Adeel Hail
Unshakable, witty and deeply felt, the film will be paying emotional dividends for a long, long time.
Freeman
This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.
Guillelmina
The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.
utgard14
Joan Crawford plays Sadie McKee, a maid in the household of the Alderson family. When Michael Alderson (Franchot Tone) insults her no-good boyfriend Tommy (Gene Raymond), Sadie quits. She runs off to the city with Tommy, presumably to get married, but Tommy abandons her. Instead of finally believing Tommy is a rat, Sadie still blames it all on Michael. Seeing a chance to get back at him and to become wealthy herself, Sadie marries Michael's friend Jack Brennan (Edward Arnold). Jack is an alcoholic and Michael comes to despise Sadie for marrying him, even thinking she's trying to drive him into his grave so she and Tommy can collect his money. But his mind changes when he sees Sadie help Jack overcome his alcoholism. There's a lot more plot to go from here. Sadie will take more twists and turns before the movie is through.On the surface it looks like yet another of Joan's forgettable soapers from the '30s. Franchot Tone's in the cast, as he usually was. But, surprisingly, it's actually better than those films. The thing that makes it better is that it has a different tone to it. It's treated as a serious dramatic film, not a melodramatic soap opera. Even though it deals, as most of Joan's films from this period, with characters of moral complexity I didn't find myself hating everybody. I was pretty frustrated with Joan's character here, mainly because she kept loving dirtbag Raymond despite the movie never showing us one good thing about him. But her performance was sincere enough I didn't find myself hating her even though I didn't like her always. Tone gives a great performance. One of the best of any of his films with Joan. Arnold is very good in an atypical role for him. Gene Raymond is bland as ever but inoffensive. He gets to sing the song "All I Do Is Dream of You " repeatedly in the movie. I'm not a big fan of Raymond's but he sings the song well. Anyway, it's a good movie let down some by a contrived ending and Sadie's fanatical devotion to the undeserving Tommy.
movingpicturegal
Joan Crawford acts up a storm in this well done, interesting soap opera like story of working girl Sadie, daughter of a cook, who is madly in love with a loser named Tommy (played by Gene Raymond). Sadie and Tommy run off together to NYC where they soon take up residence in this shabby, one-room apartment. The next day, big plans for job hunting and a noon appointment at the city hall to get married, but unfortunately for Sadie, Tommy the Rat is thrown in the path of a bad blonde/singer named Dolly who hires him on the spot to sing in her act, they kiss and run off together leaving poor Sadie waiting at the so-called altar. But Sadie pulls herself up by her boot straps, gets a job as a dancer, and meets a multi-millionaire (Edward Arnold) with a big drinking problem, while still holding the torch for her beloved Tommy.This film is quite a good one, the story completely held my interest, and the acting is top-notch with Joan Crawford giving out her full emotional range, Edward Arnold is excellent playing drunk for the majority of his scenes, and Esther Ralston does a good job as Dolly, the loose hipped, barely able to sing man-snatcher. Franchot Tone plays a lawyer, the son of the well-to-do home where Sadie was raised - he isn't given as much to do here as I would have liked but still gives a satisfying performance, and he certainly looks handsome enough, as usual. The film includes a few fun to watch musical numbers, plus some interesting scenes filmed in diners and a neat old-time Automat.
theowinthrop
A Joan Crawford vehicle (prior to 1940, when she got more control over choosing her properties) tended to have her the center of attention of several men at once. In THE GORGEOUS HUSSEY she is of interest to Melvin Douglas, Jimmy Steward, Robert Taylor, and Franchot Tone (she ends with Tone, but Taylor apparently married her for awhile). Here her beaus are Tone again, Gene Raymond (who in a poignant moment sings "ALL I DO IS DREAM OF YOU" across the footlights of a packed theater to Crawford), and Edward Arnold. But while Peggy O'Neill in THE GORGEOUS HUSSEY is genuinely attracted to her beaus, Sadie Magee really only is interested in Tone and Raymond. Tone is jealous of her interest in Raymond, and Raymond throws her over for Esther Ralston. But she meets Arnold, a nice guy millionaire (who is the son of a cook, like Crawford is the daughter of a cook), and she agrees to marry him for security. The problem is he's an alcoholic (and while normally a decent sort, he can be violent - he socks her at least once). However, she is decent too, and finally (despite the well-meant but stupid behavior of his butler, Leo G. Carroll) helps cure him. All in time to return to a dying Raymond. All in time to end up with Tone again. This is a very kitschy vehicle. But it is well acted and directed, and worth seeing.
raskimono
This boxoffice hit from 1934 is a joy to behold for its lack of dripping syrup or treacle as is often the case with these female melodramas, even the best of them. Joan Crawford plays a role she basically had a patent on in the late twenties through the thirties. * Note, Joan Crawford when photographed rightly, looks like the most beautiful woman in the world. The role is that of a servant girl who is in love with one of her fellow workers. He gets fired by the family for something they know he did not do, but to make an example of him, still let him go. This obviously gets Joan riled up and she quits to the chagrain of the master's son, Franchot Tone who loves her. They move together, take the hard knocks together and I'll never forget a scene where a guy puts a cigarette into a hardly eaten cream cake: the look on Sadie/Joan's face is priceless. Will Joan keep her man? Will she survive and escape the claws of poverty? We all know what will happen and Joan to her credit gives one of her best and enduring performances. Check it out whenever it is on Turner Classic Movies.
