Let me start by saying I'm a HUGE Barbara Stanwyck devotee. But the role she is given in this hapless movie is so phony that nobody could have played it successfully. The story is of course, the stuff that vintage weepies are made from. And I have nothing against weepies: as long as the characters move me, I'll happily string along, no matter how ridiculous the story.But the characters in Always Goodbye are uniformly made of paper-maché. The actors seem to know it: Ian Hunter and Herbert Marshall give mechanical performances, and Cesar Romero bounces through his role as if he's anxious to quickly get off the set.Special note: if you detest obnoxious Hollywood child actors, little Johnny Russell's performance as Stanwyck's little boy is about as excruciating as they come. Don't say I didn't warn you.

This movie is clearly one you must suspend all sense of disbelief in order to enjoy it. This isn't saying it's a bad film....I actually liked it. But it has a plot that certainly is far-fetched!When the film begins, Margot (Barbara Stanwyck) is waiting for her fiancé to arrive at the marriage license bureau. However, as she's waiting he's killed in a traffic accident right in front of her!!! To make things worse, she's pregnant*! So you next see her about to kill herself when she is caught by Jim (Herbert Marshall) and he takes her under his wing and gets her back on her feet. He also helps her find a nice adoptive couple when her baby arrives months later. But although Jim is marvelous, he has a real wandering spirit and is sometimes gone for years on his sea travels.In the meantime, while Jim is off on one of his voyages, Margot gets a job with a fashion studio and her life is really going well. In fact, soon a crazy Count, Gino (Caesar Romero), is chasing her and proposing marriage. He's a nice guy...just a bit full of himself. Soon after, she sees an adorable kid in a hotel and realizes this boy is her biological son she gave up years ago! So, when she learns he's going on a cruise, she arranges to go on the same ship and soon the two become inseparable. But there is a huge problem-- the boy's mother has died and the woman his father (Ian Hunter) wants to marry is just awful and cares nothing for the boy....Margot's baby! So what's she to do and who is she to marry when THREE guys all pop the question?!Thi is an enjoyable film mostly because although far-fetched, the acting is quite good and the story engaging. Well worth seeing, though it is one of Stanwyck's lesser-known films.

The emotion Barbara brought to this role was just stunning. I can feel everything she is feeling by her subtle yet brilliant facial expressions. This was one of her early films and it is apparent that by the late 1930s, she was already a master actor. No overacting is present in this unknown little gem. Also, Herbert Marshall is delightfully British, as he usually is. Highly recommended for those who are interested in a very compelling drama. I am very surprised that this film is virtually unknown today, since the subject matter will be relevant no matter what time period we are in. Hopefully, now that this is available from some kind of "archive-type" studio DVD, it will become more well-known.

You're about to marry the man you love, but suddenly he's dead after a tragic accident. Now you find you're pregnant. Keep the baby? Give it up for adoption? Oh, I forgot to mention it's 1938, when illegitimacy was a total scandal and could ruin a young girl's life. And when you're Barbara Stanwyck, you can do one of several things. If you're Stella Dallas, you raise the child the best you know how and give it all the love in the world. But if you're Martha Ivers, Thelma Jordan or "Double Indemnity's" Phyllis Diedrickson, you scheme to get what you want, no matter what. This isn't the jingling jeweled Stella or any of those ruthless film noir broads; This is Margot Weston, an unlucky lady who manages to become a popular fashion designer, and when she finds her child aboard an ocean liner, she innocently schemes all she can to spend as much time as she can before the ship reaches New York.Once in New York, Margot meets her child's adoptive father (Ian Hunter) who is engaged to a rather selfish socialite (Lynn Bari) who has about as much interest in raising children as Hitler had in Democracy. Margot is a lovely lady with two suitors-a Latin lover (Cesar Romeo in a very feisty performance) and a good doctor (Herbert Marshall). So now she has another dilemma-accepting one of their marriage proposals or doing all she can to get Hunter to propose so she can be with her son for good. She knows that Bari will not be a loving mother, so letting her raise the young boy (an adorable Johnny Russell) is out of the question.A remake of 1934's "Gallant Lady", this version of an otherwise maudlin story is actually quite lively and a bit more comic than its original. That version starred sob queen Ann Harding, but there is a ton of difference between her and Stanwyck, so this late 30's version lacks the tear-jerking element of the original. That's OK, because the result is a very entertaining mother love drama that has soap opera elements but not the pathos. Stanwyck gives a superb performance as a woman who won't cry today or tomorrow over yesterdays, instilling her with a likability that burns a hole through the movie screen. Hunter and Marshall were practically interchangeable as actors, so to see them in the same film together is a bit daunting as far as remembering who is who. The comedy between Stanwyck, Romero and Russell on the boat (as the little boy becomes Romero's rival for Stanwyck's attention) is lighthearted and fun. The result is a film with a better screenplay than normal for films of this nature and a delightful discovery.