This boxoffice hit from 1934 is a joy to behold for its lack of dripping syrup or treacle as is often the case with these female melodramas, even the best of them. Joan Crawford plays a role she basically had a patent on in the late twenties through the thirties. * Note, Joan Crawford when photographed rightly, looks like the most beautiful woman in the world. The role is that of a servant girl who is in love with one of her fellow workers. He gets fired by the family for something they know he did not do, but to make an example of him, still let him go. This obviously gets Joan riled up and she quits to the chagrain of the master's son, Franchot Tone who loves her. They move together, take the hard knocks together and I'll never forget a scene where a guy puts a cigarette into a hardly eaten cream cake: the look on Sadie/Joan's face is priceless. Will Joan keep her man? Will she survive and escape the claws of poverty? We all know what will happen and Joan to her credit gives one of her best and enduring performances. Check it out whenever it is on Turner Classic Movies.
Review of Sadie McKee
