This very early sound picture shares hallmarks of other Pre-Code dramas about ambitious women yearning to break out of small circumstances by using sex as a tool: Hester (Corinne Griffith) wants more than her boring department store job, her dull boyfriend, and her suffocating small town life. When a traveling salesman offers a way into the big city, she takes it, becoming a wealthy man's "sweetheart". But learning her small town beau has suffered in the war prompts a change of heart. Griffith was one of the biggest stars of the silent era, the "Orchid Of The Screen" who had total control over director, co-star, and story at her studio First National. But the sound era began just as her contract ran out, and executives there drew up a new one taking away all her artistic control. Rather than sign, Griffith, a shrewd businesswoman, skipped town instead, making one more movie in England before giving up acting to make a fortune in real estate and writing. This, one of her last screen appearances, shows she could meet the demands of spoken dialogue, while still exhibiting the gift for emotive movement that originally made her a star.

By Violet LeVoit