This could have been a sweet little drama. It had all the ingredients to be a gripping melodrama but despite having a talented cast and good imaginative director it ended up being a turgid, unemotional and lifeless bore.
Although Monta Bell could be a very impressive director, you'd never guess that from seeing this. You'd think that as he wrote this and based it on one of his own former silent films, he'd have put all of his artistic flair into making this his special pet project. Curiously, this demonstrates none of the skills you'd expect from Bell. Besides some excellent photography (from Universal's ever reliable Karl Freund) this really drags. It's so slow - and without any background music which accentuates the periods when nothing is happening, it feels even slower. It's quite a somber story but the total lack of lightness and humour (excluding Frank McHugh's rather irritating attempts) gives this a very bleak feel.
A major flaw is the casting of the lead role. I don't mean Genevieve Tobin who's superb in this and makes it at least watchable, it's Lew Ayres. Given the right role, Lew Ayres could be a profoundly sensitive and moving actor but this was not a role Ayres was suited too. Even early in his career he could successfully play really different parts (he's surprisingly believable as a gangster in DOORWAY TO HELL) but here he's basically playing the same depressed part as in ALL QUIET.
For this story to work you've got to believe in the romance. Ayres is a nobody who at first shouldn't quite believe that someone as absolutely stunning as Genevieve Tobin could be interested in him (neither can we!) but he just seems to accept it. Were he an arrogant upstart that might make sense but he's not. When it sinks in that she does seem to love him you'd think he'd be grinning from ear to ear but he looks like his cat has just been run over.
I disagree however with Danny at Pre-Code about Tobin's character. I think it's a superbly well written, fully developed and credible character. Her 'Myra' has real depth which Tobin implicitly imbues into her performance without being too obvious. You can really understand why she would fall for someone like Ayres' naïve cub reporter.
Despite of Tobin's performance, the disjointed direction and the stupid way the story which starts off as credible develops stops the whole thing gelling together. And as for the ridiculous ending - it might have worked in the unsophisticated silent days but this is meant to be a grown up film.
It's frustrating to see something which starts off with such promise fizzle out like this does.
