It's not a feature, but a compilation of three shorter stories with the same central cast: Estelle Taylor, Marc McDermott and Harry Sothern. They each concern themselves with the unsavory things that happen after dark. It's a movie-making technique that is still in occasional use. Last year, the Coen brothers did THE BALLAD OF BUSTER SCRUGGS, in which they told several stories set in the cinematic west.
In the first story, an unkempt, unshaven Mr. McDermott, shows up to blackmail Miss Taylor, lest he tell her husband he was her first husband. In the second, she seduces Mr. McDermott and becomes his mistress.
The third story is the longest of the three and the most complicated. Miss Taylor is fired from her day job. Her night job is looking after Harry Sothern's paralyzed father, Mr. McDermott while Sothern is working as a night watchman. They get married, but when Sothern's wharf is robbed and he is tied up, one of the thieves, Earl Metcalfe, makes his escape and holes up in the attic, where Miss Taylor and he fall in love.
It looks like Raoul Walsh used this last one as a piece of 1932's ME AND MY GAL.
It shows the actors in some range, and doubtless there was the thought that if the feature version didn't work -- or even if it did -- it could be chopped up for shorts. It was also intended to show the range of the actors; today it would be considered as Oscar bait for best performers. It's certainly entertaining, but Miss Taylor's style of acting is very broad, her characters run the gamut from dull to tawdry, and she quickly palled on me. Mr. McDermott is good in the first two stories, but in the third, he's limited by playing a character who's paralyzed. It's actually Mr. Sothern, who is clearly playing a supporting role in all three, that had the most interesting variety.
As for the stories, I found the second, clearly intended as a comedy, the most appealing. Well, that's me. Anything for a laugh.
