Other Men's Women

This film stars Grant Withers as railroad worker Bill White who becomes enamored of the wife (Mary Astor) of his close friend Jack (Regis Toomey). Both men are railroad workers, and prior to coming home to live with Jack and his wife, Bill has been romancing a tough waitress (Joan Blondell) among others, getting drunk every night to the point of almost losing his job, and finally gets ejected from his rooming house for his rowdiness. Specifically Bill ran some bathwater, passed out drunk, and the bath overflowed. At Jack's house Bill finds the kind of home he's never had, and he and Jack's wife, Lily, fall in love, but due to their mutual loyalty to Jack, do nothing about it. However, Jack does find out about how the two feel about one another and he and Bill have it out one night on the train in what turns out to be a very bad place for a fist fight. Grant Withers never made it as a leading man, and it is interesting to see him in this film, and also in his previous leading role "Sinner's Holiday", getting upstaged by the dynamic James Cagney, who has a very small role in both movies.

The story is not that original, but the gritty depression era work conditions of the rail yards and the dusty cafés juxtaposed with Jack and Lily's quaint little home and lush little garden make for great imagery. Then there's that tough precode attitude that is in its infancy over at Warner Brothers at this time. This all makes the film interesting beyond the basic paint-by-numbers plot and therefore worth a look.