What seems like another simple little precode is actually asking some complex questions here and I think it deserves to be more fondly remembered.
Alexander Stream (Warren William) is a wealthy railroad tycoon. He's got a wife (Mary Astor) and son that he adores, but his wife is just more interested in being a society matron with all of its trappings than paying Alex needed attention. She apparently just thinks he's on autopilot and will never stray. It's not that she's a cold person, she's just preoccupied.
Alex's life changes one day when, while yachting, he rescues a drowning girl (Ginger Rogers as chorus girl Lilly Linda). He drives her back to her flat, and he follows her inside for what is supposed to be just a minute. That turns into bunches of minutes as they hit it off. Alex's puzzled male secretary and chauffeur go up to see what happened and walk in on an innocent but strange scene. Lilly and Alex are playing piano and singing "Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf" with Alex dressed up in some strange kind of head gear! Alex should be afraid, but not of the Big Bad Wolf, because in this beautiful young woman he is finding the companionship and fun he would like to have with his wife if only his wife would notice his frantic yoo-hooing! The friendship between Lilly and Alex turns to an affair when Alex's wife first forgets their anniversary and goes to a society event instead, and then goes on a weeks long yacht trip with her society friends while the son is off at military school. There are two flies in the ointment. First, in the only real malicious act Alex performs in this entire film, he gets a cop (Sidney Toler as officer Moran) demoted to walking a beat for giving him not only a traffic ticket but some attitude. The second fly in the ointment is Lilly's - I guess you could call him a boyfriend, but he sure acts like an abusive pimp (J. Carroll Naish as Lou Colima). The only reason I can figure Lilly doesn't give him the air is that he put her in the show she is working in, and she had said before she hadn't been able to find work for a long time. So she needs this creep to butter her bread, but he has bigger ideas. He wants to use letters Alex has written to Lilly to blackmail the tycoon. Lilly wants no part of this, because she actually loves Alex.
In a confrontation gone terribly wrong, Colima threatens Alex with exposure when he comes to see Lilly one night, a fight ensues, and Colima fires Lilly's gun at Alex, hitting and killing Lilly instead when she jumps between the two. Alex finds an oh so convenient second gun (Exactly how many guns did Lilly have lying around this apartment anyways?) and, in self defense, shoots Colima dead.
Now Alex has committed no crime, but even if the police believe his story, he is embroiled in a scandal that will ruin not only him, but his wife and child. He switches the bullets in one gun with the bullets in the second gun to make it look like a murder/suicide, hides the second gun, takes his letters from Colima's coat pocket, and discretely drives away. His trick actually fools the homicide detectives, but there is one problem. Remember that beat cop who got demoted because of Alex and knows it was Alex that got him demoted? He is at the scene, saw Alex's car earlier in the evening while walking his beat, and looks around and finds the second gun and discovers the trick. He convinces his sergeant to give him 48 hours to solve the crime. How does this all pan out?Watch and find out. And remember that this is still the precode era.
When I asked at the beginning of the review - does motivation count for anything? - I am really talking about Alex and the beat cop, Moran, whose career Alex damaged. The cop probably is more interested in destroying Alex, because he assumes he is a probable suspect, than he is in getting justice. If he succeeds in bringing in Alex, he will be a hero by deed, but by motivation he is just doing all of this investigating for petty revenge. Alex never had any malicious intent in his affair with Lilly. He met Lilly completely by coincidence and did a good deed when he fished her out of the water. He would never have succumbed to her charms had his wife noticed he was alive, but here he is embroiled in at best a love nest scandal, and at worst a murder case if he is exposed.
Give this one a look if you have the chance. Ginger was never lovelier and this is one of Warren William's more complex roles. Highly recommended.
Alexander Stream (Warren William) is a wealthy railroad tycoon. He's got a wife (Mary Astor) and son that he adores, but his wife is just more interested in being a society matron with all of its trappings than paying Alex needed attention. She apparently just thinks he's on autopilot and will never stray. It's not that she's a cold person, she's just preoccupied.
Alex's life changes one day when, while yachting, he rescues a drowning girl (Ginger Rogers as chorus girl Lilly Linda). He drives her back to her flat, and he follows her inside for what is supposed to be just a minute. That turns into bunches of minutes as they hit it off. Alex's puzzled male secretary and chauffeur go up to see what happened and walk in on an innocent but strange scene. Lilly and Alex are playing piano and singing "Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf" with Alex dressed up in some strange kind of head gear! Alex should be afraid, but not of the Big Bad Wolf, because in this beautiful young woman he is finding the companionship and fun he would like to have with his wife if only his wife would notice his frantic yoo-hooing! The friendship between Lilly and Alex turns to an affair when Alex's wife first forgets their anniversary and goes to a society event instead, and then goes on a weeks long yacht trip with her society friends while the son is off at military school. There are two flies in the ointment. First, in the only real malicious act Alex performs in this entire film, he gets a cop (Sidney Toler as officer Moran) demoted to walking a beat for giving him not only a traffic ticket but some attitude. The second fly in the ointment is Lilly's - I guess you could call him a boyfriend, but he sure acts like an abusive pimp (J. Carroll Naish as Lou Colima). The only reason I can figure Lilly doesn't give him the air is that he put her in the show she is working in, and she had said before she hadn't been able to find work for a long time. So she needs this creep to butter her bread, but he has bigger ideas. He wants to use letters Alex has written to Lilly to blackmail the tycoon. Lilly wants no part of this, because she actually loves Alex.
In a confrontation gone terribly wrong, Colima threatens Alex with exposure when he comes to see Lilly one night, a fight ensues, and Colima fires Lilly's gun at Alex, hitting and killing Lilly instead when she jumps between the two. Alex finds an oh so convenient second gun (Exactly how many guns did Lilly have lying around this apartment anyways?) and, in self defense, shoots Colima dead.
Now Alex has committed no crime, but even if the police believe his story, he is embroiled in a scandal that will ruin not only him, but his wife and child. He switches the bullets in one gun with the bullets in the second gun to make it look like a murder/suicide, hides the second gun, takes his letters from Colima's coat pocket, and discretely drives away. His trick actually fools the homicide detectives, but there is one problem. Remember that beat cop who got demoted because of Alex and knows it was Alex that got him demoted? He is at the scene, saw Alex's car earlier in the evening while walking his beat, and looks around and finds the second gun and discovers the trick. He convinces his sergeant to give him 48 hours to solve the crime. How does this all pan out?Watch and find out. And remember that this is still the precode era.
When I asked at the beginning of the review - does motivation count for anything? - I am really talking about Alex and the beat cop, Moran, whose career Alex damaged. The cop probably is more interested in destroying Alex, because he assumes he is a probable suspect, than he is in getting justice. If he succeeds in bringing in Alex, he will be a hero by deed, but by motivation he is just doing all of this investigating for petty revenge. Alex never had any malicious intent in his affair with Lilly. He met Lilly completely by coincidence and did a good deed when he fished her out of the water. He would never have succumbed to her charms had his wife noticed he was alive, but here he is embroiled in at best a love nest scandal, and at worst a murder case if he is exposed.
Give this one a look if you have the chance. Ginger was never lovelier and this is one of Warren William's more complex roles. Highly recommended.