Frederic March is another American professional wrecked on the rocks of booze and a foreign shore. He's a lawyer in Panama who has just hocked his fancy lawyer's desk so he can gamble and drink with 'hostess' Tallulah Bankhead, only she's not having any. Her husband appears, demands the money she has been saving and slaps her around. A gun goes off and she's on trial for her life, with a sobered-up March getting her off. Oil Company owner Harry Davenport likes March's moxie and hires him, and he does very well.
Miss Bankhead also moves away. She heads to New York and when the audience next sees her, she's an interior decorator. She gets engaged to rich stockbroker Scott Kolk. When they go to visit his mother to break the news, his uncle is there. Guess Who!
It's another of those movies which imply there are only about twenty or thirty people in the world, and I find the coincidences bizarre. Miss Bankhead, Mr. March and Mr Davenport are very good, which I found a bit surprising, because this was directed by George Abbot, taking a couple of years off from Broadway to see how the movies were. He didn't stray too far, since this was shot at what is now the Kaufman-Astoria Studio in Queens. After a dozen movies in total, it was back to Broadway, returning to the flickers direct three more movies -- filmed versions of his Broadway hits.
Abbott had first appeared on Broadway in a revival of Gilbert & Sullivan's YEOMAN OF THE GUARD in 1915. He last worked on the stage on a revival of DAMN YANKEES in 1994 and died the following year at the age of 107. Now that's a long run!
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