The staging and performances of this movie betray its stage origins. Despite the best efforts of cinematographer Edward Cronjager, this is a one-set Broadway play, with Lowell Sherman playing an urbane sponge, about to marry creditor Frances Dade. Meanwhile, Alice Joyce (in her penultimate screen role) is caught between Lowell and wealthy David Manners.
Everyone is very charming in this show and behaves in a most understanding manner, until David Manners decides to shoot Sherman. However, while it might have appealed to the Broadway audience of the 1920s as a serious work, it creaks. Lowell Sherman makes his character interesting by self-aware stage business, but his future lay in direction.
Everyone is very charming in this show and behaves in a most understanding manner, until David Manners decides to shoot Sherman. However, while it might have appealed to the Broadway audience of the 1920s as a serious work, it creaks. Lowell Sherman makes his character interesting by self-aware stage business, but his future lay in direction.