During the so-called 'Pre-Code Era', Hollywood was essentially in charge of policing themselves. Considering that there was no rating system AND Hollywood was really pushing the boundaries of morality in many of their films, there was an uproar and in July, 1934, a new, tougher Production Code was adopted...thus heavily sanitizing films for the next three decades. Gone were the old Pre-Code plots and occasional nudity...in now it was a squeaky clean era. "I Loved a Woman" was a Pre-Code film that certainly could NOT have been made just a year later, as its plot glamorizes and seems to excuse adultery...something specifically outlawed in the new Code, as adultery was either NOT to be in films or was to be heavily condemned.
John Hayden (Edward G. Robinson) is the heir to a meatpacking fortune and has just learned that his father has died. Despite claiming to being the champion of improved working conditions, wages and cleanliness, he spends the next few years leaving the company to essentially run itself while he devotes his energy towards raising a family. However, he slowly realizes that his company is going bankrupt AND his wife couldn't care less, as her father is the head of a group of meatpackers who are opposed to Hayden's STATED ideals. I say stated because during his absence from the company, he pretty much ignored his fine talk of running a progressive company.
Now with a company in trouble and a marriage a bit rocky, Hayden decides to run the company like the rest....or worse. Cleanliness and safe hygience mean nothing to him. In addition, he's got a new sweetie (Kay Francis) and his energies are focused on her and making millions...his wife, well, she's expendable. When war breaks out, he's more than happy to sell the government tainted meat for the soldiers! Nice guy, huh? If you haven't guessed, he's essentially a jerk!
So what did I like and not like about this film? What I didn't like was that Hayden changed so dramatically...too dramatically to make any sense. One minute he's a champion of the little people and a good husband, the next he's the opposite. His change was just too abrupt to be believable. On the positive side, the acting is very nice and the film has all the polish you'd expect from a Warner Brothers epic...though I could have done without all the times the film used "Home on the Range". Overall, decent but hardly among Robinson's best...and much of it is because no one in this film is likable and so you lose interest along the way. Plus, it never seems to know when to quit...so it's overlong to boot.
