the time.
Baby LeRoy's name was featured quite prominently in the credits but he only had one scene. He was riding on the crest of a wave then, being Paramount's great find of the year but unfortunately he stopped being quite so popular when he grew up - which was within a year or two. Cora Sue Collins, who played Sally's little girl (in a quite self conscious way, I thought), because she wasn't under contract to any studio spent most of her career way down the cast list playing "little girls". Her most prestigious role was in "Queen Christina" (1933) where she played Garbo as a child and her most memorable came at the end of the thirties as Amy Lawrence, Tom Sawyer's little girlfriend before Becky Thatcher moved into town. I would definitely have liked to see more of Lyda Roberti. I was hoping she would reappear but she never did. Her delightful way with the English language gave the movie a much needed brightness.
The song "Give Me Liberty or Give Me Love" became a popular song hit of the day, with recordings being made by Bing Crosby and Annette Hanshaw.