Harlow and Gable made six movies together, all but the first as the leads. This is certainly not the best known, or the best, of them. The first part is them sparring as two hardened characters, something they would do better in subsequent films.
But I found the last part interesting, when the other women in Harlow's room at the reform school work together to help her marry Gable-and thereby make her yet-to-be-born child legitimate. (That may not be a big deal today, when movie and sports stars have children "out of wedlock," as they used to say, all the time, but back in 1933 it was indeed a big deal. The characters usually stop in mid-sentence rather than mention that Harlow's character is pregnant.) The several women are allowed to become individuals, not just prison-hardened clichés, and individuals with courage and a willingness to sacrifice what little they have for someone else's benefit.
In the same respect, the treatment of the Black preacher, which could have been played for comedy, gives him a certain dignity and likability, even though he had been presented earlier as very moralistic.
All this from a director, Sam Wood, who would later be known for his right-wing politics-but also some very good movies (Good-bye Mr. Chips, King's Row, For Whom the Bell Tolls, etc.)
These things don't make this a great movie. But they made the last part of it very interesting, at least for me.
But I found the last part interesting, when the other women in Harlow's room at the reform school work together to help her marry Gable-and thereby make her yet-to-be-born child legitimate. (That may not be a big deal today, when movie and sports stars have children "out of wedlock," as they used to say, all the time, but back in 1933 it was indeed a big deal. The characters usually stop in mid-sentence rather than mention that Harlow's character is pregnant.) The several women are allowed to become individuals, not just prison-hardened clichés, and individuals with courage and a willingness to sacrifice what little they have for someone else's benefit.
In the same respect, the treatment of the Black preacher, which could have been played for comedy, gives him a certain dignity and likability, even though he had been presented earlier as very moralistic.
All this from a director, Sam Wood, who would later be known for his right-wing politics-but also some very good movies (Good-bye Mr. Chips, King's Row, For Whom the Bell Tolls, etc.)
These things don't make this a great movie. But they made the last part of it very interesting, at least for me.