Kay Francis continues the streak started with Scandal Sheet (1931) and Transgression (1931), dramatizing the travails of unfaithful (and well-dressed) women in this pre-code drama sold with the provocative tagline "Is love ever a sin?" Fashion designer Natalie Upton (Francis) and architect Larry Baldwin (Alan Dinehart) are a perfect match. Only problem is, Larry's still married -- and whatever loyalty he lost long ago towards wife Lois (Marjorie Gateson) he still feels towards daughter Doris (a pre-Titanic [1997] Gloria Stuart). But family intrigues and societal disapproval challenge their wish to be together. Will their love succumb to outside pressure? Or will the glamorous duo make a life together, their own way? Francis, who at the time was one of Warner Brothers' highest paid stars at $4,000 a week, embodies here what Jeanine Basinger described as "the absolute personification of what fashion and glamour meant to the woman's film of the 1930s."

By Violet LeVoit