A selfish nature hidden by sophistication and beauty describes socialite Jean Muir, popular rich girl who avoids getting into trouble by lying over being the cause of the death of a young man she accidentally hit with Robert Cummings' car. Younger tomboy sister Laraine Day suspects the truth and when she learns Muir is hiding evidence, she confronts her but of course the lies are too great. Muir is willing to marry someone she doesn't love just so she can get away when coming goes to prison, but obviously, she's not going to survive her conscience.
I'm thinking that if this had been an a picture, MGM would have taken a chance by casting Judy Garland in a non-singing role in Day's role and and Rutherford as the older sister. But with what we've got, it's an interesting pairing where Muir, having been promising at Warner Brothers yet never moving past B leads and supporting in A's, showed great potential at a studio over stuffed with leading ladies. Here, she's making a one-off appearance, and her character seems to be a bit one-dimensional, an aspect that shows in her performance.
On the other hand, Day, best known as the nurse/love interest in the Dr. Kildare series, is quite good, feisty and filled with spirit and attractive scrubby clothes she wears when working on cars. She really gets the best material here, although it's nice to see Billie Burke as a mother playing a serious role and not being a flighty society matron even though her character is well off.
The opening scene at a club party seems like something that may have been cut out of "The Women", but outside of the catty lines in that scene, this is a very serious film. When Muir slaps her sister for being caught, any sympathy for her goes out the window. Cummings, the victim of the film, doesn't really get you play on any aspects of his character to give him many levels, but he does the best that he can. This film isn't completely believable, but waiting for Muir to get her comeuppance is worth waiting for even if it's ultimately a letdown.
I'm thinking that if this had been an a picture, MGM would have taken a chance by casting Judy Garland in a non-singing role in Day's role and and Rutherford as the older sister. But with what we've got, it's an interesting pairing where Muir, having been promising at Warner Brothers yet never moving past B leads and supporting in A's, showed great potential at a studio over stuffed with leading ladies. Here, she's making a one-off appearance, and her character seems to be a bit one-dimensional, an aspect that shows in her performance.
On the other hand, Day, best known as the nurse/love interest in the Dr. Kildare series, is quite good, feisty and filled with spirit and attractive scrubby clothes she wears when working on cars. She really gets the best material here, although it's nice to see Billie Burke as a mother playing a serious role and not being a flighty society matron even though her character is well off.
The opening scene at a club party seems like something that may have been cut out of "The Women", but outside of the catty lines in that scene, this is a very serious film. When Muir slaps her sister for being caught, any sympathy for her goes out the window. Cummings, the victim of the film, doesn't really get you play on any aspects of his character to give him many levels, but he does the best that he can. This film isn't completely believable, but waiting for Muir to get her comeuppance is worth waiting for even if it's ultimately a letdown.