"Mary" was the widow of one of the gangsters killed in the infamous St. Valentine's Day Massacre in Chicago in 1929. Married at the age of 15 1/2, she had no regrets about his passing, but was constantly hounded by sensation seeking reporters for pictures and a story. At film's beginning she was working as the valued secretary to a wealthy lawyer, who was married, but half in love with his lovely and hard-working "administrative assistant". At the same time, "Mary" was being aggressively wooed by a weakling scion of a wealthy and over-protective father, who despised "Mary" for her past association with a gangster. She marries the weakling anyway, has a son with him, but the father manages to annul the marriage. Neither son nor father knows about the baby at this time. The weakling, of course, runs off to Paris (where else?), marries another girl known as "Flip", and promptly crashes them both in a drunken motor accident. The weakling survives relatively unscathed but "Flip" ends up in a wheel chair for life. Four years later, upon learning that he has a grandson, the domineering father institutes proceedings to wrest guardianship of the little boy from "Mary". How does it all turn out? Why, by one of the more ridiculous deus ex machina endings of which Hollywood was fond. I'll let you find it out for yourself, even though I did check the spoilers box. Oh, yes. I forgot to mention that the lawyer for whom "Mary" worked took suddenly ill and died, so that she came into a legacy of $500,000! How's that for bad luck?! Poor Henry Fonda! He's the weak-kneed son. I despised this character from his first appearance in the film. He's very aggressive when coming on to women, a veritable John Wayne, but an arrant coward when face-to-face with his father. That's not he worst of this crazy, mixed up movie. The editing is worse than poor, it is haphazard. Take the opening scenes which show "Mary" along with companion "Amy" on the way to the cemetery to deliver flowers to the grave of the gangster former husband. Why? "Mary" didn't like him, she said. They are accompanied by a mysterious "Fred", who looks to be a sort of guardian angel to "Mary", but who the heck is he? We never find out, and never see him again. Probably the explanation wound up on the cutting room floor. For that matter, who the heck is "Amy"? We do see her again, but we never find out if she is a relative, or what. Well, there are other mysteries never cleared up, but these will suffice as examples.
There are some compensations for sitting through this mess. Bette, Ian Hunter (the lawyer), and Anita Louise, together make it worth a watch. The scene in which "Mary" and "Flip" meet is very good indeed. As for Henry Fonda, it is maybe not his finest hour, but not even a Barrymore could have made you empathise with this character. Perhaps it attests to his ability as an actor that we do detest his character so much, and the same can be said of Donald Crisp, who plays the mean-spirited father. You will have trouble resisting the impulse to hiss.
There are some compensations for sitting through this mess. Bette, Ian Hunter (the lawyer), and Anita Louise, together make it worth a watch. The scene in which "Mary" and "Flip" meet is very good indeed. As for Henry Fonda, it is maybe not his finest hour, but not even a Barrymore could have made you empathise with this character. Perhaps it attests to his ability as an actor that we do detest his character so much, and the same can be said of Donald Crisp, who plays the mean-spirited father. You will have trouble resisting the impulse to hiss.