Uma Mulher Notória

This fast-moving film features Barbara Stanwyck in her early period when she usually played a tough, lower-class dame with a hot temper who stands fast to her principles. This character is virtually identical to the ones she played in NIGHT NURSE, LADIES THEY TALK ABOUT and BABY FACE. Here she is a waitress who falls in love with a rather bland medical student (Regis Toomey) whose nasty and snobbish mother (an excellent and truly scary Clara Blandick) schemes with a corrupt judge (Oscar Apfel) to separate the young lovers by sending Stanwyck to one of those reformatories that pop up so frequently in films of this era. The ever-fluttery Zasu Pitts is on hand as Stanwyck's aunt - what a comedown from GREED.

In one scene Stanwyck, trying to memorize the dictionary as a means of self improvement, shows her suitor a list of words beginning with the letter "e" which she has written down. He reads them aloud, stops after "ejaculate," looks at her with some curiosity and says that even he would never use such a word. That moment immediately pigeonholes this film as pre-Code. The scene continues artfully with one-word exchanges all starting with the letter "e." Later, while Lucien Littlefeld is conversing about the Stanwyck-Toomey relationship with Oscar Apfel, a couple of lines are very clumsily overdubbed by other actors. Makes one wonder what was actually said. Late in the film there is an imaginative banquet scene in which the camera carefully pans the length of a dining table highlighting the place cards (each a little paper doll inscribed with a guest's name) while the corresponding but off-screen voices converse on the soundtrack; then the camera moves back to reveal the whole table and all of the people we have been listening to. The yard between the diner where Stanwyck works and the house where the owners live is well depicted: tattered laundry hanging on a line, overflowing garbage cans and kittens playing.

The screenwriter Robert Riskin contributes some snappy and witty dialogue. He worked quite frequently with Frank Capra, penning the scripts for IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT, MEET JOHN DOE, LADY FOR A DAY and MR. DEEDS GOES TO TOWN, among others. All of these films address the issue of "decency" – what truly constitutes decency? Saying you are decent or actually being decent?

Although you might think you're watching a film from 1932, you're actually watching the "cleaned up" edited version from 1938. "Edited" in this context means chopping out complete scenes, vital parts of the story which explain what's happening and anything whatsoever with a hint of salaciousness - which since it might or might not be about a girl with loose morals, it now makes no sense.

The savage editing which is no better than someone removing every other chapter from a book results in a completely disjointed story - your imagination has to work overtime to fill in the gaps. You might therefore think that this isn't worth watching?

The reviews of this even when it was complete were pretty terrible. Apparently even when complete, the story was considered ridiculous, the direction amateurish, the script laughable and the acting (apart from Barbara Stanwyck) truly awful. You might therefore think that this isn't worth watching?

Well I watched it and yes, the acting is rubbish and the story is stupid.....but I loved this. And not in "it's so bad it's good" sense, no I honestly enjoyed this as a fascinating, engrossing, emotionally engaging piece of entertainment. Had I been in the cinema in 1932 or 1938, I'd be the one standing up and clapping at the end. It's just so gloriously over-the-top and so 1932! It's like someone at Columbia one morning said to his writers: "Let's condense every story, every trope, every plot twist and tragedy you can think of into one crazy romantic-tragedy-comedy-social commentary-thriller-Broadway-prison movie......oh, and you've got until lunchtime so write the script." Well the result is anything but boring - the term 'rollercoaster ride' doesn't do this justice and I thought it was great. OK, a lot must have been chopped out but within no more than about a minute and a half, she's released from jail, it's the depression so she needs a job so somehow becomes a massive Broadway star with a brand new personality. That I love this nonsense might just be something to do with me - after all, I think CITIZEN KANE is the dullest thing I've ever endured and PADDINGTON is the greatest film of the 21st century.

Despite the many shortcomings of this inexplicably enjoyable film, the one shining beam of talent is Barbara Stanwyck. Her presence in this is the only thing which makes this not just watchable but mesmerising. Her character evolves from fresh young bubbly innocence to sultry sophistication but throughout her transition her natural raw sex appeal constantly transfixes you to everything she says and does. She's exceptional.

She's exceptional in the sense that she's got exceptional talent and also in the sense that she's the one in this film with talent. In films made from the mid-thirties onwards, you only see Regis Toomey in minor supporting roles - if you want to know why, watch this. Of dear, he's dreadful - he's got just two expressions: serious face and angry face - even Kay Francis had three. He's got to be Barbara Stanwyck's worst leading man - you can't build up any empathy for him whatsoever and as for the film getting us all worked up hoping that Barbara Stanwyck will get back together with him, that certainly doesn't work. I think we'd all like to tell her: "you can do a lot better than him, love. "

Besides animatronic Toomey, the rest of the cast, including Aunt Em are just one dimensional caricatures serving one purpose; to be cruel and nasty to Barbara Stanwyck's 'Kitty'. They're all so ridiculously vindictive, uncaring and horrible that you can't take them seriously or accept that they are real people which is a big problem with any film! We know that life for young women in the 20s and 30s could be absolutely terrible, we've seen it explained in much better films than this. That all the evils of society, bad luck and a deluge of wickedness all happen to Kitty at the same time leads you to the obvious revelation: you're watching CINDERELLA and Aunt Em is the wicked stepmother.

Working class heroine Barbara Stanwyck is tough as nails as she spits in "decent society's" face rather than buckle to bribe or threat as a waitress in an other side of the tracks romance with a med student in Shopworn.

The son of an overly possessive mother, David Livingston falls hard for tip chaser Kitty Lane at a local greasy spoon. Clinging mom is not about to let this happen and she wastes no time in exercising her considerable pull in getting a big time judge relative to send her to the slammer for 90 days on morals charges. Upon release Kitty goes on stage and makes it big. Six years later she runs into David, now a doctor again along with his mother still intent on keeping a firm grip on him.

There is some very ugly abuse of power that takes place in Shopworn as the son obsessed mother badgers the judge to do her corrupt bidding in getting Kitty out of the way. There are also swipes at law enforcement, the penal system and polite society, with Kitty being an ideal lynch pin for such actions. As Kitty, Stanwyck does an excellent job of vociferously exposing hypocrisy, especially in the scene where she is bribed and threatened as she throws the money in the judge's face and berates the police. The ending is contrived however and the sickeningly sweet finale is hard to swallow. Babs is too good for the lot of 'em. Mom and son (a wincingly woosie performance by Regis Toomey) don't deserve to be in the same room as her.

I'm surprised no one has reviewed this at all. Well, Barbara Stanwyck made a whole lot of movies, and this one is OK. It's got Zasu Pitts and the usual suspects. Barabara Stanwyck plays a flirty waitress in a college town who takes up with a young lad from an upper class family. Interesting to see how mores have changed. Lots of golly gee lines in this one, lots of upper class snobbery. Truly a different world. In this movie at least Barbara S. doesn't play a total trollop, like Mexicali Rose. In this one she becomes a successful actress, although on the riske side. It's not clear from the film if she went from burlesque to legit, but something along those lines. Interesting flick.

This is a pretty ordinary little film about a young waitress (Barbara Stanwyck) who falls in love with a wealthy college student (Regis Toomey) who will go on to become a doctor, and how his mother strives to break up their relationship. I rounded it up a bit because of Stanwyck's performance; she is such a natural and has a couple of great scenes. I also liked how she was such a strong woman - her character was toughened by her father's death, and she stands up to unwanted advances while waitressing, endures being sent away to a woman's reformatory on morality charges, and tells Toomey off when he returns to her after she's made it as a dancer. Being committed for trumped up morality reasons is outrageous today, but it was reality then, and the mother had also considered getting her committed to an asylum, a real practice stemming from the 19th century. If you don't like 'em or they're threatening in some way, lock 'em up. The ending is unfortunately a little dippy, but you could do worse than watch this one, and it's almost entirely due to Stanywck.

One of the great scenes has her throwing money in a guy's face after he tries to bribe her into leaving town to get her out of Toomey's life: "What are you trying to make of me - what you wish I was? Something cheap and common, something that money can buy? Well, you can't. Nobody can! You and the nice, decent people who sent you here are the real cheap ones, trying to put a price on something there isn't any price for! If that's being decent, I'm glad I'm common! If that's being rich, I'm glad I'm cheap, and I'm gonna stay cheap! Because no matter how cheap I am, I'm not for sale!"