... and this film is a good example of that.
Attorney Steve Latimer (William Powell) defends an old client of his, Victor Ramondi (Fernando Lamas) when he is hauled before a senate committee concerning his illegal gambling operations. Steve's daughter, Jean (Elizabeth Taylor) goes with her father when he travels to Washington, and there she meets and begins dating Ramondi. Ramondi follows the Latimers back to Kentucky, rents a place, and begins courting Jean. It doesn't take long until she is in love with him and the two plan to marry. But against his lifelong principles of being "a free soul" Latimer for once decides - Not with my daughter you don't! Complications ensue.
This is a very sanitized and watered down version of the precode "A Free Soul" from 1931, which was a big hit for MGM at the time. In the original the attorney/father Stephen Ashe is a hopeless alcoholic, the gangster is somebody Ashe defended for a murder of which he was very much guilty, and when the gangster threatens the daughter if she tries to leave him, her discarded fiance kills him but lies about his motive to protect her honor. I won't tell you what does ultimately happen in this film, but I will tell you that these three aspects are missing to the point that I wondered why MGM even bothered.
The 1931 film was made during the precode era during which there was much freedom to portray human nature with all its warts. The production code ended that in 1934. Thus it was not unusual for studios to remake their precode films in such a way that they could be exhibited in the production code era. What was unusual was for them to wait until the 1950s, as MGM did with this film, to produce a remake. As a result this film just seems like there is something missing mainly because there really is. All you have left is some cautionary tale about a girl who always had her way growing up in the shadow of a father who shunned convention who, as a result, goes after the wrong kind of man. Although Vic Ramondi does tell Jean he intends to change, is going to retire from the rackets, and is initially only showing his softer side, so even the accusation that she is attracted to a bad boy does not hold water.
The acting is good in this film, and as usual, William Powell makes it look effortless. He was the reason I decided to watch it, although the other performers do the best that they can with such thin material.
