Today, most film audiences remember Sylvia Sidney as the cantankerous old lady who ordered Alec Baldwin and Geena Davis to read the handbook in "Beetlejuice" and saved the world from aliens through hideous Slim Whitman music in "Mars Attacks!" But prior to her days as a funny grouch, Sidney was one of the great American movie stars, somewhat typecast as girls from the slums, but on occasion given something other than that.
In this film, she's a serious college student who ignores flirtations when first on campus, but can't help but not resist college hero Phillips Holmes (her co-star from "An American Tragedy") who leaves her high and dry after being expelled for immoral behavior with another student. Bluntly, he is the campus playboy, seducing the various co-eds then dumping them, and in the case of Sylvia, gets her pregnant and leaves her without so much as a goodbye. Of course, he's unaware that she was pregnant, but we find out only because she learns third hand that he's left and runs upstairs crying, obviously in trouble about something.
This is where the plot gets strange. She marries Norman Foster, whom we're lead to believe is aware that Holmes is the father of her baby, but when Holmes returns five years into their marriage, it appears that Foster has thought that he was the father all along and accuses Sidney of having deceived him. Sidney must make a decision for not only her own benefit, but the benefit of her cute little boy (Dickie Moore) who takes one look at Holmes and says, "I like you." Considering that both Moore and Holmes are blonde and Foster is dark haired, it is obvious who the father is.
While this gives a nice look at the life on the college campuses of the early 1930's during the depression and explores many of the social aspects of the lives of young adults at the time, this isn't completely satisfying other than the sincere performances of the leads, especially Sylvia Sidney.
The twists and turns it makes, especially towards the end, are inconsistent with things that were explored earlier. The film does indicate the loyalty of the sorority sisters in the fact that when one girl (Claudia Dell) is revealed to have been a passenger in a car that had an accident allegedly after curfew, they refuse to name names when threatened with suspension. Still, they are quite different than the youth of later eras in the fact that they obviously still judge her for alleged immoral behavior.
A dance sequence features Bing Crosby as himself along with the Rhythm Boys (having earlier appeared in Universal's big color musical revue "King of Jazz") when Bing was a recording idol and not yet a movie star. After one more film as himself ("The Big Broadcast"), he was able to swing into becoming a star in films himself, but most people are unaware that he had been in films for a while. That aspect alone makes this film worth searching out, even though the film overall is not all that great.
In this film, she's a serious college student who ignores flirtations when first on campus, but can't help but not resist college hero Phillips Holmes (her co-star from "An American Tragedy") who leaves her high and dry after being expelled for immoral behavior with another student. Bluntly, he is the campus playboy, seducing the various co-eds then dumping them, and in the case of Sylvia, gets her pregnant and leaves her without so much as a goodbye. Of course, he's unaware that she was pregnant, but we find out only because she learns third hand that he's left and runs upstairs crying, obviously in trouble about something.
This is where the plot gets strange. She marries Norman Foster, whom we're lead to believe is aware that Holmes is the father of her baby, but when Holmes returns five years into their marriage, it appears that Foster has thought that he was the father all along and accuses Sidney of having deceived him. Sidney must make a decision for not only her own benefit, but the benefit of her cute little boy (Dickie Moore) who takes one look at Holmes and says, "I like you." Considering that both Moore and Holmes are blonde and Foster is dark haired, it is obvious who the father is.
While this gives a nice look at the life on the college campuses of the early 1930's during the depression and explores many of the social aspects of the lives of young adults at the time, this isn't completely satisfying other than the sincere performances of the leads, especially Sylvia Sidney.
The twists and turns it makes, especially towards the end, are inconsistent with things that were explored earlier. The film does indicate the loyalty of the sorority sisters in the fact that when one girl (Claudia Dell) is revealed to have been a passenger in a car that had an accident allegedly after curfew, they refuse to name names when threatened with suspension. Still, they are quite different than the youth of later eras in the fact that they obviously still judge her for alleged immoral behavior.
A dance sequence features Bing Crosby as himself along with the Rhythm Boys (having earlier appeared in Universal's big color musical revue "King of Jazz") when Bing was a recording idol and not yet a movie star. After one more film as himself ("The Big Broadcast"), he was able to swing into becoming a star in films himself, but most people are unaware that he had been in films for a while. That aspect alone makes this film worth searching out, even though the film overall is not all that great.