Daryl Zanuck had just left Warners and set up 20th Century Pictures. At Warners he was a real pioneer. What had made him so successful was his sensationalist, non compromising approach to championing the underdog and raising awareness of social issues. The other thing he knew audiences wanted to see was young women in their underwear - whilst I have no objection whatsoever to this, used out of context, it's a bit tacky. This trope is unfortunately exploited to the full in this movie at the expense of developing the plot.
To launch his new business he seems to have abandoned his social campaigning and just focussed on sensationalism - with of course young women in their underwear! This is such a shame because this could have been something special with a real positive message.
Women's lives during the depression, especially those struggling on the breadline had to change. Along with the men, women needed to reinvent their roles, their place in society and in relationships. Difficult and confusing choices had to be made, not all of them were good but it was far from black and white. Loretta Young's character had been an unmarried teenage mum and seemingly because of that she chose to be bad. Such a horribly over-simplistic device to create a male idea of how some women were. It's almost like she needs to be punished for her "immoral" behaviour when she was fifteen. There's no sympathy or understanding of the torments she's endured - she's just bad. She's not only bad but beautiful, seductive and bad like some immature schoolboy's sexual fantasy.
If the film wasn't so short, perhaps they could have developed her character but because it's so short this just encourages us to view her through judgmental glasses.
Loretta Young does however make the best of a bad script- she is an exception actress. The little boy isn't too bad either but Cary Grant is appalling in this. A contender for the most one dimensional performance in a motion picture ever.
I've already mentioned that it's too short to develop the characters, it's also too short to give the story any sense of credibility. The ridiculous seduction of the shop window dummy (which looks like Carey Grant) is beyond unbelievable. Basically within the space of about three minutes we have: hello, I'm pretty - ok, let's go to bed - I love you - I am going to leave my wife.
This is a lost opportunity sacrificed for cheap impact value.
To launch his new business he seems to have abandoned his social campaigning and just focussed on sensationalism - with of course young women in their underwear! This is such a shame because this could have been something special with a real positive message.
Women's lives during the depression, especially those struggling on the breadline had to change. Along with the men, women needed to reinvent their roles, their place in society and in relationships. Difficult and confusing choices had to be made, not all of them were good but it was far from black and white. Loretta Young's character had been an unmarried teenage mum and seemingly because of that she chose to be bad. Such a horribly over-simplistic device to create a male idea of how some women were. It's almost like she needs to be punished for her "immoral" behaviour when she was fifteen. There's no sympathy or understanding of the torments she's endured - she's just bad. She's not only bad but beautiful, seductive and bad like some immature schoolboy's sexual fantasy.
If the film wasn't so short, perhaps they could have developed her character but because it's so short this just encourages us to view her through judgmental glasses.
Loretta Young does however make the best of a bad script- she is an exception actress. The little boy isn't too bad either but Cary Grant is appalling in this. A contender for the most one dimensional performance in a motion picture ever.
I've already mentioned that it's too short to develop the characters, it's also too short to give the story any sense of credibility. The ridiculous seduction of the shop window dummy (which looks like Carey Grant) is beyond unbelievable. Basically within the space of about three minutes we have: hello, I'm pretty - ok, let's go to bed - I love you - I am going to leave my wife.
This is a lost opportunity sacrificed for cheap impact value.