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Bette Davis is a free-spirited, cool-as-a-cucumber commercial artists who keeps rebuffing marriage proposals from her boyfriend, the owner of an advertising agency. Why? Because she thinks marriage will lose its spark. Complacency and boredom will settle in, and then what. Bette's character eventually relents, but her reservations prove accurate. Gene Raymond plays the love interest, and he's quite good, a character who is serious and has gravitas.

The cast includes Frank McHugh as a stuffed shirt seemingly oblivious to the attentions of his gorgeous wife, played by Claire Dodd. Monroe Owsley and Kay Strozzi also give good turns as glamorous society types who come between Davis and Raymond. Ex-Lady is not so much sexually suggestive as sexually obvious. Even by pre-code standards, not much is left to the imagination. Bette Davis looks beautiful; cinematographer Tony Gaudio captures her ethereal beauty, something Warner Brothers boss Jack Warner failed to appreciate. Clocking in at 67 minutes, Ex-Lady doesn't overstay its welcome.

If the script of this movie was a little better this could have really been something. The force of Bette Davis in this film is captivating. Consider this is 1933 as the code nears and she is prancing around in plunging necklines in nightgowns while in bed with her co-star Gene Raymond. The subject matter of this film considers illicit affairs and to understand this Warner Brothers film a little better it helps to know the director was French. Still, the script was American and for The Great Depression the scenes of the high-ceiling city apartments with the flashy gowns and suits and costumes and nightlife must have seen so foreign and glamorous to audiences at the time. To think that 90 years later I can watch this movie and feel the same way as most of America did looking at this film - such a foreign place, time and atmosphere that we may never get back. In many ways, I wonder if this film was ahead of its time or a reflection of the 1920's good times or a mix of Hollywood selling fantasyland to a depressed America. No matter which way you take this movie, the energy of Bette Davis is always something to behold. Interesting that Raymond, who married MGM star Jeanette McDonald, is not better remembered. He reminds me of Paul Henreid, and shows some good chops here. As I say, if this script was a point or two better, this film could have been an 8 but I give it a 7 primarily for the great acting of Davis, the solid performance by Raymond, the great costumes and to be frank - the shock value of how scandalous this seems to me now putting the film in the context of its time and place.

100 years after her birth, in 2008, to the credit of the greatest actor of the 20th century, it's impossible to separate the personal empowerment of Bette Davis' viewers from societies becoming more gender & sexually egalitarian.

"Ex-Lady" is the film version of an unperformed (1931) play "Illicit." By 1933, the blatant sexuality of "Ex-Lady" was close to being considered censor-able. Warner Bros'. production explores the subject of open marriage way before it was popular. Brazen director, French Robert Florey accentuates the acute blend of delicious dialog, succinct script, on-point performances & sensual cinematography.

Helen Bauer (Bette Davis at 25yo) is a sexy, fashion illustrator. Don Peterson (Gene Raymond at 22yo) is an advertising executive who's proposed marriage to Helen; but, she initially refuses not wanting to give up her independence. Much to the chagrin of Helen's overly moralistic father, Adolphe Bauer (Alphonso Ethier), the unwed couple is obviously having a live-in sexual relationship. Had this film been released later, these sexual aspects of an unwed relationship would've been censor-able due to the Hayes Code.

What's more, after Miss Bauer eventually becomes Mrs. Peterson, Helen's reluctance to marry comes across like the woman has intuition, when her husband begins a sexual flirtation with the bored, flapper wife, Iris Van Hugh (Claire Dodd), of his alcoholic business rival, Hugo Van Hugh (Frank McHugh). When Helen tries to platonically date a handsome rouge, Nick Malvyn (Monroe Owsley), he unsuccessfully attempts to make an adulteress of her!

Several examples of delightful dialog make my points plain:

Don (Raymond): "I'm just about fed up with sneaking in...let's get married so I'll have the right to be with you." Helen (Davis): "What do you mean 'right'? I don't like the word 'right'." Don: "Let's not quibble about words." Helen: "No, I'm not quibbling, 'right' means something. No one has any 'rights' about me, except me."

Helen soft & sincerely conveys what Bette Davis believed: women are men's equals. Part of the reason such films appeal(ed) to Davis' audiences so much is because she portrays empowered women. Helen 'says without saying' that she has the 'right' not to get married & enjoy her sexuality, too (in 1933!).

When Helen (Davis) says: "I don't want babies," Davis commented later in her life (1971), there'd be fewer divorces if couples didn't marry simply to have sex & babies. If her point, that couples who get married ought to do so because they are very strongly committed to one another, hasn't been socially adopted in the US yet, & couples still wed for moralistic reasons, Davis' Helen conveys a higher moral reason for marriage: a feminist one that holds very heavy weight today, since equality between women & men is all the more prevalent, as this early 20th century dialog reveals:

Don (Raymond): "You're a successful woman; I ought not to like it." Helen (Davis): "You're a pretty successful man; I ought not to like it." Don & Helen simultaneously: "I'm a man!"

As usual, Bette Davis' unique set of physical & verbal expressions convey a woman's power; this time without disempowering her man. This remains her appeal to women & men: as a woman's role model who is eventually actualized & an independent woman who men do love. In this sense, Bette Davis' characters, as role models of empowered women, have far reaching effects upon changing the social status of women to be equal to men and reveals that men do like it.

Well, well, imagine my surprise when I saw two people in a double bed. That's right - precode, no whitewash.

Bette Davis and Gene Raymond star in "Ex-Lady," about talented illustrator Helen Bauer, a career girl with very definite ideas about marriage - she's against it. Don (Raymond) has a key to her apartment, but he finally talks her into marriage.

After a wonderful Havana honeymoon, the two return to find his ad agency, at which she now works, is in shambles. The two seem to grow unhappier until they decide it's just not working.

But while separated, he and Helen find that the emotions they thought they left behind in marriage are still very much present.

I wasn't as enthusiastic about "Ex-Lady" as some of the other posters. It's slow-moving and stagy. It's based on an unproduced play, and it's not hard to see why it wasn't produced.

Still, it's fascinating - Davis is all of about 28, tiny and pretty, and her screen persona is as yet unset. The feminist premise is very interesting, as are all of the precode elements.

Davis and Raymond display quite a bit of chemistry, and talk about not having your screen persona - Frank McHugh wanders around as if he's on another planet! There's also a rendition of a cut version of Wagner's "Dich, teure Halle" at a party.

Davis does fine in her role, but of course, this isn't the type of thing she would shine in once Warners caught on. Raymond has never impressed me much, but if Jeannette MacDonald was forced to marry him, apparently he impressed Louis B. Mayer.

All in all, "Ex-Lady" is worth seeing for early Davis and as a pre-code film, which makes some of the movie seem quite modern.

'Ex-Lady's' reviews here are mixed, some liking/loving it and others not caring for it. Both sides understandable. My main reasons for seeing it were for Bette Davis (whoo always was a great actress, her performance in 'All About Eve' in particular is a favourite), in an early role when her career was more variable, and for the unconventional and ahead of the time subject matter (back when films got away with more before the code was enforced) which would be an interest point really for any film buff.

By all means 'Ex-Lady' is not one of Davis' best films, nowhere near close, she herself did not think so. To me though, it is still a very interesting film (one of her more interesting early films) and a very enjoyable one that does deserve to be better known, if mainly for curiosity and historical value. Both as a Davis completest, or at least trying to see as many of her films as possible, and to see how films were pre-code and were able to take more risks.

Did think that it was a bit stagy in spots and that the drama could have opened up more.

Also Kay Strozzi overdoes it dreadfully, not funny or endearing at all and quite annoying. The ending felt a bit on the pat side.

However, Davis, although she would give much better performances later when the quality of her films became more consistent in a good way, shows a deft comic touch and totally at ease with her material. Gene Raymond shares a witty but also surprisingly tender at times chemistry with her and although his presence isn't quite as arresting he is certainly not as bland as he could be. Frank McHugh brings a lot of energy to his role as does a wonderfully snide Monrow Owsley. The direction is hardly indifferent and makes great use of Davis.

The dialogue is full of snap and sizzle, witty but also sophisticated, while the story makes the most of the unconventional subject with a fair share of daring moments, in a way one is surprised that such an early film got away with what it contains. The production values are tasteful and elegant, though the photography could have been a little more refined in places, standing out especially are Davis' clothes which are things of beauty.

Overall, not great but enjoyable fun and wonderfully ahead of its time. 7/10

Bette Davis plays Helen Bauer, a woman who does not want to get married and be tied down to one man. However she does have a lover named Don Peterson(Gene Raymond). He persuades her to marry him. They do and things rapidly fall apart.

Once considered pretty shocking this is tame by todays standards. The discussions about love and sex are actually quite funny in this day and age. But the movie moves quickly (it's only a little over an hour) and Davis and Raymond play off each other very well. Davis in later years bad-mouthed this film but it's actually pretty good. Worth catching.

Bette Davis Pre-Code film about a "free-spirit" (Davis) who doesn't believe in marriage. Eventually she caves to pressure and marries beau Gene Raymond (dig those eyebrows). Marriage takes its toll and ol' Gene starts fooling around on Bette. That's not good. Hope these two crazy kids can make it work.

So-so soaper is a remake of the Barbara Stanwyck movie Illicit. This version is less creaky than that one but still its only real value is to Pre-Code buffs and those who admire its unconventional subject matter, which was daring for the time. Despite poor posture, young Bette looks great in one tight dress after another. She enunciates every word in that manner that was so popular among "sophisticated" people in movies back then (fatha, motha, stahved, etc). Fun stuff. If you're a big fan of Bette, check it out. Otherwise, I wouldn't bother.

Going into Ex-Lady I really didn't expect Bette Davis to have that much chemistry with Gene Raymond, who has never been a particular favorite of mine; I always considered him too feminine a leading man, with that blonde hair and non-threatening, laid back physique. However in this film I was pleasantly surprised: I think working with dynamo Bette made Gene a much better actor. I get the feeling he really went to school watching her, and gave a performance to match. I like him a lot better here than in Red Dust, for instance.

The plot of Ex-Lady dances around a provocative subject quite deftly, with witty dialog and great pacing. Bette plays a successful commercial artist who is in love with a fellow who wants to marry her, but she is unwilling to take the plunge. She'd rather live in sin with her beloved. Even when confronted by her parents she defies tradition. However eventually she decides to marry her lover so that she doesn't lose him. The marriage has some jittery ups and downs, and in the interim we are treated to some fine character actors playing mischief makers popping in and out of the couple's life, creating mayhem.

Frank McHugh is quite funny and breezy as their ultimate matchmaker - even though he has his own secret yen for the artist, he does what he can to resolve the situation sacrificially. Monroe Owsley ("Private Number") is a leering confrontative distraction to Bette. Striking Kay Strozzi makes her play for the husband too desperately for her own good. All this makes for wonderful fun. However once again, as with most precode films, we have a traditional, conservative ending to our story. This may be realistic, it may not, to each his own. I prefer happy endings myself.

9 out of 10.

If this remake of 1931's ILLICIT was Bette Davis' first starring role, that would go a long way towards explaining why she looks like she was starving to death and had been dressed in her work clothes by a four-year old. No one ever claimed that Bette Davis was an object of lust for the male American public -- although there is a moment about the 35-minute mark when, standing on the street, spotting Gene Raymond getting into a cab with Kay Strozzi, when her eyes flash. However, everything about this production looks like Darryl F. Zanuck realized there was a hole in the schedule, picked out a script from the archives, and by the next day they shooting.

It's not simply that Orry-Kelly doesn't know how to dress Miss Davis. It looks like Jack Okey doesn't know how to dress a set. Neither is the movie populated by actors who had long careers with the Warners, Miss Davis and Frank McHugh aside. Within two years, it seems, everyone else was reduced to bits or gone. If Miss Davis' career survived this mess, it is because she speaks her lines with absolute conviction.

I saw this on TCM one day & was so delighted I actually recorded it. It is a rare gem and I found the screenplay and acting both believable and enjoyable. As many reviewers have noted, it is Pre-Code, meaning that women are allowed cleavage and men and women were portrayed in a natural way- that is sleeping in the same bed. (I actually remember asking my mom one time why Ricky Ricardo & Lucy slept in separate beds if they were married? What did they do, squeeze into that tiny bed the night Ricky, Jr. was conceived?! Preposterous! As most of the post-code was.)

But the 2 main strong points of the movie are Bette (of course) and the dialog. Bette plays Helen Bauer, a successful commercial artist and Gene Raymond plays Don Peterson, a successful advertising manager. There's a part early on in the movie when Helen & Don are discussing their relationship and it goes like this:

Don: "I'm just about fed up with sneaking in... let's get married so I'll have the right to be with you." Helen: "What do you mean 'right'? I don't like the word right." Don: "Let's not quibble about words." Helen: "No, I'm not quibbling, right means something. No one has any rights about me, except me."

And it's the WAY she says it, that means so much. She is able to say it and really mean it- without offending him.

Her character believes that women have the same rights as men. This is something I've always believed in very strongly myself, so I admit this is part of the reason the movie appeals to me so much. She also believes that she doesn't *have* to get married. And there's one part of the movie where she actually says the "dread" line, "I don't want babies." I look for the smelling salts as I write this! All kidding aside- good luck finding a female character this independent nowadays. I have to be honest- if more people thought like her, there would be less divorce. Her point is well taken- you should only really enter into marriage if you really want to. People marry for all kinds of reasons that have nothing to do with it. Helen's character even holds to her beliefs in the face of a very disapproving father. Even in the confrontation scene, she maintains her dignity and her beliefs without criticizing her parents' beliefs. There's another bit of dialog that shows how she thinks:

Gene: "You're a successful woman; I ought not to like it." Bette: "You're a pretty successful man; I ought not to like it." Gene & Bette in unison: "I'm a man!"

--- and Bette's body language says it all- she conveys the strength of will without robbing the man of his- something she has always been able to do so well and enigmatically. This also shows she's realistic- she's knows the times she lives in. And people that think that way will always be modern and contemporary. It definitely gives viewers a reason to watch something this amazing- especially considering it was made in 1933!

The rest of the cast if good and her partner in the movie played by Gene Raymond does a very nice job. They have a good chemistry on screen. As this is a pre-code movie and early Bette, I suppose those 2 reasons alone would make it worth watching- but the script and acting are also really good.

• update: I was looking at this movie today on IMDb and saw that 5 out of 10 people found my review helpful....what? did I hit a nerve with baby comment? or was it the one about only entering into marriage for love? I dunno but I thought I reviewed the movie and gave info that would help someone decide if it's the kind of movie they want to watch. Isn't that what the reviews are here for? to help?

Then I noticed ALL the reviews are like that (12 out of 24, 5 out of 10) so I guess somebody out there just doesn't like this movie. Maybe a post-code mentality?? ;)

In her first starring role in "Ex-Lady," Bette Davis proves that she is more than capable of heading the cast. Gene Raymond provides great support as her costar. One reviewer appears to have Raymond confused with Franchot Tone, but admits that he is confused by the film itself. Tone was busy at MGM at the time "Ex-Lady" was produced.

Good acting and a slightly snappy script keep your interest afloat for this light sex comedy about marriage and early woman's lib. Decadent 30's New York is the background for this I-was-checking-out-while-she-was-checking-in (thank you, Don Covay!) tale of wavering fidelity.

EX-LADY (Warner Brothers, 1933), directed by Robert Florey, stars Bette Davis in her first leading role. Already two years into the motion picture business, and only a year at the Warner studio, Davis might have elevated herself to a leading status, but would take a few more years before taken seriously as an actress worthy of superior movie roles. Rather than offering Davis an original premise, the studio awarded her a remake of the more recent release of ILLICIT (1931) starring Barbara Stanwyck, James Rennie and Ricardo Cortez. For this retelling with some alterations, Davis plays a modern-day woman living by her way of thinking, with material predating the frankness and carefree living revolution of the 1960s and 70s.

The plot deals with Helen Bauer (Bette Davis), a commercial artist, in love with Donald Peterson (Gene Raymond), an advertising writer, who agrees to Helen's advanced idea of living together without getting married. She is confronted by her stern father (Alphonse Ethier), who opposes to her liberal ideas, while Helen considers her father's way of living old-fashioned and out of date. Although she feels getting married would complicate matters with her relationship, Donald prefers to make things right. After agreeing to a wedding ring, both Helen and Don find their joy of romance has now dimmed, causing Donald to lose his accounts in business to later focus his attention on Peggy Smith (Kay Strozzi), a wealthy advertiser,. After leaving her husband, Helen focuses her attentions on Nick Malvin (Monroe Owsley), Donald's competitor. Featuring Frank McHugh (Hugo Van Hugh); Claire Dodd (Iris Van Hugh); Ferdinald Gottschalk (Mr. Smith); Bodil Rosing (Mrs. Bauer); Gay Seabrooke and Bobby Gordon.

While EX-LADY is an interesting but dull pre-production code melodrama, its sole interest is on the young Bette Davis. As much as she may appear out of place as a modern-day woman with loose morals, she does what she could to make her performance believable, right down to her cigarette smoking manner that has become the Bette Davis trademark. With this being Davis' sole working opposite Gene Raymond, they satisfy but not enough to show any chemistry between them, even when sleeping in the same bed for the night. At 67 minutes, other than Davis and Raymond as center of attention throughout, some scenes, which might have been considered daring at the time, seem awfully tame by today's standards. Regardless, it's interesting to see the sort of material that got by to label EX-LADY something more than an an adult melodrama.

Aside from a 1974 broadcast on WPHL, Channel 17 in Philadelphia, EX-LADY has become a rarely seen movie gem until the days of cable television as Turner Network Television (TNT) and finally Turner Classic Movies (since 1994), along with distribution on home video and DVD, that makes EX-LADY readily available with great interest for its immoral views theme and Bette Davis rising above routine material. (*1/2)

I saw this film expecting an early Bette Davis effort of somewhat questionable value. Instead I found a highly entertaining film which made an artistic mark. The acting by Davis is, of course, always worth watching, but what really set this film apart was the script and the mise-en-scene.

The script, while not a masterpiece, is considerably above the norm. It is witty, and understanding of the desires, pride and foolishness of young, intelligent people in love. Bette plays it superbly with a slightly bored, worldly-wise exterior, and a passionate but somehow innocent interior. She is the focus of the film, the other actors being mainly satellites around her. They do a competent job, but the show is all hers.

The Deco sets were designed by someone with an obvious artistic talent and a flare for that style. Just looking at the sets and the costumes is worth the price of seeing the film. What is a real surprise is that the director used Bette as a kind of art object. The way she would pose and slouch, the style and color of her hair, the way she would hold her cigarette, her glass, the way she would arrange her body, and her expression so completely complement these lavish sets as to be a art display in themselves. This movie would be entertaining if you turned off the sound track and just watched the visuals - it is that good.

I am completely unfamiliar with the director, Robert Florey. In looking over the names of his films, none stand out for me as films of importance. Apparently he was awarded a French medal for his contributions to Cinema. If this film is any indication, and if he is truly responsible for the artistic elements in this film, then he is a very overlooked and important director.

A fantastic pre-Code film, and if this one doesn't make you fall in love with Bette Davis, I'm not sure what will. She is simply radiant, and her character is a feminist well ahead of her time - a talented, genial woman who calls the shots in her life, unashamedly puts career first, eschews marriage, and has a lover (Gene Raymond). She quite simply expresses her 'modern' views while being such a warm and loving person, making her a compelling figure, and therefore dangerous to conservative morality.

The relationship that Davis and Raymond have in the film is fantastic. He stands up to her father when confronted, not by saying that he wants marriage and that she's the one who is holding out (even though that's the truth), but by saying it's their decision. When they do decide to get married, it's because she's proposed to him, not the other way around. In business, he's not bent out of shape because she is more valuable and talented than he is. They also have some wonderfully tender moments. On their honeymoon in Havana they sit in a nightclub watching a scantily clad dancer move sinuously about, and he makes a motion with his eyes for them to step outside. Without saying a word, they walk slowly outside together, then enfold each other in a beautiful kiss on the veranda. She then leads him over to a bench, which we see from behind, and reclines back, out of the camera's view. He walks over to her, smiles, and then joins her, obviously signaling passion to come, as we see the dancer's hip action in the background. It's a scene that is both heartfelt and erotic.

Later when they find that being married is leading to some of the frustrations she predicted, they decide that being lovers 3-4 times a week is preferable (as the circles on the calendar of May, 1933 show) - more honest, harmonious, and exciting. And this is the real danger the Catholic Church saw in Hollywood pre-Code films. Bette Davis is not playing a 'loose', depraved woman here. She's smart, funny, talented, rational, and has a healthy interest in sex - and she makes an excellent point about an alternate way of living for women, to pursue their own interests, and not necessarily be on the track to get married and crank out children. It's simply extraordinary.

In one very revealing moment, a male character pining for the 'good old days' points out that the 'hobble skirt' was a way of controlling women - "They couldn't walk fast nor far in a hobble skirt. You could trust them." And this was one of the main facets of the Production Code enforcement of the following year - to put a lid on women's sexuality and to get them back into their subordinate roles in society. As the film plays out it never compromises either. As both characters are pursued by others (played very well by Kay Strozzi and Monroe Owsley), they find that their love for one another - not the convention of marriage or a need to control the other - leads to jealousy whether they're married or lovers. It seems like a pretty simple story, but it's in this that the film has real power.

The film zips along in its 67 minute run time, and while it's not a work of art or anything, director Robert Florey gets in some interesting camera angles (e.g. of the opera singer at the dinner party, and the overhead shot of Davis being pulled on to the floor in a kiss). He also gives the actors space to communicate with their eyes. The screenplay was based on a play by Edith Fitzgerald and Robert Riskin, unmarried lovers, and I think it shows. Some bits from the script that I thought were fantastic:

Don (Gene Raymond): You know, I'm just about fed up with sneaking in. Helen (Bette Davis): Sneaking? Don: Yes, sneaking. Let's get married, so I'll have the right to be with you. Helen: What do you mean, 'Right?' I don't like the word 'Right.' Don: Oh, let's not quibble about words. Helen: No, I'm not quibbling. 'Right' means something. No one has any rights about me, except me.

Later, when she's condemned by her father when he sees that Don has spent the night with her, she very reasonably and calmly tells him this: "Oh, don't let's get dramatic about this. Don't let's start arguing. We've been all over this. I don't believe in what you believe. That's all. I don't want to get married."

Here's how she handles it with her lover: Don: I want to marry you. Helen: Oh, Don, we've been over it, over it, and over it. I went away from home to be on my own. I don't want to be like my mother, a yes-woman for some man. I want to be a person on my own. If I like to live a certain way, and have a certain kind of furniture, do a certain kind of work, and wear a certain kind of clothes, I want to do it. And not have somebody tell me I ought to do something else.

And then later this: Helen: We have a different sense of values. I don't want babies. When I'm 40, I'll think of babies. In the meantime, there are 20 years in which I want to be the baby and play with my toys and have a good time playing with them. Don: A career. Helen: Oh, it isn't just that. Sure, I want to do good work. But it isn't that. I want to stay young for a while and have a good time and not be dull and set. I don't want to be a wife.

Meanwhile, another guy named Nick (Monroe Owsley) wants to be her lover and thinks she must be a 'puritan' for repeatedly turning him down. She doesn't explain her lifestyle or her choices in the slightest, simply telling him amiably, "What conceit!" The conversation continues: Nick: Come on, let's quit kidding. Helen: That's what he said. Nick: Who said? Helen: That's what every man says when he wants you to do what he wants you to. Man, whew. I'm souring on the lot of you.

Seeing this movie made me really resent the Hayes code, My early childhood was wrongly shaped culturally and morally in terms of womanhood by the Hays code.

In Ex-Lady Gene Raymond is an advertising writer and Bette Davis is an artist.and they are in love and living together. It's an arrangement Davis likes because she is a modern woman for 1933.

But both decide for convention's sake maybe they ought to get married and be partners at home and the office.

An ideal it sounds good. But not easy to maintain. Both have temptations and both really act dumb at times.

Ex-Lady might have been better, but there really was no discernible chemistry between Davis and Raymond. Bette has enough spark for both.

Nice performances from Frank McHugh who barely drew a sober breath in those early films at Warner Brothers and Claire Dodd as his wife. Monroe Owsley plays a snidely whiplash type villain with designs on Bette.

Everybody here has done better.

Helen Bauer and Don Peterson are a successful young couple. She's an illustrator and he's an ad man. It's quite obvious they've consumated their relationship as he practically lives at her place. This makes her very strict father very upset. I love how she was quite liberated and very much her own person--in 1933, no less! She refuses to bend to norms...but of course they do get married. And she soon realizes that as much as she loves Don, she cannot stand their now-boring life. So they make an unconventional plan to live apart and still date others as well as each other. This, of course, does not quite work out as planned.

While most of the reviews are pretty positive for this film, I wasn't so impressed by it and it left me awfully confused. That's because this movie seemed to strongly support open marriage and living together--real taboos for the 1930s and its obvious this was made just as the Hays Code was about to be enforced. Such a film NEVER could have been made just a few years later.

I was confused also because frankly I didn't find the relationship between Bette Davis and Franchot Tone very romantic. Yes, I am a very traditional person and I just didn't buy their contention that marriage was a sham. But, this DOES make the film a bit of a curiosity.

Overall, this film isn't one of Davis' best. She made some marvelous films in the 1930s and a lot of really mediocre and lousy ones as well--so variable in quality that Ms. Davis tried to break her contract with Warner Brothers. This would seem to be such a mediocre film.