That seems to be the million dollar question in this quite quirky movie that could never have been made after the enforcement of the code. It didn't seem to know whether it wanted to be light hearted in approach to a taboo subject or bring on the heavy dramatics!!
Mary Smith (Evalyn Knapp) is hauled into night court for soliciting, she concocts a far fetched story that she was merely waiting for her fiancée who didn't show up. Also in court is drunken blue blood Jimmy Martin (English actor Walter Byron who seems to have made a career out of playing the same part) who stands up and confesses that he is her wayward fiancée - and desperate Mary calls his bluff!! It's almost as though Byron has been told to keep his approach good humoured while the rest of the cast has been advised to go for the melodramatics.
They return to Mary's flat married - but she then confesses there was no fiancée and that she was desperate and hungry, then Jimmy starts an in-depth conversation about the merits of cream eclairs verses custard ones!! After twenty minutes the light hearted banter is out the window - Jimmy's mother finds out about the marriage (she is desperate for him to marry snooty Marjorie (Dorothy Christy)), Mary realises that if Jimmy stays married to her it will jeopardize his inheritance and also Jimmy's pal is moving in on Mary's vulnerableness and causes another breach between the two love birds. Jason Robards takes time out from playing crooked lawyers and politicians to play a crooked pal!!
And just when you wondered if Marie Prevost was going to re-appear (for her star billing she had only uttered one sentence during the night court sequence) she meets up with Mary again. Mary has started a new life, away from the "idle rich" as a cinema cashier and Nellie finds her pregnant and desperate. Yes, that's right, even though they are now divorced, there was a night when Jimmie's passions got the better of him!! Nowadays, it would be called rape - in this strange little movie Mary's forlornness afterwards leaves the viewer in no question as to what had just occurred and when Jimmy confesses what happened, his valet calls him all the names under the sun.
The ending is pretty odd - when Mary finds Jimmy is to be married, suddenly the most important thing in the world is for him to acknowledge his son - odd, because five minutes before, it wasn't!! And Nellie's last words would not be heard in a film after 1934 for probably quite a few decades!!
Evalyn Knapp's bright and breezy personality helped her carry off many a far fetched role and none more so than this one!! She probably thought she was on her way when she was cast in "Sinner's Holiday" but unfortunately both Joan Blondell and James Cagney made their feature debuts so Knapp was lost in the shuffle. So much so that by 1932 she had only a bit as a workmate of Ann Dvorak in "The Strange Love of Molly Louvain" but by this time she was thoroughly entrenched in programmers which kept her busy throughout the 1930s. Poor Evalyn, not even being named as a 1932 Wampas Baby Star helped!!
Mary Smith (Evalyn Knapp) is hauled into night court for soliciting, she concocts a far fetched story that she was merely waiting for her fiancée who didn't show up. Also in court is drunken blue blood Jimmy Martin (English actor Walter Byron who seems to have made a career out of playing the same part) who stands up and confesses that he is her wayward fiancée - and desperate Mary calls his bluff!! It's almost as though Byron has been told to keep his approach good humoured while the rest of the cast has been advised to go for the melodramatics.
They return to Mary's flat married - but she then confesses there was no fiancée and that she was desperate and hungry, then Jimmy starts an in-depth conversation about the merits of cream eclairs verses custard ones!! After twenty minutes the light hearted banter is out the window - Jimmy's mother finds out about the marriage (she is desperate for him to marry snooty Marjorie (Dorothy Christy)), Mary realises that if Jimmy stays married to her it will jeopardize his inheritance and also Jimmy's pal is moving in on Mary's vulnerableness and causes another breach between the two love birds. Jason Robards takes time out from playing crooked lawyers and politicians to play a crooked pal!!
And just when you wondered if Marie Prevost was going to re-appear (for her star billing she had only uttered one sentence during the night court sequence) she meets up with Mary again. Mary has started a new life, away from the "idle rich" as a cinema cashier and Nellie finds her pregnant and desperate. Yes, that's right, even though they are now divorced, there was a night when Jimmie's passions got the better of him!! Nowadays, it would be called rape - in this strange little movie Mary's forlornness afterwards leaves the viewer in no question as to what had just occurred and when Jimmy confesses what happened, his valet calls him all the names under the sun.
The ending is pretty odd - when Mary finds Jimmy is to be married, suddenly the most important thing in the world is for him to acknowledge his son - odd, because five minutes before, it wasn't!! And Nellie's last words would not be heard in a film after 1934 for probably quite a few decades!!
Evalyn Knapp's bright and breezy personality helped her carry off many a far fetched role and none more so than this one!! She probably thought she was on her way when she was cast in "Sinner's Holiday" but unfortunately both Joan Blondell and James Cagney made their feature debuts so Knapp was lost in the shuffle. So much so that by 1932 she had only a bit as a workmate of Ann Dvorak in "The Strange Love of Molly Louvain" but by this time she was thoroughly entrenched in programmers which kept her busy throughout the 1930s. Poor Evalyn, not even being named as a 1932 Wampas Baby Star helped!!