Photos

Edit

Cast

Complete credited cast:
	Gloria Swanson	...	Geraldine 'Gerry' Trent
	Ben Lyon	...	Tony Blake
	Monroe Owsley	...	Jim Woodward
	Barbara Kent	...	Joan Trent
	Arthur Lake	...	Buster Collins
	Maude Eburne	...	Aunt Kate
	Henry Kolker	...	Mr. Woodward
	Nella Walker	...	Mrs. Woodward

See full cast »

View production, box office, & company info

Edit

Storyline

On New Year's Eve, Geraldine ('Jerry') Trent decides to break up with her boyfriend Jim Woodward, having finally grown tired of his dishonesty and his infidelities. Soon afterward, Geraldine meets and falls in love with novelist Anthony Blake. Blake knows that she has had a man in her past, but he is content as long as he never finds out who it was. All seems well until her sister Joan returns from a trip, and happily introduces Woodward as the new man in her life. Written by Snow Leopard

Plot Summary | Add Synopsis

Plot Keywords:

Taglines:

Through one indiscretion--a woman with a future became a woman with a past

Genres:

Comedy | Drama | Musical | Romance

Certificate:

Passed | See all certifications »

Parents Guide:

View content advisory »

Edit

Did You Know?

Trivia

This film is one of over 200 titles in the list of independent feature films made available for television presentation by Advance Television Pictures announced in Motion Picture Herald 4 April 1942. At this time, television broadcasting was in its infancy, almost totally curtailed by the advent of World War II, and would not continue to develop until 1945-1946. Because of poor documentation (feature films were often not identified by title in conventional sources) no record has yet been found of its initial television broadcast. See more »

Quotes

Jim Woodward: I'm really serious. I really mean it this time, Gerry!
Geraldine Trent: Mean what?
Jim Woodward: Well, marriage...and...and...all that.
Geraldine Trent: No; I'm afraid there's be, uh, too little marriage and too much "all that."
See more »

Connections

Featured in Hollywood Singing and Dancing: A Musical History - The 1920s: The Dawn of the Hollywood Musical (2008) See more »

Soundtracks

Come to Me
(uncredited)
Music by Ray Henderson
Lyrics by Buddy G. DeSylva and Lew Brown
Performed by Gloria Swanson
See more »

User Reviews

Swanson is really terrific, the story is strong and decent, though a bit ordinary

27 July 2012 | by secondtake – See all my reviews

Indiscreet (1931)

"I guess I'm just a modern girl with an old fashion conscience." This is Gloria Swanson's character facing what must have been a nearly universal problem of a young woman in the 1920s and 30s. (The parallel these days would be the problem many women face of choosing between career and family.) The problem is severe here, because it has to do with love. And women were expected to save their virtue (at least physically) for the one they would marry. And if they did not "wait" (as no doubt many or most did not, one way or another), should the "tell" the one they are to be with for good.

This is a lot to handle--it's real, it matters, and it treads on themes not easily touched in movies without being too frank. Luckily this is pre-Code Hollywood and there was room for diving in, a little.

The best parts of this movie are simply incredible. The writing and acting in the long scene about twenty minutes in is as tender and honest and nuanced as it gets. The man playing against Swanson in this section is good, an excellent support who doesn't overplay his hand, but it's Swanson who makes it a sincerely felt and penetrating.

The filming throughout is fairly simple. Sometimes there is a sense of camera movement to help inhabit the space, but more often it's about tight framing and composition, which is just a step from the frozen camera on a tripod. This pushes more importance on the actors, their movements and expressions.

Swanson is most famous as a silent actress. This is partly because she really was a legendary silent star (her most famous movies might be "Sadie Thompson" in 1928 or the earlier "Don't Change Your Husband", but she also did a quasi-pre-cursor to this, "The Scarlet Letter" in 1926). But Swanson is also the great silent icon in Billy Wilder's 1950 "Sunset Blvd," and this oddly is her greatest fame (and for good reason, she's amazing, as is the movie). But here, in 1931, we have an early talkie with Swanson doing just fine in normal voice, even singing some.

The director here, it might be fun to note, also directed such enduring gems as the two versions of the same story, "Love Affair" and "Affair to Remember," as well as a pair of snappy Dunne/Grant movies. This one shows the early talent for comedy and serious drama rolled into a single movie with surprising force.

To be clear, there are lots of this movie that don't rise up. It's all entertaining and generally well executed (you have to overlook a couple of hammy secondary characters). But it doesn't gel or show even the originality of the movies of its own time, let alone over time. If you like this era and these themes, or Gloria Swanson, do check it out. Avoid the easily downloaded version (legally) on the internet--the sound is atrocious and fragmented.