Wonderful character development!

Truly Dreadful Film

Captivating movie !

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

Anne Dvorak got into silent films as a child, and was the perfect age to star when talkies began. In addition, the film code wasn't in yet, so they could still accurately reflect ALL types of relationships.. in one of her first credited roles, Dvorak is Molly, who always dreams of marrying her own prince charming. Some real adult themes in this one, and good thing it was before the film code. Trying to avoid any spoilers, but she cozies up to the bad guy when the nice guy bails out on her. Guy Kibbee is "the cop". Co-stars Lee Tracy, who made some great films with Jean Harlow. Frank McHugh is in here, yet again, as a newspaper reporter. It's another Michael Curtiz film, waaaay before Casablanca. It's your typical girl-caught-up-with-gangsta film from the early 1930s. At least she doesn't use the squeaky high baby voice that so many used during that period. It's ok. has its ups and downs. It is refreshing to see real life situations, after so many white-washed films in the 1930s and 1940s. Shows on Turner Classics now and then.

In the opening scene of this movie, the title character is crying because she is pregnant. Her rich boyfriend promises to marry her, but he quickly deserts her by leaving town. The plot summary for this movie identifies this boyfriend as Jimmy, but that is a mistake. We never see the rich boyfriend again.Jimmy, on the other hand, is a clean-cut medical student who is not rich at all, which is why he has to work as a bellhop. Jimmy loves Molly, but she rejects him. She is attracted to a gangster, and goes off with him instead, getting involved in a few of his crimes, and handing her daughter over to an orphanage. When she runs into Jimmy a few years later, he still loves her and wants to marry her and be a father to her daughter. At first she agrees to marry him, but she actually desires Scotty, a hardboiled reporter who promises only that he will show her a good time for a while and then dump her. She likes the idea. In fact, this makes her realize why her own mother abandoned her when she was a child, because when a woman really wants a man, nothing else matters, not even her own child. Jimmy walks in while they are kissing, and she tells him she has decided to run off with Scotty instead.In the last reel, Scotty has a change of heart, promises to help her fight the charges against her for her involvement with the gangster, and then marry her. That a movie should feature a fallen woman who would reject the love of a good man like Jimmy (twice) and knowingly choose men who are scoundrels instead is amazing enough. That she should end up living happily ever after by doing so is a story that could exist only in the pre-Code universe. Or in real life.Trivia: this may be the first movie in which the person shooting a gun and the person being hit with the bullet are in the same frame.

Molly Louvain (Ann Dvorak) is knocked up and abandoned by a rich guy. So she takes up with a dirty crook (Leslie Fenton), then a naive bellhop (Richard Cromwell), and finally a cynical reporter (Lee Tracy). She's the Goldilocks of love. Fun Pre-Coder from WB is a nice showcase for lovely Dvorak, one of classic Hollywood's most under-appreciated talents. She dyes her hair blonde in this. Gotta say she looked better as a brunette. This is also the movie she met her first husband Leslie Fenton. The two married not long after this was released. Lee Tracy doesn't show up until a half hour or so into the picture but things pick up once he does. His scenes with Dvorak are filled with snappy banter and excellent chemistry. The movie really takes off when these two are together.

Whatever it was, it's too bad there doesn't seem to be any of it left. Warner Bros. pre-code was like a renaissance atelier - genius in the air, tons of talent on hand, cranking out, if not masterpieces, some unforgettable confections. Tons of bit part players in this one, it's as though they couldn't let anyone just walk on and act, the scene had to be chewed through. This sometimes seems distracting when you're caught up in the story, which, as with "Three on a Match," uses the threatened child to keep you in suspense. But with Lee Tracy and Ann D., plus all these superb faces and shticks, can anyone really complain? Worthwhile to think about why this Warner Bros. vision of life seems to get tremendous lift from exploiting a certain idea of the US press, never better represented than by Tracy - at least until Grant in "His Girl Friday."