gerardjones

Star-wise, I gave this four for what it was overall, subtracted one for Hugh Herbert, whom I find annoying and unnecessary, added two-and-a-half back for Una Merkel, who is mostly charming and funny here and lays on her cute Southern accent thicker than usual, then threw on another half star for some odd little dialogue touches that caught me off guard and made me laugh, probably mostly thanks to Maurice Rapf, that Dartmouth boy and cinematic intellectual. There are some nice '30s MGM settings: rustic cabin, lake in the moonlight. But mostly the only reason to look at this at all is for Una, who is fluttery and cute and sometimes even sexy, as in the love scene on the porch when her hair's all wet and tangled. I recorded it off TCM and fast-forwarded through parts of it, especially Hugh Herbert.

...but stiff, false, and bleak. Even Sidney doesn't show much except her ability to weep nervously, which would stand her in good stead later. From this, it's hard to see what audiences (or B.P. Schulberg) saw in her. This two- reeler's only virtue is giving us a glimpse at what movie makers at the raw end of the '20s thought would be a reassuring fantasy to young white- collar workers. The Depression was already making a lie of it, but Warners was still a couple of years from catching on. Sidney's tearful joy at the thought of buying an electric washing machine is revealing, though. A female screenwriter who knew how hard young mothers worked.