Madeleine Carroll hits the American studios in this soap opera mixed with a murder mystery. She is on trial for killing her husband, but charms the all-male jury into finding her not guilty. This so enrages George Brent, the ADA finishing up the case, that he berates them, and claims that the District Attorney deliberately threw the case, then tossed it into his lap to take the heat. He's jailed for contempt, but bailed out by Miss Carroll. Her mother-in-law, Beulah Bondi, has been taking care of her son, Scotty Beckett, and wants Miss Carroll to give him up. Miss Carroll wants Brent to find out who really murdered her husband, and offers him $25,000 if he can prove she did it.
The mystery part of the movie stalls long enough for the case over young Beckett to be ready for judgment before Brent rushes in with the answer to the mystery. The structure makes it clear that the audience is there to watch Miss Carroll suffer, with the mystery an added fillip. From Miss Carroll's viewpoint, it doesn't matter who killed her husband so long as she didn't, and the audience comes to agree.
The script skirts the edge of the Hays Office adroitly, with abortion referred to circumlocutiously, as well as three shady ladies who make a living being kind to gentlemen. But the most adroit part of the movie is the way it offers secondary characters, like Richard Carle's, as part of the background, present, perhaps better defined in Arthur Somers Roche's story, but a sensible part of the background, given just enough to do to make his inclusion good. It's a handsome decision and it pays off in an enjoyable movie. With Arthur Treacher, Alan Mowbray, Esther Dale, Eddie Brophy, Mayo Methot, and June Brewster.
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