Cathardincu Surprisingly incoherent and boring

PlatinumRead Just so...so bad

Stoutor It's not great by any means, but it's a pretty good movie that didn't leave me filled with regret for investing time in it.

Ezmae Chang This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

marcslope Fast little Warners item, from a play by Maurine Watkins--who wrote the source material for "Chicago," and this hard-boiled B is very much cut from the same cloth, with big-city corruption, tough-talking dames, and vice not always unrewarded. Ann Dvorak, always good in this sort of part, is the girl from the wrong side of the tracks whose attempts to crash high society are thwarted, and ends up a fugitive, for reasons she's not quite guilty and not quite innocent of. She's also an unwed mom, and not entirely an unsympathetic one, this being a year before they started fully enforcing the Production Code. Lee Tracy plays, as he was born to play, a fast-talking, fast-thinking newspaperman, and watching him at his peak is sort of like watching Cagney--he's so lively he's impossible not to like, even playing a reprobate like this. The story doesn't quite hang together: If Molly was really abandoned by her mom at seven, as she states early on, she's only 16 at the start of the film, which makes no sense at all. And while nobody, not even Tracy, is able to recognize the peroxide version of Molly as the same on-the-lam gal in the picture they have of her, her infant daughter does, at once. The tone's uneven, too, veering between melodrama and uneasy comedy. But Dvorak and Tracy are so watchable, and the supporting cast (Richard Cromwell, Guy Kibbee, Frank McHugh) so quintessential early-'30s Warners, it's a fine time-waster.

jjnxn-1 The great Ann Dvorak wraps this up with her special brand of magic. It's really a shame she isn't more well known today. A lot of that seems to be because she didn't really have the ambition to stay on top after her initial burst of stardom which is a shame, she was always an arresting screen presence. Here as a woman more sinned against than sinner she is compelling and once she switches to platinum hair very striking. Her troubles are common ones faced in many pre-code dramas but she handles them with grit and skill. Her large expressive eyes tell volumes. Lee Tracy is abrasive but that was his usual persona so if your a fan he isn't bad, I've always found him an acquired taste. Efficiently directed by Curtiz this zips right along even if the ending is a bit of a letdown.

kidboots Feisty Ann Dvorak first came to Hollywood as a dancer and choreographer but her dark intense beauty was such that when she broke free of the chorus line she made an immediate impact. "The Strange Love of Molly Louvain" was her first starring role - but unfortunately Lee Tracy got all the attention. Like Ann, pre-code films were his specialty and even though he didn't enter the movie until half way through he proved a huge hit with the audiences.All the boys love Molly (Dvorak) but Molly's heart belongs to Ralph (Don Dillaway), a spineless, rich "momma's boy", who within ten minutes of the film's start, has left her flat - not only holding the baby but fleeing abroad with his mother, who doesn't think Molly is good enough for her son (the usual story). Molly also flees with Nicki (Leslie Fenton), a smooth talking lady's stocking salesman, but after a few years on the road, she is fed up with the life they lead, living on money from petty crime. Leaving her child with a kindly woman and Nick, drinking his troubles away, she becomes a dance hall hostess. She meets up with Jimmie (Richard Cromwell), a bellhop she knew from her old life, who used to have a huge crush on her and is now at University. Before too long they are involved in a police chase, thanks to Nick - the end of which has a policeman dead and Nick fighting for his life. With a new "blonde bombshell" look she and Jimmy are now on the run and run into fast talking newspaper man Scotty (Lee Tracy - who else!!)Cromwell proves that "handsome" is not enough - you need personality!! Tracy and Dvorak have it in spades and they make a sensational team with wisecracks flying all over the place. Sparks fly - if only they had become a screen team. Tracy was definitely an asset to this rather muddled movie. The first half had plenty of action as Molly goes from cigarette girl to gangster's girl to dance hall girl to girl on the run but when she and Jimmy stop running thank goodness Lee Tracy is there to really liven up what could have become a pretty pedestrian movie..This movie had a special significance to Ann. It was were she met husband, Leslie Fenton, and when the movie finished they eloped. Ann also composed songs in her spare time and in this movie one of them is featured - "Gold Digger Lady". She plays it on the piano, in between snatches of "When We're Alone".Highly Recommended.

moveebob Curtiz' slick, odd, interesting little flick. Ann Dvorak is a small-town go-getter. Her boyfriend deserts her. She hooks up with a worthless, hustling traveling salesman and has a daughter by the boyfriend who dropped her. She tries to drop the salesman and gets involved in a murder imbroglio, but gets off with the help of fast-talking newspaper reporter Lee Tracy. Fast paced and acted in Warner's best style