4/10
An unfocused drama touching on love without marriage and advertising ethics, but with excellent performances by the female stars.
5 February 1999
Very little of this film rings true, especially when sports reporter Richard Dix gets too drunk and forgets to cover the Dempsey-Tunney heavyweight championship fight, which his boss screams is the greatest news story since the armistice. For me, it put two strikes against the film right at the start. When sophisticated stranger Elizabeth Allan then takes Dix home and spends the night I knew the screenplay wasn't going to do much for realism. It's also loaded with stilted dialogue and it can't decide whether it is an exposé of bad advertising ethics or the perils of love without any marriage ties. On the other hand, I loved watching Elizabeth Allan and Doris Kenyon act. Allan steals the film as she becomes Dix's lover (this was a pre-code film) and is hired by him as an artist when he goes into the advertising business, using unethical ads to sell questionable products. Then Dix woos cosmetics magnate Kenyon to get her account at first, but later in ernest. Since Kenyon also gives an excellent performance, the female stars are good reasons to see this film.

Our forgetful filmmakers department: Dix and David Landau both worked for a newspaper called "The Reflector," but when they later discuss their past association, Dix calls it "The Chronicle."
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