calvinnme I'm giving this one a 7/10 just based on the chemistry of Clark Gable and Joan Crawford alone! If it had been some other couple playing the leads this would only have warranted about a 5/10. It's another take on one of Joan's shop girl roles that MGM so often cast her in, except here she (Marian) works in a box factory. The rather boorish Al Manning (Wallace Ford) thinks Marian is his for the asking, but Marian has bigger ideas. She has a conversation with a very drunk and wealthy Wally (Skeets Gallagher) who is enjoying the night air on the caboose of a train in the train yard, and he gives her his card and tells her to come see him. Now Marian goes home to mom and an angry Al - he smells the liquor on her breath - and they have it out. She says she is leaving town and going to meet up with Wally in New York. She says that if she was a man they'd think it was right for her to use her brains to get what she can however she can. Now that last statement is an odd one because Marian behaves quite naively for the next 15 minutes of the film, not brainy at all. She DOES go to New York and she DOES look up Wally...who has little or no memory of her and is displeased to see her. But she catches him in one of his rare sober moments and he tells her upfront the invitation was never sincere, neither is he, and NO he will not introduce her to any of his rich friends. Marian is dejected and ejected. Her lucky break? Two of Wally's rich friends are on the way into his apartment as she leaves and she simply follows them back in. She just plainly asks them if they are rich and single because she has no time to waste on them if they are not! Now this is all very stupid obvious behavior from Marian, who could easily have become a sadder but wiser girl if any of these men had the drive or ambition to make her one, but she lucks out. Gable's character (Mark Whitney) takes an instant liking to her honesty - you'll find out later why exactly, and the two are an instant couple, but not a married couple, for the next three years, traveling the globe together. Whitney even gives her a fake name and identity - Mrs. Moreland, a divorcée - so they can explain her expensive lifestyle as emanating from alimony. Mark shows her how to speak, how to dress, how to command a household of servants, how to host a dinner party - a complete makeover from the country mouse she was. Then complications arise. Marian wants marriage that Mark won't give her, and New York's political machine wants Mark to become governor- and that means no mistress. How will this all work out? Watch and find out. Like I said, nothing unusual here for early 30's MGM - the shop girl and the wealthy guy and the entailing Cinderella transformation, the small minded small town boyfriend, the mom who waits back home with a light in the window, the respectability that a mistress never has, etc. But every time Gable and Crawford are together you can feel the electricity - which was real by the way. The two had an affair for years but never got married because they figured they'd fight as man and wife. And then there are a couple of coincidences. Here Joan takes on the identity of a divorcée and is taught the etiquette her station as Mark's companion will require. In 1950 she is also given a new name "Lorna Hanson Forbes" and the identity of a divorcée so she can be a married gangster's social companion and mistress with no questions asked. Then there is a film starring Joan with an identical name - "Possessed" - made in 1947. It has a completely different storyline though and is made by a different studio - Warner Brothers. I'd say watch it, try not to get put out by the forgettable plot with a rather unsatisfactory ending and just note the great chemistry between Gable and Crawford, and really good acting in the supporting roles especially by Skeets Gallagher and Wallace Ford. Recommended.

LeonLouisRicci Distinctive Pre-Code Feminist Picture with a Great looking Joan Crawford well before Her Success and Star Status deranged Her Mind. She is absolutely Stunning here and blows Clark Gable off the Screen. He could hardly keep up with those Eyes and Emoting that show why Joan was a Continuing Star for Ten Years running until She got a little Older, ran out of Steam and was Revived by Her Oscar turn in Mildred Pierce (1940) that Renewed Her Status. She would ride that Second Wind for Decades.This is a somewhat Cynical Depression Era Escapist Picture with a couple of Outstanding Visual Scenes that are Unforgettable. The Dialog is Believable and Engaging as the two Stars drive the Proceedings to an End that Belies the Credibility that came before.It is a Concise Story about Moral Conflict and Survival at what Cost and is Highly Recommended for Joan Crawford Newbies to see what all the Fuss was about. Clark Gable seems a bit Stiff, but next to the Allure that was Crawford in 1931 He could have only been a Shadow in Light of Joan's Performance.

diana-2 Has anyone really noticed that Joan Crawford sings in this movie??? And she's really pretty good! I have to admit that I like Joan Crawford movies...even the bad ones. But to see her sing!!! You have to hand it to her, she really did work very hard to make herself into Joan Crawford... And she sings in English, French AND German!!! Quite a nice little movie here.... Clark Gable is gorgeous and luscious of course, and there are a bunch of supporting players who really became quite famous back then.I love old movies!! A good story with interesting characters and beautiful mise-en-scene.Try it! You'll like it! And it's worth it just to see Joan Crawford sing!

Piltdown_Man This is a very solid bit of movie-making. Well directed and edited. Little fluff. A script that is generally crisp and moves the plot forward.Crawford is strong and likable as she moves from factory girl to "kept woman," apparently without missing a beat.It's in these early Crawford films that you really see what the shouting was all about. She is beautiful, vulnerable, strong, sweet and, most importantly, a powerful screen presence. And she can show you all those sides of herself in the same scene.Gable too, while playing a somewhat subservient role, gets to strut his stuff. He is at once, a "man's man" and "ladies man." Neat trick. Try it sometime.One aspect of this film that you'll appreciate is its lack of moralizing. The story is out there for all to see, but we don't get it rubbed in our faces. Also, along the lines of Philip Barry ("The Philadelphia Story") we are allowed to see that money and power does not necessarily make a man bad, while struggle and poverty doesn't make him good, either.As with all movies of this era, you have to allow for the changing morals and attitudes that have interceded in the following 70 years, but it's a testament to the writer and director that this still holds up.