I like plenty of films starring Nancy Carroll and Fredric March. I like several films that Edmund Goulding directed. I just don't like this one that involves all three. This is one of the few where Goulding was the actual writer of the screenplay, not just the story. But it seems that the problem is actually in the direction. Goulding, the director of Best Picture winner "Grand Hotel", "Dark Victory", and "Nightmare Alley" managed to direct this turkey that has everybody using the exaggerated gestures of the silent era with an overpowering "hearts and flowers" like score.
The story is set in Prague, probably because the law of the land is heavily involved and America doesn't have all of these noble titles and heavy handed draconian laws. The Countess (Alison Skipworth) is a habitual criminal who runs a clip joint of sorts. Why I have no idea, as she seems to have plenty of money with which to bribe officials and pay lawyers. Her daughter Yula (Nancy Carroll) even says she is rich. But a new crusading prosecutor, Rudek Berken (Fredric March) decides to put her away and manages to get a two year prison term for her. Then he tries to put Yula into a reformatory because her mother is in prison and she has no other guardian. Reform her from what? Being born the daughter of a habitual criminal.?? She has a choice - She can either go to the reformatory or learn nursing in a local hospital. She takes what she considers the least revolting option - nursing.
Now forget that Nancy Carroll is playing a teenager and she definitely looks like a grown woman. That Berken fellow will not leave her alone. Apparently it is not good enough that she and her mom are off the streets. He wants her to LIKE being held a virtual prisoner, and is shocked! Shocked I say! When he visits her and she tells him how much she hates him for forcing her to be a nurse and convicting her mother.
So of course he is hanging around because he is attracted to her. But Berken already has a fiancee. She doesn't seem to be a bad sort outside of having all of the personality of a pet rock. But still he goes home to her and acts affectionate when he really has the hots for Ms. Habitual Criminal in Training of 1931. What a hypocrite.
Three weeks after her conviction, mom gets out of jail. Apparently the government is still very bribable. Yula goes back to mom as she is now her guardian again. Mom sees that Berken has a thing for Yula, what's more inexplicable is Yula admits having feeling for this hypocritical stiff herself. Complications ensue.
The last half of the movie Nancy Carroll is dressed - in all situations at all times of day - in this black dress and black overcoat with her hair combed out wildly. I can definitely see where she must have been directed to act like Marlene Dietrich in a bad silent movie, because that is what she does. Marlene Dietrich was originally supposed to play Yula.
Both Nancy Carroll and Fredric March were very good in sound films going back to their infancy. It would really be interesting as to why this film went completely off the rails in every way possible.
