Jacqueline (Ruth Chatterton) is kicked out of her home after her husband Louis Floriot (Lewis Stone) discovers her affair. She is unable to even to see their young son Raymond. Years later, she becomes the drunken mistress of gambler Laroque. He plies her with alcohol to get the truth of her identity. With Louis now the Attorney General, Laroque decides to blackmail him and she shoots Laroque in the back killing him. Through a stroke of cosmic coincidence, her son is assigned to be her lawyer for her trial.
The sound quality is problematic for this early talkie. The poster advertises ALL TALKING but there comes with plenty of static. Many of the Lionel Barrymore directions are stagey which is expected for the great stage actor. Another expectation is that the acting is superbly confident. It doesn't get better than Chatterton. She runs the gamut from crying to drunk to drunk crying to despair. It's a master class of classical acting. The surprise is that it doesn't devolve into the silent-era-overacting which is still prevalent in that era. She is always in control while going far in range. Barrymore is unable to add much to the directing language which is its main limitation. He is basically doing a stage play although one reviewer seems to suggest him creating one of the first boom mike. I don't know about that. Filmmakers started doing that a year earlier. Barrymore is functional and he has the good sense to have good actors. Both Chatterton and Barrymore's directing were considered unofficially for Oscars.
The sound quality is problematic for this early talkie. The poster advertises ALL TALKING but there comes with plenty of static. Many of the Lionel Barrymore directions are stagey which is expected for the great stage actor. Another expectation is that the acting is superbly confident. It doesn't get better than Chatterton. She runs the gamut from crying to drunk to drunk crying to despair. It's a master class of classical acting. The surprise is that it doesn't devolve into the silent-era-overacting which is still prevalent in that era. She is always in control while going far in range. Barrymore is unable to add much to the directing language which is its main limitation. He is basically doing a stage play although one reviewer seems to suggest him creating one of the first boom mike. I don't know about that. Filmmakers started doing that a year earlier. Barrymore is functional and he has the good sense to have good actors. Both Chatterton and Barrymore's directing were considered unofficially for Oscars.