The storyline of this film is fairly similar to all of Norma Shearer's pre-coders. She is married. She gets divorced. She sleeps her way through pretty much everywhere, and happens to run into her husband. They realize that they still love each other, and get back together. The end.
But this one has Marie Dressler, bringing her more than welcome presence to the screen. She's not as good here as she was in Anna Christie or Dinner At Eight, but she works. Norma Shearer suffers from twitchy syndrome in this one, and seems to be constantly hiding her weak eye- more than she needs to, because the print of the film is so blurry that you wouldn't be able to tell anyway.
For a real change of scenery, see Norma at the beginning. She's a dowdy housewife- and this is a real shocker, given her glamour image- and she plays that part of the film without makeup. I had to do a double take- I really didn't recognize her.
Now for the bad stuff. Norma's leading man is so stiff that they could have replaced him with a wooden board and no one would have noticed- this makes the ending even more stupid. The last line alone almost made me tear out my hair- and my rating dropped from an 8 to a 6.
Overall, watchable but it suffers from early talkie syndrome. It also has basically the same plot as The Divorcee, Riptide and Strangers May Kiss. But other than that, it's great. Just make sure to turn it off before the godawful last line that comes out of Norma's mouth.
But this one has Marie Dressler, bringing her more than welcome presence to the screen. She's not as good here as she was in Anna Christie or Dinner At Eight, but she works. Norma Shearer suffers from twitchy syndrome in this one, and seems to be constantly hiding her weak eye- more than she needs to, because the print of the film is so blurry that you wouldn't be able to tell anyway.
For a real change of scenery, see Norma at the beginning. She's a dowdy housewife- and this is a real shocker, given her glamour image- and she plays that part of the film without makeup. I had to do a double take- I really didn't recognize her.
Now for the bad stuff. Norma's leading man is so stiff that they could have replaced him with a wooden board and no one would have noticed- this makes the ending even more stupid. The last line alone almost made me tear out my hair- and my rating dropped from an 8 to a 6.
Overall, watchable but it suffers from early talkie syndrome. It also has basically the same plot as The Divorcee, Riptide and Strangers May Kiss. But other than that, it's great. Just make sure to turn it off before the godawful last line that comes out of Norma's mouth.