This move currently has a rating of 7.9 but you need to interpret this with LOTS of caution. I'm not sure if there is an organized group doing this or not, but the scores of all of her films as well as those of William Haines and Marion Davies are HUGELY inflated. These three silent stars, for some odd reason, have enormously high ratings on all their films--even the really bad ones. And, objectively speaking, every actor has a movie here or there that is bad--but you'd never know it with these three actors. So, 7.9 or not, this is a bad movie--though not completely.
The plot and some of the acting (particularly Swanson's in a few places) are very, very old fashioned--even for 1931. However, the film begins with Gloria playing a very modern type of woman--one who IS willing to have premarital sex. The problem, however, is that the guy she's sleeping with and is planning on marrying is really a cad. Once she realizes that he has no intention to marry her, she changes her ways and becomes the model of propriety.
Time passes. By now, Gloria has met a swell guy and he wants to marry her. However, she is conflicted--she has already slept with another man and doesn't know if the nice new guy will still want her if she tells him the truth about her past. I am pretty sure Gloria is the only woman who has ever been in such a situation! Seriously, though, unless she has some sort of nasty STD, I don't know why she MUST tell the guy about her past affair, but according to the film she has this strong compulsion. This portion of the film, frankly, seems overdone as did the next--a lot of melodrama where little was actually needed. And, despite the Swanson-philes, she made this worse with her very old fashioned acting style (I think she thought this was a silent film--with her over-acting) and some crazy idea she could sing. Despite having a voice that might be able to raise the dead (they'll get up and run away--it's that bad), she sings three times in the movie!! This is especially odd since the film is NOT a musical! Next, we learn that Gloria's sister is now dating the same man that Gloria had slept with years earlier. Now common sense would say that could all be VERY quickly resolved if Gloria simply explained all this to her. But, because it's a shabbily written film, this is never done. Instead, she resolves to try to win back the old boyfriend and have her sister see that he's a horny bum. And, since Gloria is the super-vamp and is irresistible, he ultimately cheats on the pretty young sister and tries to seduce Gloria (frankly, I can't see this as Gloria looks pretty...well...less attractive). The sister sees this and it does the trick. But, the plan is not 100% effective, as the new boyfriend also happens to see what happened and assumed Gloria is cheating on him. None of this particularly good and it's really tough to believe.
The last 10 minutes of the movie are like an entirely different film. Instead of the serious melodrama (or 'over-melodrama') and singing, the last 10 minutes are sweet and funny. Too bad the entire film isn't like this as Swanson FINALLY was in her element--especially since she was originally a silent film comedienne. Gloria and her angry fiancée manage to pull off some wonderfully written, acted and directed scenes that are so good you really wish the whole film was like this. Just see this portion to understand what I mean.
Overall, this is far from Swanson's finest moment in film. While it's passable entertainment, the first 75% is slow, difficult to believe, dumb since the problem could have been easily resolved without the elaborate plan and the overacting and terrible singing make it a miserable experience.
The plot and some of the acting (particularly Swanson's in a few places) are very, very old fashioned--even for 1931. However, the film begins with Gloria playing a very modern type of woman--one who IS willing to have premarital sex. The problem, however, is that the guy she's sleeping with and is planning on marrying is really a cad. Once she realizes that he has no intention to marry her, she changes her ways and becomes the model of propriety.
Time passes. By now, Gloria has met a swell guy and he wants to marry her. However, she is conflicted--she has already slept with another man and doesn't know if the nice new guy will still want her if she tells him the truth about her past. I am pretty sure Gloria is the only woman who has ever been in such a situation! Seriously, though, unless she has some sort of nasty STD, I don't know why she MUST tell the guy about her past affair, but according to the film she has this strong compulsion. This portion of the film, frankly, seems overdone as did the next--a lot of melodrama where little was actually needed. And, despite the Swanson-philes, she made this worse with her very old fashioned acting style (I think she thought this was a silent film--with her over-acting) and some crazy idea she could sing. Despite having a voice that might be able to raise the dead (they'll get up and run away--it's that bad), she sings three times in the movie!! This is especially odd since the film is NOT a musical! Next, we learn that Gloria's sister is now dating the same man that Gloria had slept with years earlier. Now common sense would say that could all be VERY quickly resolved if Gloria simply explained all this to her. But, because it's a shabbily written film, this is never done. Instead, she resolves to try to win back the old boyfriend and have her sister see that he's a horny bum. And, since Gloria is the super-vamp and is irresistible, he ultimately cheats on the pretty young sister and tries to seduce Gloria (frankly, I can't see this as Gloria looks pretty...well...less attractive). The sister sees this and it does the trick. But, the plan is not 100% effective, as the new boyfriend also happens to see what happened and assumed Gloria is cheating on him. None of this particularly good and it's really tough to believe.
The last 10 minutes of the movie are like an entirely different film. Instead of the serious melodrama (or 'over-melodrama') and singing, the last 10 minutes are sweet and funny. Too bad the entire film isn't like this as Swanson FINALLY was in her element--especially since she was originally a silent film comedienne. Gloria and her angry fiancée manage to pull off some wonderfully written, acted and directed scenes that are so good you really wish the whole film was like this. Just see this portion to understand what I mean.
Overall, this is far from Swanson's finest moment in film. While it's passable entertainment, the first 75% is slow, difficult to believe, dumb since the problem could have been easily resolved without the elaborate plan and the overacting and terrible singing make it a miserable experience.