Truly Dreadful Film

Good concept, poorly executed.

It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

Not a very good film despite an amazing cast (with exception of James Whitmoor who is badly miscast). It is just another B movie melodrama from 1950's.

Producer: Armand Deutsch. Copyright 27 February 1953 (in notice: 1952) by Loew's Inc. A Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer picture. No New York opening. U.S. release: 27 March 1953. U.K. release: 13 July 1953. Australian release: 25 May 1953. 6,242 feet. 69 minutes.SYNOPSIS: Jean Latimer, daughter of a wealthy criminal lawyer, falls in love with one of her father's clients, Victor Ramondi, the crooked head of a gambling syndicate. Latimer warns his daughter against Ramondi, but she is determined to marry him. On the day before the wedding, Ramondi learns that Latimer intends to bring him before a Senate crime investigation committee. NOTES: A re-make of A Free Soul (1931).COMMENT: Mediocre romantic drama. Were it not for the beautiful presence of Elizabeth Taylor, beautifully photographed and attractively costumes, the rating would be even less. William Powell looks old and tired and just goes through the motions on this last film of his M-G-M contract, while Fernando Lamas and James Whitmore are totally unable to convince us they are ruthless gangsters.Thorpe's direction is at its best in the gangsters' action sequences (the senatorial hearing with flash-bulbs popping), but shows evidences of hasty shooting in the dialogue scenes (Miss Taylor is inadequate in the long take in which she tells Powell she is going back, though the camera is skilfully placed). Production values are not lavish. The film was obviously designed for the lower half of a double bill.OTHER VIEWS: This Hollywood-lush tale has been handled by Richard Thorpe with routine competence but no imagination; dialogue and incident are of the same monotonous order. Of the cast, William Powell turns in a familiarly wise-slick portrayal and Elizabeth Taylor, decoratively satisfying, plays a limited character with limited skill. The whole adds up to a graceless pattern of screen melodrama. - Monthly Film Bulletin.

William Powell as the girl's Father, was very good and it was his third to last film. He retires in 1955, two years later. Elizabeth Taylor is building her "acting chops" in this film. She is good. Think of this film as leaning towards being a melodrama. At 69 minutes long, it is short but with good cinematic tension. Fernando Lamas is fine as the hoodlum, love interest. Both Fernando Lamas and Elizabeth Taylor look incredibly beautiful and sexy! James Whitmore is surprisingly good as the best friend but a part of the syndicate . This is one of his early films but he carries himself wonderfully! This film is not heavy on depth as many of the classic films of the 1950's are known have. I enjoyed myself. The film held my interest. 5 out of 10 stars!

This film is a good example of standard MGM output in the early 1950s - still glossy, with good production values, but dramatically no great shakes. It is perhaps most notable as being William Powell's final film at MGM. Although it must have been appealing to Powell to play the same part that won Lionel Barrymore an Oscar in 1931 (for A Free Soul), the writer of this film let Powell down with a routine script. Also notable is André Previn's score, which seems unnecessarily lush at times given the routine nature of the production.