Barbara Stanwyck is waiting in front of the marriage bureau for the man who is going to marry her. His car shows up and smashes into another. He's dead. Miss Stanwyck goes to the river to drown herself, only to be saved by Herbert Marshall. Seven months later she gives up her baby. Soon she is working in a dress shop for Binnie Barnes. Five years later, she is on a buying trip to Paris when she meets her son.
It's based on an Ann Harding weeper, GALLANT LADY, but I expect that version is pure soap. With Raymond Griffith producing and Sidney Lanfield directing, while the dramatic elements of Miss Stanwyck torn between Mr. Marshall and her son -- with Cesar Romero, at his most manic, playing an Italian count who adores her when he isn't chasing other women -- while those elements remain, there are plenty of gags and silliness. It's an interesting attempt at combining two seemingly immiscible elements, mostly by having Miss Stanwyck go quiet and contemplative. It works for me, except for the penultimate scene. It's hard to say how it will strike other viewers. Some people are offended by comic relief, and to make a light-hearted picture about a a mother's tears might seem heartless. Me, I'm one of those people who recognizes the absurdity of a cruel situation, and the ridiculous methods needed to fix them. Sometimes if you don't laugh, you're paralyzed by tears.
