It's more glossy mother love drama in this pre-code soap opera that shows Irene Dunne in some glamorous outfits but on occasion overacting in old age makeup. She's a glamorous show girl who falls in love with Nils Asther, marries him, and is forced to deal with his overly possessive father (Lionel Atwill). After at-will forces his son to end things with Dunne, takes the coward's way out and Atwill gets custody of their newly born son. By coincidence (just like happens in so many of these movies), mother and son are unknowingly reunited years later, and when the son (Douglas Walton) accidentally kills the father of the girl he nearly got in trouble with, Dunne takes steps to protect him.
Too many cliches makes this preposterous melodrama intriguing but outlandish and often silly. Dunne, for the most part, is extremely sincere, but truly goes into a dimension of realizing who Walton is. Atwill gives a Sly and strong performance, but the younger actors (Asther and Walton) play such weak characters that it becomes a chore to watch them. I wish there was more of Una Merkel as Dunne's drunken pal who gets some very funny lines in the opening scene but quickly disappears.
it is obvious when Dunne goes into the hospital to have her baby, that nothing was done to make her look pregnant. The MGM gloss is of course very prevalent, and there are some nice music hall production numbers as well. But it is obviously a very dated and overdone story, with at least half a dozen similar films that I can think of made during the last years before the Hays code came in. So you can add Irene Dunne to the list of other long-suffering mothers who became Madame X's, including Ruth Chatterton and Gladys George in the MGM films by that name (and years later Lana Turner of course), Helen Hayes, Ann Harding, Bette Davis, Barbara Stanwyck and Kay Francis, just a few of the actresses I could think of offhand.
Too many cliches makes this preposterous melodrama intriguing but outlandish and often silly. Dunne, for the most part, is extremely sincere, but truly goes into a dimension of realizing who Walton is. Atwill gives a Sly and strong performance, but the younger actors (Asther and Walton) play such weak characters that it becomes a chore to watch them. I wish there was more of Una Merkel as Dunne's drunken pal who gets some very funny lines in the opening scene but quickly disappears.
it is obvious when Dunne goes into the hospital to have her baby, that nothing was done to make her look pregnant. The MGM gloss is of course very prevalent, and there are some nice music hall production numbers as well. But it is obviously a very dated and overdone story, with at least half a dozen similar films that I can think of made during the last years before the Hays code came in. So you can add Irene Dunne to the list of other long-suffering mothers who became Madame X's, including Ruth Chatterton and Gladys George in the MGM films by that name (and years later Lana Turner of course), Helen Hayes, Ann Harding, Bette Davis, Barbara Stanwyck and Kay Francis, just a few of the actresses I could think of offhand.