The petrified movie. Dull and stagebound, even Bette Davis and Humphrey Bogart (normally sure things) can't save this one. Belatedly, I realized that Pee-Wee's Big Adventure spoofed this movie (with the whole waitress who wants to get away to France who encounters a drifter, and who has a big doofus boyfriend).

Bogart's first great role. A lot of good acting here, but it is too stagy and Mayo's direction is too stodgy for this to be considered a success.

Very stage-y--it looks like a play with extra-fancy sets--but quite enjoyable. Good performances.

Interesting movie based on a play by Robert E. Sherwood. As in his more famous play/film Waterloo Bridge, he continues exploring the theme of sacrifice. More precisely the sacrifices of men for the good of the women. This film really feels like a stage-play, even clouds are fake. But characters are interesting and well acted. Over-melodramatic movie from the golden age of Hollywood.

Certainly, Sherwood's play's conceits about individuality seem a bit threadbare, but the film's ability to view life through its characters' poetry-colored glasses remains gripping.

great stuff, a simple stage play that has clearly withstood the test of time. leslie's nihilistic, romantic character was certainly interesting to watch. bogart played his part to perfection; in particular, i loved the twitch when the door behind him blew open.

why is it that pre-60's romance movies always remind me of the song "hello, i love you", people going around falling in love with someone as soon as they sneeze. this movie may have it's shortcomings, but oddly enough this is one of the first stage adaptations where it's roots are easily observed and that fact is not a deficit.

This was clearly a product of the stage.The film is largely set in one location and with little to break up the long dialogue sequences.The only character I enjoyed watching was the guy who played the Grandpa, he really is the highlight of this picture.Humphrey Bogart looked and acted very stiff and didn't seem all that comfortable in his role.

"Much of what's on display here evokes a society on the decline." - Dan Callahan

You know, the grandpa scared me far more than the murderous gangster. Leslie Howard's performance should be the one remembered, not Bogie's. And I wish they'd shown those paintings from an angle where they actually would've been visible; because they looked pretty cool. Can't say I picked up on this staginess everyone's talking about, but it was certainly claustrophobic; which makes sense. Unfortunately most of the hype is misplaced due to certain star's legacies, but it's still a good movie.

This "play" features a good interplay among accomplished actors but it's lost its punch over time and now seems wordy. Bogart later starred in a similar style drama, "Key Largo" which was better done.

Canned Theatre that does nothing to hide the fact, but Bogart's performance is mind-blowing.

Typical of the "art of licking" that Hollywood used at the time, this is clearly a stage oriented performance with the camera operating at a some what auxilliary role. Great Bogie before he made it big with Leslie Howard anchoring the stitchings of this potentially uninspired storyline.

Davis reunites with her Of Human Bondage costar Howard, the two playing off each other beautifully, Davis's strident exactitude the perfect counter to Howard's droll ease. Even so, they're both somewhat overshadowed when Bogart arrives as a gunman on the lam. He commands the screen in this early role, locking in with the sort of dark-eyed, steely ruffian performance that would long stand as the most dominant facet of his onscreen persona. The potency of his presence is undeniable.

Bogart gives one hell of a performance for a movie not worth a damn.

It looks way too much like a play, and is very dated, which is natural of course. Bogart snarls very well, but I find Leslie Howard a little too soft in his role.

Well, it worked for me. I don't really see how Bogart had that good a performance, though. I mean, "breakout?" He basically just uttered a few grunty lines and pointed a gun around. If I was just joe shmoe watching this in the theater in 1936, I wouldn't have said that Bogart was anything special in this. On the other hand, Leslie Howard, and I'll admit he certainly was not portraying an original archetype, at least gave us something to watch. Otherwise it was short and sweet. I dug it.

I hate these stage adaptations where you can immediately tell it's a stage adaptation. The actors are projecting too much, the timing is strange, and it's so distractingly obvious that it's all being shot on a set. And it's a lousy play to begin with. Full of stereotypical stock characters and awful, clichéd dialogue. Even Bogart can't save this mess.