Can a leopard change its spots? For love, yes, this odd little pre-code romance seems to tell us.
Just-sprung-from-prison prostitute Lorry (Constance Bennett) treats male-female interactions as strictly hunt-or-be-hunted. She runs away from consequences, so when she's chased around a steamboat for stealing $60, she jumps overboard, only to be pulled from the Mississippi by a guy the she doesn't immediately recognize as the man of her dreams -- rough-around-the-edges, principled barge Capt. Don.
Played attractively by Joel McRae, Don admires Lorry's spunk and gives her dry overalls. He also serves up a catfish dinner, offers a game of checkers, waxes poetic about the stars, and offers Lorry his bunk -- without trying to hop in. Lorry can't believe a guy like this exists. (O brave new world, that has such people in't!) Still, her transformation isn't immediate. She pickpockets Don before running back to businessman Stephen Paige (John Halliday), her sugar daddy. The theft doesn't bother Don -- he figures Lorry needed the money more than he did. Inspired and amazed, Lorry tries to build a little integrity by taking an honest job in a department store until Don tracks her down and proposes marriage. Will love conquer all? This movie would have us believe so. Like Cinderella's prince, Don asks no questions.
This movie has mistily atmospheric river scenes and a wonderful score based on deckhands singing spirituals. There's a little overacting, on the part of Ms. Bennett at times, and especially by Pert Kelton doing a Mae West imitation as Lorry's friend. Halliday's character is off-puttingly cartoonish. First he's bamboozled by Lorry. Then he tries to hold on by calling her damaged goods -- "A man imagines the woman he marries as something set apart -- clean." Yeech!
For a far better film on the subject of a prostitute going straight, I'd recommend "The Naked Kiss" (1964).
Just-sprung-from-prison prostitute Lorry (Constance Bennett) treats male-female interactions as strictly hunt-or-be-hunted. She runs away from consequences, so when she's chased around a steamboat for stealing $60, she jumps overboard, only to be pulled from the Mississippi by a guy the she doesn't immediately recognize as the man of her dreams -- rough-around-the-edges, principled barge Capt. Don.
Played attractively by Joel McRae, Don admires Lorry's spunk and gives her dry overalls. He also serves up a catfish dinner, offers a game of checkers, waxes poetic about the stars, and offers Lorry his bunk -- without trying to hop in. Lorry can't believe a guy like this exists. (O brave new world, that has such people in't!) Still, her transformation isn't immediate. She pickpockets Don before running back to businessman Stephen Paige (John Halliday), her sugar daddy. The theft doesn't bother Don -- he figures Lorry needed the money more than he did. Inspired and amazed, Lorry tries to build a little integrity by taking an honest job in a department store until Don tracks her down and proposes marriage. Will love conquer all? This movie would have us believe so. Like Cinderella's prince, Don asks no questions.
This movie has mistily atmospheric river scenes and a wonderful score based on deckhands singing spirituals. There's a little overacting, on the part of Ms. Bennett at times, and especially by Pert Kelton doing a Mae West imitation as Lorry's friend. Halliday's character is off-puttingly cartoonish. First he's bamboozled by Lorry. Then he tries to hold on by calling her damaged goods -- "A man imagines the woman he marries as something set apart -- clean." Yeech!
For a far better film on the subject of a prostitute going straight, I'd recommend "The Naked Kiss" (1964).