mark.waltz A very young John Wayne is an Army football hero who dumps his non-committed girlfriend (Laura La Plante, the heroine of "The Cat and the Canary" and the original "Show Boat") and takes off for adventures elsewhere. La Plante ends up marrying on the rebound Wayne's former commanding officer (a very good Forrest Stanley) who surprises her by inviting Wayne for a visit. La Plante's naive younger sister (June Clyde) falls for Wayne and a very jealous La Plante plays the devoted overprotective sister to the hilt to keep them from getting involved. Has Wayne changed his womanizing ways? That will be disproven if La Plante and a drunken Mexican senorita (Nina Quartero) get their female way.What starts off fairly slow moves into an entertaining pre-code drama, featuring a fascinating auction scene where La Plante and Stanley try to bid each other out over the football which won the big game, signed by all the players including Wayne. He is present at the start of the auction (with another blonde on his arm), and his look of disgust at La Plante's presence makes it clear that there was another reason for him dumping her rather than just not wanting to commit to her. It's obvious that her feelings for him have remained, and it takes being humiliated through the presence of her younger sister to wake her up. Quartero, playing a stereotypical Mexican spitfire, tries to bring some spark to her scene, but she is certainly no Lupe Velez or even an Armida. Some lavish sets make this appear to be higher budgeted than it probably was, while the direction of George B. Seitz (who later directed some of Judy Garland's early films) speeds up the film once the plot takes off.

vitaleralphlouis A very solid good picture from 1931 is finally seeing the light of day via the new TV channel, GET/TV. We watched it last night.First of all you need to know the picture and sound of this 83 year old film is much better than might be expected. Perhaps withheld because of long term friction between Columbia Pictures and John Wayne.Set in West Point and later in Arizona, Wayne plays a football hero who finds it necessary to break up with a girl he realizes he doesn't love. He soon finds out she's the b...h from hell, and her reaction will impact on several other people.The script and acting is just fine.

movingpicturegal Melodramatic soap opera about a young lady named Evelyn (Laura La Plante) who is in love with West Point football hero Bob Denton (John Wayne) - unfortunately for her, he's somewhat of a brash ladies man who says, and these are his very words, "My women understand me - they take one look and know they can expect nothing". Hmmm, well she doesn't seem to understand that and expects to marry him - but he dumps her when he realizes how serious she is about him. So she sets out to get even by actually marrying Bob's boyhood guardian (without Bob's knowledge) and moving to Arizona with the poor older man who is completely clueless about her former relationship. Soon Bob is assigned a post there and stirs things up when he begins a romance with Evelyn's flirtatious sister (June Clyde).This is a very interesting, well done film - okay, I never could understand why women in movies sometimes marry the "wrong man" just to get even or just because they can't get the man they really want. Laura La Plante plays a role here that isn't exactly a very likable person, yet she is such a charming, likable actress herself, her character does manage to come across in an appealing way. John Wayne is okay too (and he doesn't look too bad in his tight-fitting cadet uniform pants, I might add). June Clyde, by the way, gives a very enjoyable performance here playing the cutesy, bubbly flirt to the hilt. A good film, worth seeing.

Gary Dickerson I suppose this is what they used to call a "woman's picture." Laura LaPlante, a fetching, if gnomish blonde, plays Evelyn Palmer, a New York girl (what she does for a living is never revealed) who's been dallying with dashing West Point cadet Bob Denton, played robotically by a very young & handsome John Wayne. When she is dumped unceremoniously before Bob's graduation, Evelyn woos & eventually marries his mentor, Colonel Bonham, played by Forrest Stanley more like a stuffed-shirt British army officer than an American who's spent years in Arizona. The big complication is that, once the newlywed Bonhams relocate to Arizona, Denton shows up for duty &, despite Evelyn's triumphant attitude toward him, Denton takes a fancy to Evelyn's sister, Bonnie, who's the cutest flapper I've seen in ages.This plot, made today, might have a bit more nastiness in that; it's as close to a "Cruel Intentions" as you're going to get in 1931. That Bob & Evelyn are having a sexual relationship is implied, of course, & it's amusing how, later in the picture, every time someone's about to say it, that person is interrupted or hushed. More than that, though I saw this on the Starz Western channel, it's more like your average sophisticated thirties melodrama than a western. The cigarettes are in boxes, gowns are worn to dinner, & the Colonel's house in Arizona is strictly Long Island.The film features some amusing stock footage of an Army-Navy football game, as well as military maneuvers. But without giving anything away, the film unwinds & then winds up in a pretty cliched manner. For John Wayne fans, it's bound to be extremely disappointing, but for those of us who are intrigued by the early days of Hollywood, good & bad, it's not such a bad way to spend an hour. But it was way too silly to be moving, & it's by the numbers mix-up plot never really generates any suspense.