Colibel Terrible acting, screenplay and direction.

RyothChatty ridiculous rating

Smartorhypo Highly Overrated But Still Good

Myron Clemons A film of deceptively outspoken contemporary relevance, this is cinema at its most alert, alarming and alive.

MikeMagi Back in the days when stardom meant signing a seven-year contract, Bette Davis didn't have much choice but to play the wife of a struggling pharmacist, who gets mixed up with the mob, in this mellerdrama. Hubby Charles Farrell is conscripted by gangster Ricardo Cortez to make counterfeit products like tooth paste and face powder. But when Cortez demands cheap knock-offs of high-priced medication, lives are in danger...Bette's included. She plays the ingénue role surprisingly well without the tics and mannerisms which would mark (and sometimes mar) her later career. Tall, handsome Charles Farrell, on the other hand, couldn't act. To say that he had two expressions is putting it generously. Fortunately, Cortez as the suave hood behind the counterfeiting scheme takes up the slack and Glenda Farrell drops seductively by as a gun moll who knows too much. A pretty entertaining B movie made moreso by the youthful Bette Davis.

LeonLouisRicci This is an Odd one to say the Least. Now that Prohibition has been Repealed Bootleggers get into the Fake Cosmetic and Drug Business. Making Generic and Ineffective Products and Slapping Brand Names on the Labels.There are Scenes that are Downright Bizarre, like a Row of Gangsters Brushing Their Teeth, a Jewish Teenager who keeps a Ledger and Wisecracks about Sales Tax, a Mother Buying Cough Syrup "for her child", "don't wrap it up I'll drink it, I mean carry it that way." A Cat Fight with some Slang Banter that is Priceless, a Miscarriage, a Brutal Torture Scene, and some Moralizing in the End that is so Over the Top it Defies Dramatic License, and there are Others.Bette Davis Fans can Check this out to see why She was so Disgusted with Light Weight Roles like this that She Fled to England. She Looks Beautiful here but doesn't have much to do. The Film is Worth a Watch for its Strangeness but not much Else. There is a lot of Drug Talk and Pre-Code References to Coke (the drug not the drink) but Nothing Racy or Raunchy.

Bucs1960 It was films like this that caused Bette Davis to flee to England in an attempt to break her Hollywood contract. During the early '30s, she was forced into quickies with weak stories, bland co-stars and mediocre directors and was never given much chance to utilize her talents as a superb actress. She is co-starred here with Charles Farrell, who was a superstar of the silents but didn't seem to click in talkies. (He went on the gain fame on television in "My Little Margie" and personal fame as the mayor of Palm Springs). Ricardo Cortez plays his usual role as a gangster, this time utilizing Farrell's training as a pharmacists to black market bogus drugs. They start with toothpaste!!!!.....but soon move on to more dangerous territory. Frankly, I found the premise just a bit ridiculous and the acting even more so. Miss Davis looks like she would rather be somewhere else and has little to do. Cortez really overdoes it and Farrell is just downright bad. If you like Bette Davis, then you might want to see this film if for no other reason than to get a glimpse of what low grade junk assignments she had to put up with early in her career. Otherwise, it's not worth it.

Arthur Hausner An early Bette Davis melodrama when she was still making those B pictures for Warner Bros. She plays an employee in a drug store , engaged to the owner, pharmacist Charles Farrell, during the heart of the depression, and it's not doing too well. Neither is the beer rackets, since Prohibition has been repealed and hundreds of beer factories have sprung up, hurting racketeer Ricardo Cortez and his henchmen. He gets an antacid in Farrell's store, but it is a home-made one by Farrell, since he was out of the brand Cortez wanted. It tastes identical to that brand and did the trick, giving Cortez an idea for a new racket. He get Farrell to make lots of items -- toothpaste, minor medicines, cosmetics, etc. to sell at cut-rate prices. Cortez, however, puts brand names on them, causing one toothpaste company to declare backruptcy eventually. When Farrell has enough money to quit, he marries Davis, but Cortez won't let him quit. Instead, Cortez wants to expand to drugs. First is an antiseptic without the antiseptic properties. Then it is digitalis without the stimulant property. Cortez keeps Farrell in line by threats against Davis, which Farrell takes seriously after a witness who informed the district attorney of the racket was murdered. Farrell finally realizes the horrible consequences of the phony medicine when the pregnant Davis loses her baby because the digitalis given to her in the hospital did not work. He grabs a gun and goes after Cortez.