A barrister, Jim (Ronald Coleman) is unfaithful to his wife Clemency (Kay Francis) when she is abroad by romancing a shopgirl Doris (Phyllis Barry).

1930s films have a stagey charm about them, and are usually a delight to watch because of this, as well as the nice costumes and some delectable cinematography. This film was not terrible but it wasn’t particularly stellar either.

Ronald Coleman is an actor who I’d always heard about through pop culture references and this was my first foray into his films. Mind you, this wasn’t the reason I picked this film, because if so I’d have been very disappointed. He’s about as romantic as wet wellington boots. Kay Francis was fine as Jim’s wife but she’s not really given a lot to do and thus isn’t fleshed out as a tangible character.

I think this film’s biggest weakness is that its nothing special. It also felt very contrived – why would a random barrister judge a swimsuit competition? It also felt very weird that no actual romance is alluded to within the story, which is strange because this film is pre-Code. This means that it comes across more like an emotional affair rather than a romantic affair.

It’s also quite jarring to watch this film because of its dated ideas and themes about respectability and male and female relationships – such as how the death of Doris reflects badly on Jim’s social life and career, rather than thinking about why Doris did what she did. That’s not the film’s fault, but it really got me thinking.

This film also suffers from a severe lack of personality for the characters. I think characterisation takes more than a few witty quips to have characters seen as likeable or “good”, and I don’t think Doris didn’t have much personality apart from her connection to Jim and even then it was barely tangible.

There is nothing memorable about this film. At this point in time, there is quite a period of time since I saw this film and yet there is nothing memorable about this film that I can recall. Apparently this film is based on a book, and while I’m usually all for reading a book after seeing the film it was adapted into, this is a book I’d probably not want to read.

MY RATING: ** / *****