In some ways this MGM production is not really trying to adapt Lea David Freeman's play, the original source material; but rather, the studio is just using the setting and a vague facsimile of the story to place stereotypes about working class folk in the old south. It contains the usual down-on-their-luck tropes that had already been explored in several Marie Dressler vehicles like MIN AND BILL and TUGBOAT ANNIE.
Dressler was nearing the end of her life and unable to handle the workload required, so the part of a tough Louisiana matriarch was assigned to May Robson. However, Robson balked at the decreased importance of the role, since the love story involving the young couple (Robert Young & Jean Parker) would ultimately receive more prominence; so, she bailed. After Robson's departure, the producers hired Maude Eburne to take over. Eburne has an earthier persona than Robson, but despite her wearing a bonnet like Dressler had worn on screen, she lacks the gravitas required.
The story's main drama revolves around Young, just recently paroled from prison, who goes down to bayou country to look up the relatives of a pal who died in prison. He quickly learns that the pal had exaggerated tales of the clan's wealth. In fact they are barely getting by, about to lose their dock platform, facing the foreclosure of their business and home. Young is not exactly a reformed con, and he's gone there to bilk the family out of its money.
Seeing they have no funds, Young decides to leave but then gets drawn into helping Eburne and her daughter (Parker) hold on to their livelihood. He becomes an unlikely hero, and soon he has given up his old ways. Two other ex-con friends (Nat Pendleton and Ted Healy) show up who have a tougher time reforming. They're around mainly for comic relief.
Complicating matters is the fact that Young has been married before, and his estranged wife (Ruth Channing) suddenly appears on the scene, intending to get her grubby paws on Young's new fortune as a shrimper. This upsets Young's blossoming romance with Parker, but these problems are neatly resolved at the end, when it is learned Young's marriage to Channing is no longer valid.
There's a strange subplot involving some Chinese immigrants (played by white actors in yellow face) who are being brought up to the docks by way of Mexico. Young and his buddies thwart a smuggling ring, which allows for some cliched action scenes on a boat, as well as a few moments submerged underwater when Young gets tossed overboard. The Chinese subplot seems borrowed from United Artists' I COVER THE WATERFRONT (1933) which did a better and more coherent job of dramatizing a crooked ring.
All in all, this isn't a terrible motion picture. Parker's role had been intended for Joan Crawford, but Crawford wisely passed on it. The character might have had a bit more pizzazz if Maureen O'Sullivan, Young's romantic interest in TUGBOAT ANNIE, had been cast. But Parker does a decent enough job, and she does enjoy some nice chemistry with Young.
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