With plenty of legs, lingerie, and even a few smacks on the behind, there is plenty of eye candy 1933-style early on in this movie, and it's clearly pre-Code. Joan Blondell plays an up-and-coming chorus girl with a complicated love life, being secretly married and having male admirers. Her glowering husband, played well in increasingly dark tones by Allen Vincent, is led to believe she has a lover, and leaves her. The notoriety in the press helps fuel her rise to the top, and as years go by, she's famous while he finds himself in debt. The movie then takes on the feel of a drama, with him pressuring her for money, and when he finds out she has a child, he tries to use that as leverage. The movie isn't a work of art or anything (and isn't particularly well preserved compared to others from the time), but it was interesting to see Blondell in a strong role, sexually free and standing up for herself amidst a courtroom barrage that reveals the ever-present double standard. It's worth the 61 minute run time.

This very little known pre-code is quite a find. While it is a bit creaky it also pretty amazing. I stumbled upon it while searching for a decent print of another PD film ( The Hitler Gang 1944). As I am always on a quest to see Warner Brothers material (I estimate I have seen every WB "A" of the Classic Era and 70% of the "B"s still known to exist) I read the cast with growing excitement:Joan Blondell Ricardo Cortez Ginger Rogers Donald CrispHas to be Warners! So I got it and when the credits rolled I was astounded to learn that this 1933 cast of WB contract players was somehow loaned to (William) Fox Pictures! It is going to be another of my quests to find out how this came about. There was certainly no love lost between Jack Warner and William Fox (for that matter between anyone and Fox) Production values at Fox weren't on par with Warners and it shows in this picture. That would change just a few years later when Warners brilliant Production Chief Darryl F. Zanuck, having had JL try to pull a fast one on him defected and partnered with Fox which then became 20th Century-Fox). On to the picture in question. If you are a Joan Blondell fan you will love her here. Instead of a brassy sidekick she gets to be the romantic lead for probably the only time in her career (and to the earlier reviewer who reviles her, you Sir, are an ass). Ricardo Cortez, who had been born Jakob Krantz came to Hollywood in the '20's a Warners poor mans Valentino. He survived well into the sound era and was one of WB early leading men in talkies. He would later play hard and evil men (See Wonderbar 1934 if you can find it). Here he is perfectly cast as a wealthy wooer (and user) of beautiful women, but who turns out to have a heart of gold.Ginger Rogers is also, as usual, good as Joans sidekick just before her own breakout role in "42nd Street" Donald Crisp is seen only briefly in a forgettable role through no fault of his own. The rest of the cast is adequate and for some reason IMDb lists Victor Jory in the cast, which has to be a mistake.Summation? It's the best pre-code sizzler Warner Brothers never made. What I like to call a"Nugget".

Covered in gold coin like attachments on a dress that could have been one of the chorus girl outfits in the "We're in the Money" production number in "Gold Diggers of 1933", glamorous Joan Blondell is definitely looking to make off of the bread and chorus lines and onto the social register on this delightful pre-code drama. Fellow gold digger Ginger Rogers is along for the ride, and they aren't taking any prisoners.Perhaps they are just tired of the stage door Johnny's taking advantage of them, but in Blondell's case, she is hiding a divorce and a child, and this infuriates both the ex and the current. Rogers is fine support as a character named Flip, while Ricardo Cortez is pleasant as the man Blondell might reform over. This is pre-code drama at its best, mild on wisecracks but clever enough to be original.

This movie's a very entertaining little Pre-Code picture.I'll ***SPOILER ALERT *** this, even though the previous poster didn't:The father was Bob. She just didn't want to lose custody of the baby to that lowlife (if upper-crust) creep, so she lied about it. After all, Bob had been trying to blackmail her prior to discovering the kid, so that makes her justified in doing whatever she must do to keep the child out of his clutches.And Blondell's terrific in this picture, as she was in just about every other movie she ever made. She had a down-to-earth, likable quality that always served her characters.