Oh dear, this is disappointing. Glenda Farrell's boundless energy and enthusiasm is just about enough to make this unrealistic drivel watchable but you'll wonder why you bothered.
What's missing besides the girl is a plot that makes at least some sense. The writers' room must have been supplied with some pretty nasty bathtub gin for them to come up with this disjointed uneven nonsense. In theory a story like this should be fun and exciting but its direction is lacklustre and besides Glenda Farrell, the actors look like they'd rather be somewhere else.
Where's Joan Blondell? You might ask. She'd have livened this up and with an awake director it could have been a great film but we're stuck with silent film actress Mary Brian. She just isn't credible as a gold digger. Bland, humourless and dull yes - leading lady material, no.
That usually sweet and cuddly old Guy Kibbee is surprisingly pretty unpleasant in this. He's the sugar daddy looking after and forcing himself on the girls. "I want more than kisses." he tells Mary Brian. "Be in my bedroom in one hour or less" he instructs her. Viewed with 21st century eyes this seems disgraceful behaviour and it makes no sense that a couple of sassy streetwise girls would allow themselves to be treated like this. It is however 1933 - options for women were more than limited. Women were not independent - there were hardly any jobs for women back then - being single was not choice. As the song goes: every woman needs a man. Not only was this different times but it was at the height of the American Depression so those limited opportunities were virtually non existent. The Guy Kibbee character might have made their lives miserable but it was preferable to starving. Stupid stories like this probably didn't seem so stupid back then.
But despite being made when it was, despite it being made by 'the working man's studio' Warner Brothers, none of that context is really explored. Watching this will not enrich your life.
What's missing besides the girl is a plot that makes at least some sense. The writers' room must have been supplied with some pretty nasty bathtub gin for them to come up with this disjointed uneven nonsense. In theory a story like this should be fun and exciting but its direction is lacklustre and besides Glenda Farrell, the actors look like they'd rather be somewhere else.
Where's Joan Blondell? You might ask. She'd have livened this up and with an awake director it could have been a great film but we're stuck with silent film actress Mary Brian. She just isn't credible as a gold digger. Bland, humourless and dull yes - leading lady material, no.
That usually sweet and cuddly old Guy Kibbee is surprisingly pretty unpleasant in this. He's the sugar daddy looking after and forcing himself on the girls. "I want more than kisses." he tells Mary Brian. "Be in my bedroom in one hour or less" he instructs her. Viewed with 21st century eyes this seems disgraceful behaviour and it makes no sense that a couple of sassy streetwise girls would allow themselves to be treated like this. It is however 1933 - options for women were more than limited. Women were not independent - there were hardly any jobs for women back then - being single was not choice. As the song goes: every woman needs a man. Not only was this different times but it was at the height of the American Depression so those limited opportunities were virtually non existent. The Guy Kibbee character might have made their lives miserable but it was preferable to starving. Stupid stories like this probably didn't seem so stupid back then.
But despite being made when it was, despite it being made by 'the working man's studio' Warner Brothers, none of that context is really explored. Watching this will not enrich your life.