Taraparain
Tells a fascinating and unsettling true story, and does so well, without pretending to have all the answers.
Iseerphia
All that we are seeing on the screen is happening with real people, real action sequences in the background, forcing the eye to watch as if we were there.
Tyreece Hulme
One of the best movies of the year! Incredible from the beginning to the end.
Lela
The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.
kidboots
In a Film In Review article Ann Sothern was very reticent about her early screen work ("Hold Everything", "Whoopee") - MGM signed her to a contract under her real name of Harriet Lake but she only made one movie for them - "Doughboys" (1930) and was then dropped. Columbia signed her to a contract in the mid thirties and she made a series of light hearted programmers with co-stars such as Edmund Lowe and Gene Raymond. Even though Harry Cohn often boasted that by changing Harriet Lake's name to Ann Sothern he had made her a star, Columbia didn't really seem interested in promoting her and it was up to MGM to come up trumps with "Maisie".Kitty (Sothern) is the bread winner of her improvident family - as well as keeper of the peace and advice dispenser and she is getting pretty fed up with it. Especially her full of beans boyfriend Bill (I have never seen Paul Kelly so animated before)!! who puts work before romance!! When he stands her up on her birthday she listens to her friend and goes on a blind date where she meets debonair Bob Hartwell (Neil Hamilton). She starts to live the high life when he gets her a job as a model in his department store but when she dismisses his cave man tactics she suddenly finds herself out of a job. Of course the thing is, Bob is completely in the dark about things - his father has sacked her during cutbacks but requests the news be kept from his son. Bob goes on a cruise with his mother, not knowing that Kitty is desperately looking for a job. Bill comes to the rescue with a job for her father and the pressure is now on for Kitty to patch things up with Bill - even though she doesn't love him.Bob comes back but Kitty is determined to stick by Bill - he has been involved in an awful accident at work - courtesy of Kitty's father and a blow torch!!! Flora (Joan Gale), Kitty's sister over hears Kitty and Bob's tearful parting and wants to make it right for them. This is a really nice way to pass an afternoon with the "little" actors you get to know if you watch enough old movies. Matinée idol Neil Hamilton, most people know him from the Batman TV show as Commissioner Gordon but he had a huge career starting in the 1920s - he was a D.W. Griffith discovery. Mickey Rooney showed that even during his awkward age there were always roles to be had!!!
Karen Green (klg19)
Working girl Kitty (Sothern) is engaged to Bill (Kelly), who neglects her by working long hours at his garage in order to save money for their marriage. After being stood up on her birthday, Kitty goes on a double-date/blind date, where she meets department store heir Bob Hartwell (Hamilton). She falls in love, but leaves him when his protestations of love appear to cover a desire for her to be his mistress, rather than his wife. Faithful Bill rallies 'round to comfort her, and at last she gives in to his repeated requests to reinstate their engagement, pressured in part by Bill's support of her family after she loses her job. When Bob returns, however, convinced that he wants marriage after all, will Kitty follow her heart or her conscience? This film was a lot better than I'd expected it to be. The character of Bill at first comes off as the sort of loud comic Irishman type that Jack Carson played so often. But Kelly (and the script) infuse the character with real compassion and love, and Bill turns out to be the best person in the entire group. Viewers may find themselves rooting for him against the feckless Hartwell! The tone of the film wavers, however, between light-hearted romance and a much darker side, especially in the depiction of a dance marathon and a rather horrific accident at Bill's garage.The cast is rounded out by the dependable Jane Darwell as Kitty's mother, an impish but not yet thoroughly obnoxious Mickey Rooney as Kitty's younger brother, and Spencer Charters as Kitty's ne'er-do-well father.
MartinHafer
The story is about a working girl (Ann Sothern) who has a pretty thoughtless boyfriend (Paul Kelly). This boyfriend is so busy trying to start his own business that again and again he forgets dates or shows up late. The final straw is when Sothern has a birthday and Kelly says he's too busy to take her out to celebrate. So, not wanting to just stay home, she goes on a blind date with what turns out to be a very rich young man (Neil Hamilton). Sparks fly but it also becomes apparent after Sothern breaks off her relationship with Kelly that new boyfriend Hamilton is a "love 'em and leave 'em" sort of guy. How all this is finally resolved is not too difficult to predict--just suffice to say that in the end everything works out just perfectly.This is a very modest little film from Columbia Pictures--with a relatively small budget as well as second-tier stars. It's clearly a "B-movie" despite there being small roles played by a Mickey Rooney and Jane Darwell--as both had yet to become famous. Now this is NOT to say that these are bad actors or the production isn't any good. In fact, given the production values, this is a pretty amazing film as everything seems to work so well despite having a pretty ordinary and somewhat predictable plot outline. That's because the actors and director did a really good job putting the story across. Plus the writers did a good job of humanizing the characters and making you care about them. The ending, in particular, is really sweet and practically had my tear ducts flowing! Because of these factors, the film earns a 7 of 10.
boblipton
A mild but decent low-class soaper, well directed by under-rated B director Roy William Neill -- best remembered, these days, for the Sherlock Holmes series starring Rathbone and Bruce that he directed a decade later. There is a spiffy cast in this piece and they give good performances.It is interesting to compare this Columbia Picture with its Pre-Code contemporaries from the majors and contrast its constant moral tone with the sexier stuff produced by, say, Lubitsch at Paramount. Part of the reason, doubtless, is that a minor studio like Columbia didn't have leverage against the increasingly powerful Production Code that would swamp the sex comedy even at the Majors by the end of the year. But the most of it, I don't doubt, is that the Majors had an eye on the big cities and European markets, while Columbia still was concentrating on the smaller US cities and rural markets.