8/10
small town girl weds into old money
20 December 2007
An interesting film with a playful seduction, which it does everything to avoid throughout, between a rich, young Boston doctor (Robert Taylor) from an old money family who's out carousing around in his convertible roadster after the "Big" Harvard-Yale game and by chance picks up a dissatisfied "small town girl" (Janet Gaynor) who's out aimlessly walking the streets in her little town. The socio-economic strata between old money wealth and idyllic small town middle class America (Andy Devine and James Stewart) is bridged by a love (you can't help but think it's his position and money she's after, though the film tries in just about every scene to make you believe it's real). After a few drinks at a nearby roadhouse, they stumble upon a justice of the peace in the middle of the night and (from Taylor's perspective) just for the heck of it, get married, a marriage that he must maintain for six months in light of his position in Boston society, which we see snippets of, the best one being a gala dance in Boston after they've been married for five months or so, and Taylor's original fiancé (Binnie Barnes), makes her move to reclaim him . Taylor is probably the best part in the film, though the story could have been sharper.
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