I have to apologise to many hurt feelings - I had never been a fan of Jean harlow - in fact almost exactly opposite of it. I can never understand the basis on which she as well as Mae featured in top 25 of AFI. It could be Sympathy factor that tilted balance for her, but Mae? Who knows.
The other lead character, Spencer Tracy was on other boat. In fact I had quite a liking for him - till I saw this one - in a role on similar lines, he was far better in Big City. Here he over-acts to extreme - almost irritating level.
I absolutely can't find anything which could make it bearable. Leave aside the direction, even the plot wasn't thick enough to be stopped by a fine sieve, leave aside a fish net.
There is of course one - almost lovable - or at least deserving sympathy character - unfortunately he was made the villain, though he really wasn't that - Joseph Calleia as Nick Lewis.
He is the 'capitalist' there - and though for all practical purposes he is what 'capitalist' symbolises, in communist terms. Though the movie at several instances preach the communist ideology - deprivation of Labour by Capital - but the next instance scorns on communists - even before McCarthy made it a hate-word - making the whole thing a jumbled message.
Our capitalist here, Nick, is capitalist in all the facets, except one. The exploitation of woman. He is, at least as per narrative, stuck on the heroine Hattie, but with all honorable intentions. In fact he prods her to get a divorce, from her husband, so that he could marry her. This husband was, not only unlovable, but one who had deserted her too, and had been incommunicado for months. May be he was living as a hobo, but was he doing something to get over that, there is no inkling of it.
As against it, Nick's expensive gifts, the furs et al are all with the same intention, and only to her, no other women were in his cross-hairs - till she rebuffed his final advance, after he had even arranged her divorce. Another bearable character was of Una Merkel, as Hattie's sister. But the two main leads made the movie a real riffraff.
One even don't know what happened to the Capital Vs Labour clash ? It looks the labour came back and accepted the dictat of capital, at same - or worse? - terms as before.
Review of Riffraff
