1931, the year this movie was made, may say "pre code" but the overall tone of the film is as heavily moralistic as any picture shot from 1934 to 1960. The message clearly states that if you're a gal who has a fling with her rich boss that involves sex before marriage (especially, as here, enjoyable sex) then you must pay by suffering diverse punishments, chief among them poverty and familial ostracism. I guess we should be thankful that Constance Bennett's sensual, gold digging model is not made to bump herself off or be physically abused, the fate of late 30s, 40s and 50s ambitious career women in films who slept around, but Bennett's Hester Prynne turn in this prudish work is a long, long way from the cheerful amoralists Blondell and Babs were playing at the same time period. Give it a C.
PS...Gable, in only his second film, is good but I'm glad he shifted from pillar of middle class mores, as here, to amiable rogue.
PS...Gable, in only his second film, is good but I'm glad he shifted from pillar of middle class mores, as here, to amiable rogue.