No Other Woman (1933 film)

Plot

Anna (Irene Dunne) yearns to escape from Pittsburgh and tells her boyfriend, steelworker Jim Stanley (Charles Bickford) that she will never marry a steelworker, but he changes her mind. After their marriage, however, she does not abandon her dream; she gets as much money as she can and runs a boarding house to build up their savings.

When her friend Joe (Eric Linden) discovers a way to make a permanent dye out of the waste products of the steel mill, she sees her chance. Despite his initial opposition, Jim supports his wife. He tells Joe that he can either sell his invention to the mill owners or they can go into partnership and manufacture the dye themselves. Joe chooses the latter, and Jim builds up the business and becomes extremely rich. Anna resides in a mansion with their young son, Bobbie.

On a business trip to New York City, Jim is attracted to golddigger Margot (Gwili Andre) and they begin an affair. When Anna finds out, she confronts her husband. He says he loves Margot and wants a divorce, but Anna refuses to give him one, forcing him to take her to court.

At the trial, several bribed witnesses claim that Anna herself has a lover. Under the relentless questioning of Jim's lawyer, Bonelli (J. Carrol Naish), she breaks down in tears. When she learns that she will lose custody of Bobbie, Anna desperately claims that Jim is not the boy's father. This claim causes Jim to admit he paid his servants to perjure themselves and is sentenced to jail. While in prison, his business is wiped out by the scandal and he is left penniless.

When he is released after a year, he is too ashamed to go see his wife. He returns to work in the steel mill, but she finds and embraces him.

Production

No Other Woman had the working titles "Man and Wife" and "Just a Woman", the latter being the name of the play it was based on and of the two silent films made from the play earlier. On the film's copyright records, Owen Francis is listed as the writer of the film story, but a news item published at the time said that Francis also worked on the screenplay.

Reception

The critical response to the film was negative. In The New York Times, Mordaunt Hall wrote that "J. Walter Ruben's direction is un-imaginative and the script from which he had to work is dull. As the narrative comes to the screen it lacks suspense and where it might be reasonably dramatic it is hopelessly implausible." He found Dunne to be "attractive and sincere" and said that Bickford "struggles valiantly with his part", while the second leads, Gwili Andre and Eric Linden were "merely acceptable."