This movie stars Leatrice Joy as an upper-class lady engaged to a rather staid and dull Charles Ray during the War. While Ray is Over There, Miss Joy does her bit by running a recreation hall for Our Boys. She's directing a play for the delectation of the troops, with sailor Alan Hale as a would-be lover. She has to keep reminding him of the difference in their classes.
Soon enough, the War is over and marriage with Ray impends. The day before, she encounters Hale again, who invites her aboard his ship. Again, she reminds him of his place. But that evening, while Ray is celebrating with the boys, mother Mayme Kelso is snooting around with friends, the servants are in their quarters partying about the forthcoming nuptials, and Miss Joy is learning all about marriage from a book, she grows restless. It's her last night of freedom! So she goes to see Hale's boat and learns about life the hard way; his attempts to rape her are interrupted by cook Noble Johnson; the men struggle, Johnson strangles Hale, and Miss Joy shoots Johnson dead to escape his unwanted intentions.
There's a third act when a detective comes to the door next day. Unhappily, while the rest of the film is in great shape, the last reel is not.
Miss Joy does a great job of acting, and clearly this programmer was intended for her. Although it is central to the movie, the sequence aboard Hale's boat seems to be too slow, despite Miss Joy's excellent reaction shots. The sloth gave me a chance to criticize his toupee. It's not clear what could have been cut -- the movie as is is a bare hour -- but perhaps the wrong bits wound up on the cutting-room floor. It could have used some comedy relief, something more than an abbreviated subplot about housemaid Helen Lee Worthing stealing from her employers.
Still, the moral of the story -- you don't learn about life on Nob Hill or in books -- is a sound one, Miss Joy acts up a storm, and DP Arthur Miller shows what he can do with close-ups. It's an hour well spent.
