I don't care if no one ever finds this comment helpful, but it has to be said. This movie goes beyond 1930's ladies' matinée three-hankie weepy into the depths of unnecessary tragedy, and most people will not even realize it.
====== SPOILERS ====== The main character is Eve Appleton (played wonderfully by the beautiful and sensitive Kay Francis). Eve is a small-town woman with high aspirations as an actress and the talent to make her dreams come true. But through nothing more than bad luck, her ambitions lead to an un-premeditated killing by her decent but clueless husband, which leads to his conviction and life-sentence for murder. She vows to get him released and to devote the rest of her life to being a good little wife. She struggles for years to reach the highest levels as an actress, winning fame on both sides of the Atlantic, which finally gives her the money to pay for the lawyers and political contacts that will get her husband out of prison. The movie ends with her and her little girl walking the long, dusty road to the prison to be re-united with her husband, undoubtedly to follow through with her promise to love, honor, and obey forever and ever amen THE END.
Baloney (or worse)!! In the eight years over which the story unfolds, we see Eve's incredible strength of character and determination to achieve her goals as she struggles up the performing ranks from carnival shows to (pre-stripper) burlesque to vaudeville to Broadway and London. We see her pain as she must turn the raising of her infant daughter over to a faded starlet who really loves the child and raises her well but who keeps secret from the daughter who her real mommy and daddy are. We can be hopeful for a happy ending as we realize that not only has Eve (now known as Wilson) attained the heights of her career but now has the love of a Broadway producer who understands her better than her small-town husband--whom she no longer loves--could ever dream to.
I hoped so much that after she freed her husband, he would learn that she hadn't been a Manhattan nanny all those years, that he would realize that they were no longer right for each other, that he would absolve her of her promise, and they could finally go on their respective ways to their separate happinesses.
But no. And here comes the part where I don't care what anyone else thinks of my comments.
Whether anyone knows it or not, our lives are ruled by philosophy, dealing with answers to questions such as... Do I recognize and adhere to the facts of reality, or do I ignore them and pretend they don't matter? Or... Do I act to achieve my goals and happiness or do I give them up to serve others as if their goals matter but mine don't?
Recognizing reality would have required Eve to admit that she would be living in a fantasy world to think she could keep the truth of her past life a secret from her husband forever. She had become an internationally known beauty and would have to live in constant fear that somebody might someday recognize her and tell her husband. She must spend the rest of her life pretending to love a man and hope he never notices the lie. She must perpetually shush her daughter into silence, the daughter who by then not only knows her true mother's identity but also her mother's phenomenal success. And Eve is REALLY fantasizing if she thinks she can suppress everything in her without becoming embittered and resentful and turning into the exact opposite of the loving wife she wishes to be for her husband. All this is contrary to every fact the movie has shown us about her. So Eve will have to live as if facts are subservient to her wishes and fears, as if reality means nothing.
Worse yet philosophically is the moral lesson the movie implicitly preaches. Surrender your hopes and dreams. You made a promise and must keep it no matter how much you or your husband or the whole world have changed. But most of all, you have no right to your happiness since duty, service, sacrifice, self-denial, submission, surrender are the essence of the moral principle called altruism which unfortunately rules the world. America with its unique notion of the individual's "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" came closest to rejecting this prehistoric morality, but altruism lives on, in the world at large and in America, so I should not be surprised that it also ruled at Warner Brothers in the 1930's. But I had hoped, all the way up to the end, for a happy and MORAL ending such as Eve and the American audience deserve.
This doesn't mean don't see the movie. Kay Francis and several admirable supporting characters raise this film above mediocre. But be aware that the makers of this movie expect you to believe that Eve has done the right thing by sacrificing her ambitions. If you find yourself bothered by this ending, I hope I may have given you a clue why you are right to feel disturbed.
====== SPOILERS ====== The main character is Eve Appleton (played wonderfully by the beautiful and sensitive Kay Francis). Eve is a small-town woman with high aspirations as an actress and the talent to make her dreams come true. But through nothing more than bad luck, her ambitions lead to an un-premeditated killing by her decent but clueless husband, which leads to his conviction and life-sentence for murder. She vows to get him released and to devote the rest of her life to being a good little wife. She struggles for years to reach the highest levels as an actress, winning fame on both sides of the Atlantic, which finally gives her the money to pay for the lawyers and political contacts that will get her husband out of prison. The movie ends with her and her little girl walking the long, dusty road to the prison to be re-united with her husband, undoubtedly to follow through with her promise to love, honor, and obey forever and ever amen THE END.
Baloney (or worse)!! In the eight years over which the story unfolds, we see Eve's incredible strength of character and determination to achieve her goals as she struggles up the performing ranks from carnival shows to (pre-stripper) burlesque to vaudeville to Broadway and London. We see her pain as she must turn the raising of her infant daughter over to a faded starlet who really loves the child and raises her well but who keeps secret from the daughter who her real mommy and daddy are. We can be hopeful for a happy ending as we realize that not only has Eve (now known as Wilson) attained the heights of her career but now has the love of a Broadway producer who understands her better than her small-town husband--whom she no longer loves--could ever dream to.
I hoped so much that after she freed her husband, he would learn that she hadn't been a Manhattan nanny all those years, that he would realize that they were no longer right for each other, that he would absolve her of her promise, and they could finally go on their respective ways to their separate happinesses.
But no. And here comes the part where I don't care what anyone else thinks of my comments.
Whether anyone knows it or not, our lives are ruled by philosophy, dealing with answers to questions such as... Do I recognize and adhere to the facts of reality, or do I ignore them and pretend they don't matter? Or... Do I act to achieve my goals and happiness or do I give them up to serve others as if their goals matter but mine don't?
Recognizing reality would have required Eve to admit that she would be living in a fantasy world to think she could keep the truth of her past life a secret from her husband forever. She had become an internationally known beauty and would have to live in constant fear that somebody might someday recognize her and tell her husband. She must spend the rest of her life pretending to love a man and hope he never notices the lie. She must perpetually shush her daughter into silence, the daughter who by then not only knows her true mother's identity but also her mother's phenomenal success. And Eve is REALLY fantasizing if she thinks she can suppress everything in her without becoming embittered and resentful and turning into the exact opposite of the loving wife she wishes to be for her husband. All this is contrary to every fact the movie has shown us about her. So Eve will have to live as if facts are subservient to her wishes and fears, as if reality means nothing.
Worse yet philosophically is the moral lesson the movie implicitly preaches. Surrender your hopes and dreams. You made a promise and must keep it no matter how much you or your husband or the whole world have changed. But most of all, you have no right to your happiness since duty, service, sacrifice, self-denial, submission, surrender are the essence of the moral principle called altruism which unfortunately rules the world. America with its unique notion of the individual's "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" came closest to rejecting this prehistoric morality, but altruism lives on, in the world at large and in America, so I should not be surprised that it also ruled at Warner Brothers in the 1930's. But I had hoped, all the way up to the end, for a happy and MORAL ending such as Eve and the American audience deserve.
This doesn't mean don't see the movie. Kay Francis and several admirable supporting characters raise this film above mediocre. But be aware that the makers of this movie expect you to believe that Eve has done the right thing by sacrificing her ambitions. If you find yourself bothered by this ending, I hope I may have given you a clue why you are right to feel disturbed.