Primrose Path

Joel McCrea and Ginger Rogers did some of their best work in this picture. The story is a great one, and it was well executed. It should have made the list of 100 greatest American films, but there are flaws. Two of the secondary character are caricatures - the grandmother and the little sister were overplayed. The father, while perhaps realistic, came off as a melodramatic, sick joke. The coverage of one of the main themes, prostitution, was handled too graphically for 1940's audiences and too "victorianly" for modern audiences. But these are really minor complaints. I think Ginger Rogers did a great job, and should have gotten an academy award. When I first watched it, before I found out when the movie was made, I thought it must have been very early, say 1933, because she was very convincing as an apparent teenager - say a 19 year old. I should have realized the movie was not that old, as the direction, cinematography, and other secondary production aspects were much better, definitely in the "Citizen Kane" ranks. And after all, Ginger was very good at playing women a lot younger than she (see "The Major and the Minor"). Joel McCrea was also excellent, showing again that if he would have resisted his urges to play cowboys he could have developed a reputation as one of the greatest American film stars (see "Foreign Correspondent"). I am happy to see that IMDb users rate this film above 6.0, but I think it is much better than that.