a_chinn "Can romance survive marriage?" Barbara Stanwyck plays a young woman who she and her beau are contemplating marriage, but worry it's going to basically kill their sex life. Although this is a pre-code film, it's not that racy outside of a few moments, such as at a lingerie party (buying, not wearing), when a friend of Stanwyck's states, "Once a girl is headed to the altar, she becomes so conventional." That's about as racy as it gets, although Stanwyck and her beau do have some affectionate scenes that wouldn't fly later with the Hayes Office. Stanwyck elevates this below average film at least average.

atlasmb The action in this film takes place within the rarefied air of art deco penthouses with thirty-foot ceilings. There, the central characters--Anne (Barbara Stanwyck) and Dick (James Rennie)--fall in love and make decisions about their relationship.Dick is somewhat amused--and a little intrigued--by Anne's "theories" about marriage. She see it as a hindrance to love and a guarantee that romance will die. Basically, she is a proponent of free love.Different conceptions of free love have been expressed by many notables in the fields of science and the arts over the centuries. The actual Free Love movement is a more recent development with its beginnings in the 1800s. Although its proponents espoused many various views on culture, politics and the nature of man, there were common threads--primarily a condemnation of state-sponsored marriage and the view that the institution of marriage runs contrary to the nature of man and that it impinges on the freedoms of both partners and amounts to little more than enslavement, particularly of the woman.One can see where Anne is coming from, but it is not surprising that certain aspects of traditional marriage hold a romantic interest for Anne. Dick is so in love with her that he might agree to anything she wants. But they are constantly judged by others who reflect the mores of society. Eventually, the couple agrees to live apart and love from a distance.You can probably guess where the story is going, despite the fact that this is a pre-Code production. The staging feels, rightfully, like a play. Its tone is light-hearted for the most part, centering on characters whose lives seem to revolve around emptying cocktail glasses and witty repartee. But it's a stylish production and the acting is suitable for carefree banter sprinkled with Anne's "theories". Fortunately, her free love notions do not include the social engineering leanings of others who theorized in this realm.

utgard14 Boring, talky Pre-Coder with Barbara Stanwyck and James Rennie as a young couple happily living in sin. Babs isn't a fan of marriage, you see. Well they're eventually pressured into marrying and things between them go south. Will these two kids make it work? If you have the patience of Job, watch it and find out. Everybody else drink lots of caffeine first. It's a very creaky early talkie that feels more like a stage play. Charles "Cap'n Crunch" Butterworth plays a drunk and Joan Blondell brightens things up whenever she's on screen, which isn't enough. Stanwyck fans might want to check it out for one of her earliest roles.

mircaragolr First time Stanwwyck captivated me. Attractive, cute, sensitive, intelligent. A master performance raising an overall OK movie to a different level. I fell in love with her character as an actress and as a young woman. Ann is a beautiful young lady full of sensitivity, common sense and intelligence. The movie reveals a conflict of feelings between two people triggered by their love toward each other. You would say it shows two characters with a behavior ahead of its time, but scratching the surface of the "mores" of the time, it really portraits a common conflict of love, in which the characters act in a mostly mature and civilized manner -I would add she way more mature than him, and this kind of acting does not have anything to do with the "mores" of the times. Quite the opposite,human beings have behaved maturely through history regardless of the prevailing social norms. Finally I would like to add that now I understand how Barbara Stanwick gained her reputation as a remarkable actress during her youth.