Original film version of Theodore Dreiser's novel is fairly well done, despite some flaws. Unlike "A Place in the Sun," we get some backstory on the main character Clyde (played by Phillips Holmes).
Sylvia Sidney sparkles as Roberta, Holmes' doomed girlfriend, while Frances Dee, as the rich society girl that Holmes falls for, has a greatly reduced role. Holmes is bland and seems to be just reading his lines, although the final scene with his mother is effective.
The opposing attorneys, played by Irving Pichel (prosecution) and Charles Middleton (defense), are a bit much. In one ridiculous courtroom scene, they start removing their jackets, intending to duke it out.
I kept thinking that it was a good thing that Clyde and Roberta were in a rowboat when the "murder" was committed. Had Clyde used a canoe, he would have been charged with the more serious crime of exerting his white privilege to culturally appropriate a Native American mode of transportation.
Sylvia Sidney sparkles as Roberta, Holmes' doomed girlfriend, while Frances Dee, as the rich society girl that Holmes falls for, has a greatly reduced role. Holmes is bland and seems to be just reading his lines, although the final scene with his mother is effective.
The opposing attorneys, played by Irving Pichel (prosecution) and Charles Middleton (defense), are a bit much. In one ridiculous courtroom scene, they start removing their jackets, intending to duke it out.
I kept thinking that it was a good thing that Clyde and Roberta were in a rowboat when the "murder" was committed. Had Clyde used a canoe, he would have been charged with the more serious crime of exerting his white privilege to culturally appropriate a Native American mode of transportation.