Clara Bow, the famous sexy flapper, was on her way down as a movie star. Universal was able to arrange with Paramount to get her on loan. Universal had bought the rights to a novel, 'The Impatient Virgin", which, back then, was very juicy, practically pornographic. (It wouldn't be now). Universal expected to make a fortune with that combination.
When she saw the script, La Bow bowed out. Too sexy. The script was made especially for her. Bow was a oner. Exeunt Bow, exeunt the story.
When the script, which followed the book closely, was submitted to the MPPDA, the self-censoring body of the major studios, the organization immediately banned the word 'virgin'. They suggested 'maiden' instead.
They advised against nearly the entire script. The film was assigned to two other directors before James Whale was forced to direct it. He didn't want to, he wasn't interested in it.
The Hays office, which is the MPPDA, advised them to take the heat out of the script. They did. It became a different story, and there was not a single scene in it which was actually hot. (There is a seduction. I won't say if it came off or not).
Whale didn't get along with the star, Lew Ayres. Ayres had made a bunch of movies in the last two years, but he still didn't know his craft. Whale never gave him any advice. He hardly spoke to Ayres.
Still the film garnered some friction. A censor board cut out the main part of the appendectomy scene. It said the seduction was all right.
The film died a quick death, did not get much business in the big city venues, was not re-released, and never made it into Europe.
The review from the New York Times, titled 'A Naive Melodrama', by A. D. S., March 4, 1932 says in part:
Everything it has to say is in the title.
On the whole there seems nothing James Whale, the talented director of "Frankenstein" and "Journey's End," could have done about this one.
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