No Other Woman (1933) User Reviews

Adequate Little B Programmer

[AlsExGal · 6/10 · 23 January 2010]

You have to judge this film in the context of how it was exhibited back in 1933. This hour-long film was not RKO's attempt at a main exhibit - that would have been something along the lines of that year's "Flying Down to Rio". All of the studios made short little films like this as filler for matinees - much like afternoon TV programming.

The film starts out with a young steel town couple Jim and Anna Stanley (Charles Bickford and Irene Dunne) just before they get married. Anne has big dreams of getting away from the mills, Jim is content to go along as things are. After they marry, Anna takes in boarders and saves up Jim's sizable paychecks so they can get "out of this place", although at the time she doesn't have a plan. Her chance comes when quiet and studious boarder Joe Zarcovia (Eric Linden) comes up with a chemical process for making dye from waste from the steel making process. For some reason, Anna seems to believe that her big hunk of steel-making husband is a genius at business and that he can make a fortune from this formula. Given we only have 58 minutes for our story, of course she is right. Thus the chemist and the Stanleys go into business together and soon are fabulously rich. The Stanleys have everything, including a little son. Unfortunately, in the case of Jim, you can take the man out of steel-town but you can't take the steel-town of the man. Soon he's on a spree that involves heavy drinking, another woman that for some reason insists on marriage rather than just the cushy kept-woman lifestyle she has in New York City, and then the business begins to suffer.

This film is so short that quite a few things don't make sense. For one thing, the message of the picture seems to be that the Stanleys are made for each other regardless of what happens, in spite of the fact that these two seem to be two very different people who want very different things out of life. Anna is supposed to be the epitome of a loyal woman, although considering what she's put through by her husband she seems more like a doormat by the end of the film. Then there is Jim's golden business acumen that seems to come out of nowhere - he has done manual labor his whole life and probably didn't even finish high school.

From a historical standpoint, I found one fact to be just plain ironic. In the beginning of the film, Anna is sitting on the porch of her little "company town" house telling Jim how she didn't want to be just another generation in generations of steel town wives. She talks about how if she and Jim got married all they would have to look forward to is a house supplied by the company and Jim employed by the mill doing the same thing until he retired. Although she seems to think this is all very dull, how much so many people living in these now largely abandoned steel towns today would give to have this kind of "dullness" brought back to their lives - a guarantee of a living wage throughout their adult lives with some degree of loyalty by their employer.

This one is worth your time if it comes your way - just don't expect "Gone With the Wind".

Dunne and Bickford? Not your usual romantic duo.

[Bucs1960 · 5/10 · 7 December 2007]

Now here is a pairing that defies the logic of all Hollywood's romantic twosomes!! Bickford, was the typical blue collar, kick your ass kind of actor and usually played to that type. Irene Dunne, an elegant, no-nonsense actress was cast in parts befitting her appearance and persona. So whose idea was it to put her in a steel mill town (Pittsburgh or the surrounding area) running a boarding house and married to the "best steel worker in the mill"? It boggles the mind!!

The story line is equally incredible. A character who seems to come from another world, played by Eric Linden, invents a marvelous dye in his attic laboratory, sells it to somebody and everybody gets as rich as Croesus. Then things begin to go horribly wrong. Bickford gets involved with a woman of indeterminate ethnicity played by Gwili Andre. (Andre is a footnote to Hollywood history. Bizarrely beautiful in profile, and a dog in full face, she never made the grade in Tinsletown and ended up a tragic figure who committed suicide by self-immolation.) The denouement of the film is the bitter court room divorce proceeding that takes an unexpected twist when the self-sacrificing Dunne pulls a fast one on her straying husband. He sees the error of his ways. He has lost his fortune so its back to the steel mill for him where Dunne is waiting with open arms. It's just too good to be true and all this sweetness may cause you to develop an immediate case of diabetes.

Dunne finally broke away from these types of roles with "Theodora Goes Wild" and other screwball comedies,finding the character type that she is remembered for with delight. Thank heavens.

Improving Oneself

[Maleejandra · 7/10 · 27 April 2007]

A group of people lives near the steel mills in a run-down neighborhood. Anna (Irene Dunne) and Jim (Charles Bickford) are in love with each other, but Anna longs for something better from life and Jim is content with the way things are. However, Anna is determined to change things, so she enlists Joe's (Eric Linden) help. Joe is an inventor with an excellent discovery; he makes Jim his manager and the two make a fortune. Unfortunately, Jim is out of town very often, and he gets lonely, so he becomes unfaithful with an exotic blonde (Gwili Andre). Soon Anna wonders if helping Jim was worth it after all.

This film is rather short, and I suspect that some of it is missing, but the story has continuity. It is a rather entertaining pre-code with a bitter courtroom battle at the end of the film. All of the actors are outstanding in their roles.

Interesting Twist

[drednm · 3 September 2005]

Irene Dunne stars as a factory-town woman who wants a better life (like Barbara Stanwyck in Stella Dallas, Katharine Hepburn in Alice Adams and Joan Crawford in Possessed). She's in love with factory worker Charles Bickford. They marry and she runs a boarding house to make extra money. One of the boarders is a shy immigrant (Eric Linden) who has discovered a great new dye. Dunne talks Bickford into throwing in their savings and open a dye works. They become rich. But Bickford travels a lot and falls into the clutches of a bad woman (Gwili Andre) who wants more than money: marriage.

The court room finale is a doozy with J. Carroll Naish playing a sleazy (Italian in this case) lawyer who has cooked up a scheme to get his girl friend (Andre) married to Bickford. So they line up a bunch of false witnesses against Dunne. But Dunne turns the tables when they try to grab custody of the baby as well. Excellent plot twist.

Dunne is one of the greats, and she's terrific here too. She's even believable as a factory-town girl. Bickford is an acquired taste and I never liked him as a "leading man." Linden is good is his usual "soft" role. And Naish is always fun to hate. Leila Bennett, Hilda Vaughn, and Christian Rub co-star.

No Other Woman is famous as the film that derailed Danish Gwili Andre's career because her character is so nasty. She battled for another decade to regain a foothold in films but only landed small parts. She committed suicide in 1959 by surrounding herself with publicity photos and press clippings and setting them and herself on fire.

From Steel Mill To Swank To Courtroom To ....

[Handlinghandel · 6/10 · 25 August 2005]

Irene Dunne was rarely paired with actors like Charles Bickford. Here he is a handsome, sweaty blue collar man who thinks -- but rarely with anything above his neck. Irene is kind of in love with him but also is loyal to the effete character played by Eric Linden.

Dunne and Bickford are an appealing couple but if ever a couple entered a marriage doomed to failure, it is the two they play.

He shows how dumb he is by throwing over the stylish, intelligent Dunne for Gwyli Andre -- a nobody in the story and in the history of film.

This is a standard women's picture in some ways. In others, it is a powerful drama. It doesn't seem dated and most assuredly warrants watching.

Never without my son.

[ulicknormanowen · 6/10 · 7 December 2020]

Irene Dunne was the unquestionable queen of the thirties melodrama ;even when the story is mawkish to a fault, so over the top ,she saves the situation .

A model of a housewife, who helps her husband she cherishes and a young chemist to achieve their American dream,that is to say a dyer workers affair ;very soon (too soon maybe , but the movies were short at the time,being often part of a double-feature),they find themselves thrust to the high society and to a world of luxury.

Miss Dunne,in spite of her fortune,has remained a virtuous lady and she would give it all so as not to be denied the custody of her only child ; the trial would make the movie become thoroughly ridiculous, if it weren't for the actress ' performance, who in her final plea when she's prepared to take all the blame, will win you over; have your box of kleenex besides you.

Exhausting

[mls4182 · 2/10 · 29 December 2021]

A lot of soap opera and melodrama crammed into one hour. It still seems too long. The rise to riches is too fast to be plausible. The divorce trial is so brutal you HOPE it isn't possible.

Bickford's character's 180 makes the whole effort seem a waste.

Sticky and outdated

[planktonrules · 3/10 · 6 December 2007]

Irene Dunne marries Charles Bickford soon after the movie begins. She longs to leave the steel town where they live but he's content to stay in his job as a laborer. However, through her determination and frugality, she is able to eventually convince him to take a gamble and strike out on his own. Fortunately, perhaps, they strike it rich and their life seems perfect. Perfect, that is, until Bickford starts running around with a money-hungry tramp who urges him to dump his long-suffering wife--leading to a super-melodramatic conclusion in the courtroom.

I love old movies, so it takes a lot to turn me off of any film from Hollywood's Golden Age...but this terrible film managed to do it. Despite having the excellent Irene Dunne in the lead, this film just isn't worth your time--mostly because the last 20 minutes of the film manage to undo any good feelings I had for the rest of the movie! Here's the problem. Irene Dunne is the perfect wife in this film...too perfect--Mary Poppins perfect. Even when Bickford proves that he's a wretched jerk and cheats on her, Dunne is like some sort of saint and she refuses to divorce him. Then, when Bickford and his sleazy lawyer drum up fake charges that SHE is committing adultery, Dunne is just too sweet to really fight back. In a courtroom scene that is just too melodramatic to be true, her ultimate niceness convinces the evil Bickford to admit it is all a frame-up and he is taken away to prison.

The worst part about this terribly over-the-top scene is not the silly way Bickford, now stricken with guilt, jumps up and admits the truth (though this is a ridiculous scene), but the way that lawyer J. Carrol Naish is allowed to attack Dunne on the witness stand! Even courts in the old Soviet Union might flinch at such a brow-beating--and yet her lawyer never objects and the judge seems content to preside over a sham of a hearing! This is just the sort of film they should show young law students in order to elicit a few laughs at all the histrionics.

Believe me that there are thousands of better films out there from the 1930s waiting to be discovered. Try almost ANY film of the era and you're bound to be better off than with this silly dud. And, additionally, almost any other Dunne film is better than this creaky old pile of...melodrama.

Just Awful - The Most Sexist Film of the 1930's

[HarlowMGM · 1/10 · 13 June 2009]

NO OTHER WOMAN started out as an interesting drama of a young woman and man in a steel town in love but with different ideas and different levels of intellect but startlingly turned midpoint into the most sexist film of the 1930's, with a jaw-dropping climax matched only by an equally outrageous finale.

Irene Dunne is a lovely sensitive young woman in a steel town in love with the somewhat likable but coarse Charles Bickford. Irene dreams of escaping this dead end life but Bickford has no dreams other than being a big shot at the plant. Irene finds a soul mate in the somewhat younger Eric Linden, who studies and experiments with formulas on the side which Bickford ridicules. Dunne and Bickford marry but Irene hasn't quite given up on her dreams, taking in boarders and penny-pinching for the day they can move away. When Linden tells her of his discovery of a permanent dye she is thrilled that this may be their chance and wants to invest in it. Unfortunately, Bickford has had an apparent bad day at the plant and comes home in an angry mood and they have a big fight (apparently their first) and Bickford storms out to get good and drunk.

Repentful the next day, he listens again to Irene's idea and becomes enthusiastic when he sees Eric's formula first hand and they start a business that brings them all fortune within a few years. Eventually the couple have a son but Bickford's business ventures keeps him away from home more often than not. While in New York, he falls into the lure of predatory Gwili Andre and they have a long-running affair which climaxes in Andre eventually demanding they end it or he leave Irene to marry her. After initial resistance, Bickford agrees but Irene, even after being publicly ridiculed (everyone knows about the affair it seems) refuses to grant him a divorce because she "loves" him to much to let him go.

Things really start to get nasty when Bickford then sues her for divorce, alleging adultery on HER part and dragging her through the mud with paid-off "witnesses" who claim knowledge about Irene's "affair". Masochistic Irene however refuses to bring out HER knowledge about his affair into the proceedings since she is fighting the divorce. Bickford's lawyer paints her as a grasping, money-loving woman and even her earlier savings are used against her as "proof" of her love of money (quite oblivious to the fact that this money was the means to build Bickford's fortune.) When Bickford's lawyer announces Bickford is seeking full custody of their son and startled Irene erratically "admits" to the affair and then in hysteria proclaims their son is not Bickford's, no doubt in a desperate attempt to keep the child. Bickford finally is broken by his own selfishness and announces to the judge his story has all been a lie. Bickford is sentenced to a year in jail and their business collapses into bankruptcy over the scandal. Once released, Bickford goes back to work as a steel miller and is startled to find an all-forgiving Irene waiting to take him back as are his old friends, including Linden whom he has obviously also driven into bankruptcy.

This is the ugliest "love story" I have ever seen in a film! Based on a 1916 play, this jaw-dropping tale of a woman who loves no matter what is just pathetic and it's horrible to see the lovely Irene Dunne in such a degrading role. This movie is ridiculous beyond belief. How is Irene able to save over $6,000 in a few years from her lower-working class husband's salary in the 1920's even with taking in boarders? How is the crude, unambitious, and unschooled Bickford able to have the brains to get a major corporation off the ground? Bickford gets only a year for such blatant premeditated perjury? And frankly given his selfish core, I couldn't help but think his ultimate confession was not caused by shame over what he had done to his wife but the possibility that his son would not be recognized as his own.

The only good things I can think of saying about this film is the atmosphere in the early scenes is excellent, fully capturing the hot, steamy ambiance in a steel town, and Irene looks a vision in the glamorous fashions during the "rich" years. Seeing this beautiful, intelligent woman degraded with this story was too much for me but frankly I was just as disgusted with her character's all-forgiving attitude. Bickford gives a tired, rather over the top performance and it's no surprise he wasn't used very often as a leading man. Watching this unpleasant travesty would make even the most devoted film archivist wish this one were among the lost films.

Ugly Courtroom scene...

[elpep49 · 8/10 · 17 January 2002]

is a highlight of this short-but-snappy soaper. Irene Dunne (great as usual) plays an ambitious woman who pushed husband (Charles Bickford) to partner with friend (Eric Linden) to create successful business. But Bickford has a yen for babes and links up with a conniving one (Gwili Andre) who pressures him to get a divorce. Film culminates in nasty divorce led by hateful lawyer (J. Carroll Naish). Somehow this all works even tho is pretty far-fetched. Chalk up another success for Irene Dunne.

What's coming from below decks

[bkoganbing · 5/10 · 20 December 2018]

No Other Woman is sure one misnomer of a title. This rather dated soap opera has Charles Bickford caught between two of them.

First there's Irene Dunne, his wife who saw him through the lean years as he starts a new steel business with young chemist Eric Linden and bore his son Buster Miles. But Bickford never quite changed his partying ways and now that he's rich he carouses on a grander scale.

Enter Gwili Andre a slinky society minx who gets his mojo going and when Bickford's libido is aroused he's obeying what's coming from below decks.

Given the liberalization of divorce laws now, this film is quaintly old fashioned and a lot of younger viewers might not understand what's going on. But back in the day you had to prove allegations made in court and a lot of dirty linen got exposed. Then as now a lot of shaky allegations were made.

Irene Dunne is the noble wife who is ready to defend home and hearth from the intruder in court or anywhere else. A most typical role for her. The climax is the divorce case brought on by Bickford and his lawyer J. Carrol Naish. Naish really steals the film in the end as the kind of shyster that lawyer jokes are made out.

No Other Woman is dated and quaint, but still good entertainment.

Could'a Been a Great One, But......

[tmpj · 17 June 2002]

I saw(?) this flick once before on the tube, but the reception on the station was so bad, I had to wait for it to come on again. It was a good wait, but it came around again. Irene Dunne and Charles Bickford were probably the only ones around who could'a pulled this one off. Bickford works at the mill, marries Dunne, works hard for the money, but somehow is just not satisfied with life. He's a lucky stiff though, as Irene Dunne-- as was wont of wives in those days--stuck with him through the thick and the thin of it. What is more incredulous is the rags to riches to rags aspect of this film. Bickford finances a new type of dye developed by the young upstart living in the family boarding house, and becomes a millionaire in the process. Yeah...right !! Still more incredulous--if not audacious--is the court scene where a very nasty divorce takes place, replete with witnesses who have been 'greased' to render perjured testimony...the whole nine yards. Bickford flies too close to the Sun with wings made of wax and...you can fairly well imagine the rest. It could'a worked, if the story had been a bit more developed, and if the film had been somewhat longer. This was essentially a character study which failed to study its characters with any depth.

No matter how you slice it, it's definitely the saga of a wife abuser.

[mark.waltz · 2/10 · 4 August 2015]

Charles Bickford was certainly a great character actor, but in the early 1930's, his brawny, macho personality made him appear to be brutish, brooding and ill-tempered. He's a rather unlikable fellow, so it seems difficult to swallow the fact that the sweet, long-suffering Irene Dunne would fall for him and agree to marry him. Unhappy in his work at a steel factory, he gets viciously drunk one night after verbally abusing his wife and shows up in the middle of the night with some floozy before passing out. The next morning, of course, he's all contrite, and agrees to go into partnership with Dunne's brother (Eric Linden), making a fortune. But being well off doesn't change his demeanor, and soon he finds himself in the arms of the seductive Gwili Andre who has motivations of her own that aren't so honorable. In the meantime, Dunne continues to make a nice home for Bickford and their young son without any appreciation from her brute of a husband.

Probably one of the first films to insinuate spousal abuse, this is a very difficult film to watch because as noble as Dunne's character is, she isn't stupid. This is also one of the first films I saw (many years ago) and recalled hating. Giving it a second chance I found it perhaps not to be truly awful, but really without any entertainment value. Certainly, the drama is there, giving it a strong plot, but I really see no sense in Dunne's character pleading with Bickford to think things over before making a rash decision, as if he was thinking of just changing a job. She really shows no emotion in her confrontation, but it isn't Dunne's fault since the script makes her character out to be more noble than any woman could ever hope to be. It really becomes downright absurd when Bickford's divorce attorney makes it appear that Dunne was guilty of infidelity, not him! Leila Bennett gives an obnoxious performance as Dunne's shrill housekeeper who always gives her two cents without being asked for it. You may find yourself with a headache once this film ends, if you make it that far.

This David O. Selznick movie runs less than an hour, and yet it's still too long

[jacobs-greenwood · 4/10 · 4 December 2016]

Produced by David O. Selznick, and directed by J. Walter Ruben, this "run of the mill" drama boasts a couple of big name stars, Irene Dunne and Charles Bickford. Marred by poor, stilted acting (particularly by Bickford), what may have been a better film is simply too pat with an overly melodramatic ending.

Realizing the film itself is more than 70 years old, it's hard to fault the plot by itself, one which has been done so many times in various forms since; it's rather simplistic and common. The film, which runs less than an hour, also features one of the Gwili Andre's few performances, as the titled woman.

Jim Stanley (Bickford) is a big burly steel worker who takes home more than everyone else. His girlfriend Anna (Dunne) dreams of better things, ways to escape the steel company town which claimed her father, with another, slight, thinking young man Joe Zarcovia (Eric Linden). Though Anna vows she'll never marry a steel worker, Jim's animal magnetism overwhelms her, and the next thing you know they're being married. Jim's best friend Eli Bogavitch (Christian Rub) brags that no man can give more money (a traditional dowry celebration?) to the bride as he pins some bills to her dress to have the second (after the groom) dance. Each attendant man in succession does the same until her dress is "littered" with bills.

But Anna sticks to a plan, saves excess money, scrimps, saves, and even takes in boarders until, after two years, the Stanley's have over $6,000 in the bank. Then one day, Joe (who evidently also lives with them) discovers a formula for dye that Anna sees as an investment opportunity that may free them from the steel town forever. Jim comes home, sick of his wife's miserly ways and all the foreigners staying under their roof, and scoffs at Anna's idea. He proceeds to take his paycheck and blows it drinking and cavorting all night with another woman. When he returns home past 2 AM, Anna is heartbroken. But she's ready to forgive him the next day, and an apologetic Jim is excited to hear about Joe's invention. Jim turns out to be a whiz of a businessman such that, within 5 years, he's parlayed the dye business into a multi-million dollar operation large enough to acquire his biggest competitor for $4 million.

Of course, now that he's made something of himself, with a wife and child back home in Pittsburgh, Jim falls for a blonde, Margot Van Dearing (Andre), such that he hardly returns home from New York anymore. Misunderstood by her lawyer friend Bonelli (J. Carrol Naish), Margot has designs on Jim and manipulates him into asking Anna for a divorce so that he can marry her. When Anna refuses - she still loves him, is willing to forgive him, thinks he'll eventually come to his senses and return to her - he sues her in court. Bonelli comes forth with a bunch of witnesses including the Stanley's domestic staff to testify that Anna was unfaithful.

Despite the defense's character witnesses, including Anna, who refute the testimony of those who accuse her, Anna loses the case and sole custody of her son is awarded to Jim. Anna goes ballistic and begins a tirade speech, while Jim hides his head in his hands, that she is guilty of all the charges but that they can't take her son because it isn't Jim's! At this point, Jim's had enough, he admits to paying the others to lie about Anna's affair and is sentenced to 1-5 years in prison. After a year, he returns to the steel town where Joe and Eli seeing him. He's too ashamed to return to Anna, and is ready to move on when Anna catches him in his boarding house room, declares AGAIN her undying love for him. When their young son Bobbie comes rushing into the room, the deal is sealed ... and they live happily ever after.

MeloDramatic

[DKosty123 · 4/10 · 28 January 2013]

Believe it or not, this movie is a remake of the 1925 silent film of the same name. The silent is rarely seen and longer than this one by 15 minutes.

Compared to the silent, this sound version has much more star power as Irene Dunne is excellent in the movie. Charles Bickford is OK but not as good as Dunne.

The plot for the silent as well as this one is a steelworker striking it rich and heading for success only that he has a character flaw, a roving eye which makes him want a divorce from his lovely wife.

Of course after the abbreviated courtroom scene in this one, the only person who really gets any sympathy is Bickford as he sentences himself to jail. The less than 1 hour length of this makes it suffer in the character development department.

RKO put this one together in too hasty a fashion to be the under card of a double feature with a better film. Not really a film worth going out of the way for but TCM is now running it so you can judge it from the living room.

Only Dunne Saves This Potboiler!

[lbbrooks · 8/10 · 31 January 2017]

In yet just one more of the several "weepies" she churned out under contract during the early phase of her film career, Irene Dunne still manages to shine as Charles Bickford's unappreciated, abandoned and ultimately besmirched spouse. Her "Anna" is the woman that can be found behind every man who has made it big: rock solid, determined, loyal and faithful. She has ambition for the both of them but Bickford casts her aside for the floozy Gwili Andre once he makes it to the top. With everything seemingly going against her, Dunne manages to turn the tables on Bickford during the film's climactic divorce/custody battle court scene. When she lies about Bickford being the father of their son, the audience is stunned but she is simply waking up and learning to play hardball. It's a stretch that she welcomes him back into the bosom of his family once he returns from prison but then again Dunne always played characters whose virtues perhaps outshone conventional wisdom. Thank goodness she was finally able to break free of these typecast roles once she got out from under a long term contract and became a freelancer. "Theodora Goes Wild" (1936) was her watershed film and the one that established her as one of the founding mothers and leading geniuses of screwball comedy.

Love Makes Some People Weak

[view_and_review · 2/10 · 15 November 2023]

Love can make you strong and it can make you pitifully weak. We've seen many movies in which love has given the protagonist immeasurable strength--both strength of will and physical strength. In "No Other Woman" love made Anna Stanley (Irene Dunne) so utterly weak.

Anna was the daughter of a steelworker and married a steelworker contrary to the fact she claimed she wouldn't. She loved Jim Stanley (Charles Bickford) too much. Still, Anna wanted to get out of the steel town where everyone lived in the same type of company houses and never did anything. She married a steelworker, but she had plans to get them out.

She was presented an opportunity to get out of her steel mill life when her friend Joe Zarcovia (Eric Linden) discovered a dye formula. Her husband Jim sank all of their money into Joe's invention and it paid off. In no time the Stanleys were millionaires and Jim was acquiring other businesses. He was spending a lot of time in New York and it turned out that a woman is what kept him there. Just like your typical 1930's rich guy, Jim had a mistress (Gwili Andre).

Anna found out about the mistress. She also found out that Jim wanted to divorce her in order to marry the mistress. She denied him a divorce. She didn't deny him the divorce to make him suffer or to keep her cushy lifestyle, she denied him the divorce because she loved him and once he was finished with his mistress, Margot, she'd be there for him.

Some may see this as strength. I do not. This is a case where love has crippled the poor woman and made her into a willing victim. And not only did she deny him the divorce, she let herself be dragged through the mud in court trying to fight the divorce. It was humiliating. Jim paid witnesses to hurl all kinds of foul and unsubstantiated claims against her while she sat there listening to the mendacious attacks.

If I didn't think she was weak already, the divorce court scene certainly made up my mind. If I were her, the moment I heard the first lying witness I would've tapped out. "The divorce is yours, let's stop this circus. If you want to divorce me so badly that you'd assail my character and accuse me of infidelity, then I don't want to be married to you anyway." But the ever faithful and hopelessly in love Anna bore it all because, perhaps, sometime later "Jim will regret it."

AND!?

So what if he regrets it, the damage is done. Someone may regret committing murder but that doesn't bring the victim back to life. He may regret everything he's done to Anna, but that doesn't erase his cheating or erase his character assassination, but to the Mary Sue and saintly Anna it does. Ugh.

Free on Odnoklassniki.

Good

[Michael_Elliott · 28 February 2008]

No Other Woman (1933)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

A poor married couple (Irene Dunne, Charles Bickford) get rich after making a steel dye but then their marriage starts to fall apart due to him finding a mistress in New York. There's nothing overly special about this film but it runs a fast 58-minutes, which is almost a tad bit too much time. The story is very predictable right down to the showdown in court towards the end. The real reason to watch this is due to the performances of Dunne and Bickford. The two have a lot of chemistry together and make for a great couple. Bickford steals the show as the iron hard man who doesn't know what to do when he gets all that money. J. Carrol Naish has a small role. Previously filmed in 1918 and 1925.

Stupid male writing

[Jithindurden · 4/10 · 26 February 2022]

There are a few things spread out in the film that is good but overall it is a mess that doesn't know how to use the medium of cinema even if we ignore the problematic aspects. The film would have been much better at least technically speaking, if only they'd take some more time to establish things at each juncture. Even though I haven't seen them, since there was already two silent film adaptations of this broadway hit, they could have focused on the narrative a bit more and no wonder it got negative reviews when it was originally released.

Disregarding the technical aspect, thinking that this story was a broadway hit (assuming it was mostly a faithful adaptation) shows the normalisation and glorification of abuse of that time, which is not a surprising thing considering the time. But even for that time, the relationships in the film is never convincing. Why would anyone be with the main character Jim and go on to do the exact opposite of the things they believe in. It felt like the portrayal of woman who would act strong but be submissive as expected of them and overall just confirms the male dominance which just isn't the kind of stuff to bring back to streaming.

A lot of RKO and WB films of that era that uses such tropes are coming to streaming now although these remnants of time must be more of an academic interest and not really fit into the entertainment section in this era.