Before the women of World War II took on men's tougher jobs, working as riveters, pilots and occasionally even being caught on the front line (usually as nurses), they were occasionally doctors (Kay Francis in "Mary Stevens M.D.", "Dr. Monica"), business women (Kay Francis in "Man Wanted", "Trouble in Paradise", Ruth Chatterton, "Female"), and in Fay Wray's case here, an attorney. In each case, all of these women had men troubles, especially if they were married.
Here, Wray is married to a former college football hero (Gene Raymond) who is working an entry level job as an architect. She stays home at first after graduating from law school, but at a dinner party, gets involved in a conversation regarding a breech of promise case. Insisting that women have no place on a jury when the case involves another woman (in this case, a very light skinned black woman), she takes over the case, and with sly conniving, gets the defendant off. This scene is pretty impressive and shocking for its day as she actually questions the prosecuting attorney who insists that only a blithering idiot wouldn't be able to tell that the woman wasn't "colored". With this case, she becomes highly respected, beginning the slow downfall of her marriage, especially when Raymond is asked to pay the servants and doesn't have enough money to do so.
Raymond's ego takes over as he takes a night gig as a crooner in a nightclub, falling into the clutches of the drunken Claire Dodd, a clinging sort who makes no bones about hating his "uppity wife". This leads to a very gruesome plot twist (shocking, even for pre-code!), and Wray's sudden defending of her husband in court. Wray must deliver a truly maddening speech about a wife's place in a marriage, and the script totally overlooks her defense of her husband's innocence. While writer Robert Riskin had some good intentions here (having written some powerful career women in many Frank Capra classics), he must have been forced to wimp out here, really giving no compromise between husband and wife and just perpetuating the stereotype of this time that a woman's place is in the home, having kids and darning socks. What starts off as strong drama and could have become a classic simply turns into a screen equivalent of the radio soap operas of its time.
Here, Wray is married to a former college football hero (Gene Raymond) who is working an entry level job as an architect. She stays home at first after graduating from law school, but at a dinner party, gets involved in a conversation regarding a breech of promise case. Insisting that women have no place on a jury when the case involves another woman (in this case, a very light skinned black woman), she takes over the case, and with sly conniving, gets the defendant off. This scene is pretty impressive and shocking for its day as she actually questions the prosecuting attorney who insists that only a blithering idiot wouldn't be able to tell that the woman wasn't "colored". With this case, she becomes highly respected, beginning the slow downfall of her marriage, especially when Raymond is asked to pay the servants and doesn't have enough money to do so.
Raymond's ego takes over as he takes a night gig as a crooner in a nightclub, falling into the clutches of the drunken Claire Dodd, a clinging sort who makes no bones about hating his "uppity wife". This leads to a very gruesome plot twist (shocking, even for pre-code!), and Wray's sudden defending of her husband in court. Wray must deliver a truly maddening speech about a wife's place in a marriage, and the script totally overlooks her defense of her husband's innocence. While writer Robert Riskin had some good intentions here (having written some powerful career women in many Frank Capra classics), he must have been forced to wimp out here, really giving no compromise between husband and wife and just perpetuating the stereotype of this time that a woman's place is in the home, having kids and darning socks. What starts off as strong drama and could have become a classic simply turns into a screen equivalent of the radio soap operas of its time.