Don't listen to the negative reviews

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

I wasn't as crazy about this movie as others on this board. Gary Cooper stars as Biff, a dentist in small town America during the depression. His mortal enemy, Hugo, back in town with the wife Biff wanted. The funniest part of the film for me was right in the beginning. Biff receives a call from the hotel, asking him to see Hugo. He agrees. Hugo enters, sees Biff, and becomes nervous. Biff puts him in the chair. "I want gas," Hugo says. Biff replies. "You'll get gas." I can only say that it was the most underplayed but somehow threatening line -- it made me laugh out loud.While Hugo is under, Biff recounts to his friend the story of his friendship with Hugo, and its downfall. Basically they both were interested in the same girl, Virginia (Fay Wray), and Hugo married her. The woman he met at the same time, Amy (Frances Fuller) is crazy about Biff, and though he still has Virginia on his mind, Biff marries her. Later on, because of Hugo, Biff has to go to jail for two years. Biff and Virginia finally leave town, and Hugo makes it big. Now they're back for a visit.The story is based on a popular play on Broadway at the time, and frankly, the characters aren't very pleasant, including the Cooper character. They undoubtedly seem more unpleasant today than they did back then. Biff thinks women should be told after they get married to mind their business. However, it has a nice moral and one always worth remembering: Be grateful for what you have, and don't envy others. You only think you know what's going on in their lives based on what they present to the world.Hugo is played by Neil Hamilton, who became the Commissioner on TV's Batman. Fay Wray, as we know, had a date with a gorilla atop the Empire State Building.

This movie when i first saw it i thought it was pretty funny but i thought that The Strawberry Blonde with James Cagney was better than this 1933 version. The movie stars Gary Cooper as Biff Grimes a man who ends up falling in love with a blonde girl named Virginia Rush (played by Fay Wray.). But also for the Grimes character i thought that between the two Biff Grimes movies i thought that Gary Cooper had a more suitable portrayal than James Cagney did but i thought that Cagney did an excellent job playing Biff Grimes as well. Also even though i enjoyed this movie it was not as funny as Raoul Walsh's 1941 version which had a lot more laughs than this 1933 version. But still it stayed true to Biff Grimes character but it didn't tell the story to his love affair with Virginia Rush all that correctly.

I am a huge fan of Fay Wray. For those of you who think of her only in terms of her performance in "King Kong" (and if you are reading this, you probably don't), you are truly missing out. Try to catch anything she's in! She's great in "One Sunday Afternoon"; gorgeous as usual.The real star of this movie, however, is Frances Fuller. She is an absolute delight. A beautiful, tremendously talented actress who shines throughout. She plays a very tough role - the kind of sappy woman that may drive today's moviegoers crazy. But she pulls it off with charm, grace and pride. This is a must see.Didn't know anything about Frances before watching this movie. Not surprised one bit to see that she had a successful Broadway career as well as a successful life off stage.

I was pleasantly surprised that this film was aired on Turner Classic Movies. In The Films of Gary Cooper when Warner Brothers purchased the rights from Paramount for James Cagney's remake of One Sunday Afternoon entitled The Strawberry Blonde, it says that the Paramount film itself was purchased and buried. The author said that the original might not see the light of day again. It was interesting to see this version and compare it with Cagney's.This is a much darker version and probably a lot closer to what you saw on Broadway. One Sunday Afternoon closed that year of 1933 after running for 332 performances, very nice indeed for the Depression era audience and pocketbook. Lloyd Nolan originated the role on stage and I'm sure it must have been closer to Cagney's interpretation.I can see Lloyd Nolan playing this part a lot easier than Gary Cooper. For one thing, Cooper just was not an urban type. In fact two of his most successful roles in Frank Capra's Mr. Deeds Goes to Town and Meet John Doe he was the country boy out of his environment in the big city. But Lloyd Nolan was not a movie name, in fact he'd make his screen debut shortly. The story structure is still the same, Gary Cooper while about to pull a tooth of his rival Neil Hamilton thinks back to the old days with Hamilton when they were both courting Fay Wray. Fay had a girl friend played by Frances Fuller who was all aglow over Cooper, but he couldn't see her at all. When Hamilton and Wray elope Cooper literally settles for second best and marries Fuller.The Strawberry Blonde was done with so much lighter a touch. Here the Hamilton character is far more directly responsible for Cooper landing in prison. He's a much nastier guy, much nastier than lovable blowhard Jack Carson was. In fact Hamilton commits outright perjury to land Cooper in jail where he finishes his correspondence course to become a dentist.In fact Jack Carson played the same part again in yet another version that reverted back to the same title and starred Dennis Morgan in the Cooper/Cagney lead. That one was done as a musical and didn't get nearly the acclaim that the other two did.There's not much to choose from with Frances Fuller and Olivia deHavilland. Both are the good girls of the plot and those were the kind of parts deHavilland was looking to ditch. But whereas Rita Hayworth turns out to be a shrew, Fay Wray is a tramp. Remember this was before the Code.In this case the remake was better. The story required a much lighter touch than Paramount gave it. Still a miscast Gary Cooper gives it his best shot and One Sunday Afternoon is still entertaining.But if you view this side by side with The Strawberry Blonde, I'm betting you'll what Warner Brothers did so much better.