What, Mary Martin, alias Peter Pan, Nellie Forbush, Larry Hagman's mother? No, this Mary Martin is Loretta Young, who was twirling through doors onto people's TV sets in the 1950's while the real Mary Martin was asking us to "think lovely thoughts". This Mary Martin, as the court tells us over and over at the beginning of the movie, is a sinful woman who deserves to be punished for sins Young reveals to us in flashbacks. At first, these flashbacks resemble something out of a D.W. Griffith silent movie (with Young instead of Lillian Gish as a 9 year old!), but eventually, it is this quick cuts of various flashback scenes that will grab the viewer and never let go as her story of degradation unfolds.
Mary is obviously a good girl with a troubled past and turns bad through no fault of her own, although it is insinuated that deep inside, that is all a facade. She is supposed to represent the plight of many girls affected by the depression, exploited by the nasty racketeer Ricardo Cortez. Her life briefly turns around when she meets the well-off Franchot Tone, but like most girls in these kinds of movies, that only lasts for a short time, leading her into all kinds of serious trouble. What makes this pre-code drama better than most is director William Wellman's exquisite use of quick-changing scenes and more realistic performances, even from Ms. Young who seems to have taken on a Joan Crawford persona. I like her more as a sinner than a saint, and here, she combines the two effortlessly. Cortez is appropriately slimy, while Tone adds some humor to his noble good guy. Una Merkel and Andy Devine, sometimes paired together as a comic relief duo, are the comic reliefs here, but they don't work together in this film.
Mary is obviously a good girl with a troubled past and turns bad through no fault of her own, although it is insinuated that deep inside, that is all a facade. She is supposed to represent the plight of many girls affected by the depression, exploited by the nasty racketeer Ricardo Cortez. Her life briefly turns around when she meets the well-off Franchot Tone, but like most girls in these kinds of movies, that only lasts for a short time, leading her into all kinds of serious trouble. What makes this pre-code drama better than most is director William Wellman's exquisite use of quick-changing scenes and more realistic performances, even from Ms. Young who seems to have taken on a Joan Crawford persona. I like her more as a sinner than a saint, and here, she combines the two effortlessly. Cortez is appropriately slimy, while Tone adds some humor to his noble good guy. Una Merkel and Andy Devine, sometimes paired together as a comic relief duo, are the comic reliefs here, but they don't work together in this film.