In the history of talkie films there was never a more stalwart hero than Joel McCrea. So much so that he rarely if ever deviated from his screen image. But at times you can go overboard with the nobility and Kept Husbands is a great example.
McCrea is a poor kid from the wrong side of the tracks who probably on scholarship went to college and became an All American. So what does he do upon graduation is go back to the town steel plant to work. Before the action of the film started McCrea saved some lives during a plant accident and he actually refuses an award from the company president. But he does accept an invitation to dinner and there meets Dorothy Mackaill the spoiled daughter of said president Robert McWade.
McWade is a guy who earned his own money, but he married into society and Mackaill and wife Florence Roberts are to the manor born. Still Mackaill likes what she sees in McCrea and who wouldn't and they marry.
But the inevitable quarrels happen and quite frankly these two are just terribly mismatched. She's spoiled, but also he's a bit of a fathead. But this is the movies and this one sure doesn't reflect real life, especially during the Depression when people couldn't afford to be real particular if a chance at some legal money comes along.
For which I'm sure that a lot of the movie-going public who plunked down their dime for admission couldn't believe McCrea's character. It certainly doesn't hold up well for modern times.
McCrea is a poor kid from the wrong side of the tracks who probably on scholarship went to college and became an All American. So what does he do upon graduation is go back to the town steel plant to work. Before the action of the film started McCrea saved some lives during a plant accident and he actually refuses an award from the company president. But he does accept an invitation to dinner and there meets Dorothy Mackaill the spoiled daughter of said president Robert McWade.
McWade is a guy who earned his own money, but he married into society and Mackaill and wife Florence Roberts are to the manor born. Still Mackaill likes what she sees in McCrea and who wouldn't and they marry.
But the inevitable quarrels happen and quite frankly these two are just terribly mismatched. She's spoiled, but also he's a bit of a fathead. But this is the movies and this one sure doesn't reflect real life, especially during the Depression when people couldn't afford to be real particular if a chance at some legal money comes along.
For which I'm sure that a lot of the movie-going public who plunked down their dime for admission couldn't believe McCrea's character. It certainly doesn't hold up well for modern times.