... as Bebe Daniels plays jewel thief Gertie Jones who impersonates a French maid to get inside of the homes of wealthy persons and then steals their valuables when they are away from home. One night she is planning to do just that when an interloper arrives - safe cracker Jimmy Hartigan (Ben Lyon). She gets the drop on him and gets his gun and is having a long pointless conversation with him when the cops arrive, summoned by another servant who heard the commotion. Jimmy doesn't point the finger at her and takes his lumps alone, getting a one year prison sentence because this may not be his first crime, but it's the first time he got caught.
Gertie is waiting for him when he gets out, and it's part romance but also part business as they team up and rob enough rich people that they manage to bankroll thirty thousand dollars in 1930 money. But Gertie is beginning to lose her nerve over this crime business, and that feeling is deepened when an old pal who taught her the business comes to the door, just released half-dead from stir. She convinces Jimmy to go straight, but then they fall victim to their own naivete so that complications ensue.
This film starts out as a precode kind of "age of chiselry" film with the flavor of something Cagney and Blondell might have made at the time, but it rapidly and oddly segues into a bit of a morality tale about going straight and doing the right thing as though this was 1934 and the production code had painted a white line right down the middle of the film.
But maybe it's a good thing that Jimmy and Gert went straight, as there is always a cop hanging around either trying to catch Jimmy when he's a crook or encouraging him with fatherly advice when he decides to go straight. What public servant has time to dedicate to one thief? Why would you want to steal in a jurisdiction with this guy always hanging around? Also, another question I've always had about these older films. Gert and Jimmy hire Gert's recently paroled pal as a maid - understandable. But why do people decide to help out their down and out friends and make them wear that demeaning maid's outfit? It's one step up from being dressed up like an organ grinder's monkey, but I digress.
I'd say this is mainly worthwhile because of the onscreen chemistry between Ben Lyon and Bebe Daniels, married for over 40 years, with their marriage only ending in her death - a rare thing in Hollywood.
