This just may be the perfect pre-code Warren William film. Warren plays a hard-nosed, hard-charging department store executive. He seduces gorgeous but broke & unemployed Loretta Young with a meal and a job. Loretta then falls for Wallace Ford, who is being groomed by Warren to be another hard-nosed executive. One thing leads to another and Loretta and Wallace wed (secretly so Warren doesn't find out). However, there's trouble in paradise and after a tiff at an employee's party, a drunken Loretta once again sleeps with Warren. In the meantime, the bankers are plotting to oust Warren, which causes him to seek the proxy votes of the vacationing fatuous store owner. In the course of his machinations, the caddish Warren has Wallace listen in secretly to a conversation twixt himself and Loretta in which she admits to cuckolding Wallace. Time is getting tight, with the board of directors meeting at 10AM. At the last minute, Warren gets the proxy votes he needs to forestall the bankers. Loretta and Wallace kiss and make up. The End.
I give this film an "A". Excellent acting and direction. The minor players (almost all familiar to pre-code film fans) are great. Warren William is in his element here, playing a cad and brutal businessman. He was never better. Loretta Young is beautiful and turns in a very good performance too, as does Wally Ford. This aired on TCM the other day and, given TCM's film rotation, is likely to show up again in the next few months. Not to be missed!!!
I give this film an "A". Excellent acting and direction. The minor players (almost all familiar to pre-code film fans) are great. Warren William is in his element here, playing a cad and brutal businessman. He was never better. Loretta Young is beautiful and turns in a very good performance too, as does Wally Ford. This aired on TCM the other day and, given TCM's film rotation, is likely to show up again in the next few months. Not to be missed!!!