Millie is one of those pre-code drama which starts with a pre-World War I setting and takes us deep into the Depression. Helen Twelvetrees is in the title role, but in fact this one could definitely be called a woman's picture. First for the fact that the best roles are for the women and that the men here are mostly dogs.Millie starts with Helen Twelvetrees as an eager young bride who's run away with the richest, handsomest boy in town. They have a kid, but he starts stepping out on her soon enough. She sacrifices in the way Stella Dallas did and gradually she goes through a variety of men all of whom disappoint her one way or another. Twelvetrees also has some gal pals like Joan Blondell and Lilyan Tashman always with an 'I told you so' for all occasions.But the mother instincts are aroused when one of her men, producer and rake, John Halliday starts moving on her daughter Anita Louise. Then this film starts resembling Madame X.Twelvetrees made a career of playing tragic parts like in Millie kind of mirroring her own life. There are some great lines coming from her, Blondell and Tashman. For them alone this film is worth a view.

This pre-code drama is probably going to be remembered as Helen Twelvetree's signature role. The film takes her from young innocent bride on her wedding night to an aging party girl in court who has been on trial for killing a man who disrespected her daughter. The film is told in "chapters"; The first chapter has Millie as the nervous virgin, and a candle is inserted three times to indicate the passing time. As three years go by, she finds out that she has been a total fool about her philandering husband, and eight years later, is heavily involved in the party scene. More years go by, and now her 17 year old daughter is about to be exploited just as she was. No mother wants their child to go through the same mistakes she went through, and typical in this kind of film, she happens to be carrying a gun.Shady men and brassy women surround Millie wherever she goes. Her two pals are Lilyan Tashman and Joan Blondell, experts in these types of parts, and her innocent daughter is the young Anita Louise. But everybody pales in comparison to Twelvetrees' total emersement in the role, eating the scenery up like a banquet as she goes from one part of her life to another. By the time she's reached her courtroom finale, she's almost become like Helen Hayes' "Madelon Claudet", a ragged shell of what she once used to be.Watching the first act of this film reminded me of a 1920's play, "Machinal", based upon a real life murder case where the woman went to the gas chamber in the final scene. While this doesn't go down that path, you do get the sense that had Millie remained with her faithless husband, he would have been the one who got the bullet, and Millie would end up in prison singing the "Cell Block Tango" of how "He Had It Comin'".

This is in black and white of course, so you cannot tell the hair color. But everyone would have known this actress to be redhead. Its mentioned about a dozen times in the dialog and in the middle is a song written for her that celebrates the fact.Its one of a class of films about lovers separated and becoming party animals, discovering their unhappiness, and then refining their love. They are all a bit clumsy. Most have a trusted observer in the story, usually a trusted friend. The novelty here that there are two trusted friends, both lovers. One returns as a a true friend, the other (the one with a mustache) is a cad.It revolves around the fact that all men are dishonest in love, and like them all, it wraps up quickly with some sort of redemption. There isn't anything cinematic or otherwise remotely imaginative.Its precode and involves loose sex, and one lesbian pair. But in terms of what is considered sex in today's movies (skin, simulated sex) its tame.Ted's Evaluation -- 1 of 3: You can find something better to do with this part of your life.

Poor Millie! She marries for love - not money - and still ends up unlucky in love. There's something intriguingly contemporary about her consistently entering into bad relationships. Also contemporary is her decision to live with her boyfriend instead of marrying him - even though he does offer to marry her.Helen Twelvetrees has the ability to make the heroine's story somewhat compelling despite the film's plodding structure. John Halliday is very appealing as Twelvetrees' suitor until his character turns surprisingly into a cad.So what's the moral of this "woman's picture?" Millie is so hurt by her broken marriage that perhaps she errs in writing off her unfaithful husband so quickly. In him she may have found the only decent male character in the story.