A married Railroad Magnate gets derailed while pursuing an affair with one of the Three Little Pigs (the one with the curly tail!) and his whole house of tracks comes crashing down! OK, I mix metaphors, but you get the idea. Roy Del Ruth’s competent direction stitches this straightforward narrative together until the violent denouement and head-scratching blunder by our wealthy protagonist Alex Stream (Warren William). Stream’s Upperworld could become his Underworld, of the six-foot down variety! After all, he’s on trial for First Degree Murder which in ’34 carried death by Electric Chair.
Alex Stream and his wife Hettie (Mary Astor) seem to exist in different time streams and social circles, their marriage more friendship than companionship. Lonely, Alex meets dancer Lilly Linda (Ginger Rogers), and they began an innocent affair, but before they can consummate their relationship she is gunned down by her slimy beau, and Alex kills him in self-defense. To keep the affair secret (since he’s on the verge of a multi-million-dollar merger) he hides one handgun and replaces the bullets in the other to make it look like the man committed suicide. WTF? We see the dude fire first and kill Lilly then Alex picks up a second discarded handgun and shoots him dead. In the chest. From about 15 feet away. And he stages this as a suicide? But a beat cop who was previously sanctioned by his superiors for giving the famous Mr. Stream a speeding ticket has figured out the case due to mismatching bullets. How about the wound, he shoots himself in the chest/shoulder and no blood on the gun? Or powder residue on the shirt? And finally, Stream doesn’t even wipe his own fingerprints from either firearm! Now, to be fair, he wouldn’t be in the police database since he has no prior convictions so if there were no witnesses at the crime scene then the fingerprints would remain a mystery. But that’s taking a huge chance. And of course, aforementioned Beat Cop witnesses Stream's chauffeurless car double-parked at the hotel before the murder. The Cop’s theorem is castrated by superiors once again and he fucking strangles the Police Commissioner in anger! Incarcerated, he convinces the crime journalists to pursue Alex Stream’s fingerprints for comparison.
The film ends with Lilly dead and Alex on trial for murder. He claims self-defense (which it was) and is acquitted of all charges, including Obstruction and Tampering too, I presume. So, for him on his European cruise and wife planning to spend more time together it’s a happy ending. But for the adorable and honest Lilly, she pays for her loyalty and love with her life.
Final Grade: (B-)