William Holden -- the other one -- collapses on the floor of the Stock Exchange on Black Thursday, wiped out. His spoiled children, Joan Crawford and William Bakewell, watch as the house gets auctioned off. Joan squares her unpadded shoulders, gets a job on a newspaper, and works her way up from covering poultry shows to crime with the help of Cliff Edwards. William gets a job with gangster Clark Gable, selling booze to his society friends. Then comes the St. Valentine's Day Massacre -- this is out of order, and fictionalized. Edwards goes snooping for a story, worms one out of Bakewell, and is rubbed out for his troubles.
It's a handsomely shot pre-code movie, with sexuality freely on display, if symbolically indicated: Natalie Moorhead blowing out Gable's lit match, for example, the way some of the shots of Miss Crawford dancing are entirely below the waist. Under-rated director Harry Beaumont applies his magic, building up Miss Crawford's star, and she's about 80% of the movie, shot so she looks big, even though her 63 inches are small among the six-footers. The movie indicates the coming changes in her star personna, wild society deb, good working girl and works very well throughout.
It's a handsomely shot pre-code movie, with sexuality freely on display, if symbolically indicated: Natalie Moorhead blowing out Gable's lit match, for example, the way some of the shots of Miss Crawford dancing are entirely below the waist. Under-rated director Harry Beaumont applies his magic, building up Miss Crawford's star, and she's about 80% of the movie, shot so she looks big, even though her 63 inches are small among the six-footers. The movie indicates the coming changes in her star personna, wild society deb, good working girl and works very well throughout.