A standard theme for many a movie of Hollywood's golden age, this women's picture had a difficult production history, its original version scrapped and re-shot and becoming just another expose of Park Avenue's frivolous rich. Spencer Tracy is outstanding as a lower east side doctor who marries a suicidal débutante Hedy Lamarr and is forced into treating the silly society matrons for diet advice and cat bites rather than the malnutritioned poor just a few miles away. Lamar in the meantime runs into her old flame who had lead her to wanting to jump of a ship in the first place.
Like the radio serials of the time and television soaps yet to come, this film intertwines several troubled relationships around the main plot line, often resulting in becoming convoluted. The always scene- stealing Verree Teasdale plays Lamarr's self-absorbed best friend who always seems to hear only half of what anybody says to her, but it is very clear that underneath all that narcissistic persona is a woman scared to face reality out of society. The film is at its best when they are dealing with the simpler folk like chatty Marjorie Main and black handyman Willie Best whose slow-witted character of Sambo stares at the couple's wedding cake with child-like anticipation. The art direction is pretty to look at, particularly the outrageous nightclub setting with huge zebras on the wall. Plotwise, the film has too much going on as well as being a retread of a few other films that MGM made at the same time.
Like the radio serials of the time and television soaps yet to come, this film intertwines several troubled relationships around the main plot line, often resulting in becoming convoluted. The always scene- stealing Verree Teasdale plays Lamarr's self-absorbed best friend who always seems to hear only half of what anybody says to her, but it is very clear that underneath all that narcissistic persona is a woman scared to face reality out of society. The film is at its best when they are dealing with the simpler folk like chatty Marjorie Main and black handyman Willie Best whose slow-witted character of Sambo stares at the couple's wedding cake with child-like anticipation. The art direction is pretty to look at, particularly the outrageous nightclub setting with huge zebras on the wall. Plotwise, the film has too much going on as well as being a retread of a few other films that MGM made at the same time.