Based on a story by Anita Loos, this hard luck saga of an innocent-urchin-turned-reluctant-moll opens on a note of cool defiance: on trial for the murder of her gangster sugar-daddy, Mary Martin (Loretta Young) meets the prosecutor's accusatory finger from behind the cover of Cosmopolitan. Such glittering contempt, like a Broadway marquee, lights every turn of Martin's journey from shantytown to penthouse, with few sacred institutions—marriage, the courts, high society—spared its penetrating glare. Director William A. Wellman's deftly mobile camera puts a dizzy spin on this urban melodrama while the film's sympathies never leave its heroine's corner.
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Corp. Director: William Wellman. Screenwriter: Kathryn Scola. Cinematography: James Van Trees. Editor: William S. Gray. Cast: Loretta Young, Ricardo Cortez, Franchot Tone, Andy Devine, Una Merkel. 35mm, b/w, 76 min.
