Corny Pre-Coder about a peckerwood (Richard Barthelmess) on a Southern plantation who is torn between the poor cotton pickers and the greedy plantation owner, all while falling for the owner's seductive daughter (Bette Davis). Davis is the whole show here, giving a fun performance that borders on camp. Even her straight lines seem humorous thanks to her risible Southern accent. The movie's most memorable scene is when Bette drawls "I'd like to kiss you but I just washed my hair" and runs away while a sexually frustrated Richard Barthelmess stares after her. Barthelmess is just short of terrible in this, doing all of his acting in close-ups of his constipated face. Berton Churchill, Erville Alderson, and Russell Simpson are all good in supporting roles.
It's a film that's hard to take seriously at times but, if you stick with it, there is a decent 'message movie' here, the kind Warner Bros. excelled at in the 1930s. The interesting thing about the movie's pro-labor rights message is that, while the plantation owner is a villain, so are the poor workers. They include a slimeball who forces Barthelmess' widowed mother into marrying him in an unsettling scene. Their leader's another piece of work, gleefully planning to blackmail Barthelmess into helping them. So no "white hats and black hats" here; just different shades of despicable. But it's not a movie you watch for the story as much as for the performance of a young and attractive Bette Davis. She's really a treat to watch. My favorite scene is when Bette invites Barthelmess up to her room to seduce him. It's both sexy and unintentionally funny. Which pretty much sums up Bette Davis in this movie and why you just have to see it for her.
