'Virtue', scripted by Robert Riskin and starring Carole Lombard - better known as a comedienne in later films - Pat O'Brien, the ubiquitous Ward Bond, Mayo Methot (the third wife of Bogart), and mean Jack La Rue, is an intelligent and snappy pre-Code drama about a fallen woman who strives to make good with the taxi driver she loves (O'Brien, who 'knows everything about dames') despite the odds and coincidences being against her.
Some good moments - Lombard and O'Brien spiky Mr and Mrs Doyle exchanges over morning pancakes, Methot the tart with a heart finally shopping the man she loves to the DA, Lombard looking luminous in one fashionably blurry close-up, O'Brien in a sou'wester hoping his wife won't recognise him driving someone else's taxi. With hard-boiled lines and an opening scene-setter (now sound only) in a courtroom, where fallen ladies were run out of town, 'Virtue' is a superior drama which keeps you on your toes and makes its cast perform to the hilt.
Some good moments - Lombard and O'Brien spiky Mr and Mrs Doyle exchanges over morning pancakes, Methot the tart with a heart finally shopping the man she loves to the DA, Lombard looking luminous in one fashionably blurry close-up, O'Brien in a sou'wester hoping his wife won't recognise him driving someone else's taxi. With hard-boiled lines and an opening scene-setter (now sound only) in a courtroom, where fallen ladies were run out of town, 'Virtue' is a superior drama which keeps you on your toes and makes its cast perform to the hilt.