Very much a lost film, and also one of only four films that Josephine Hull made between 1932 and 1950, Careless Lady is trivial and possibly even foolish, but it has pace, style, and a good deal of brittle and near-the-knuckle pre-Code dialogue. Dealing casually with divorce and affairs, though without the sophistication of Lubitsch, it is a most enjoyable comedy of manners and misunderstandings. One of its major assets of course is Joan Bennett, who was quite unique in her ability to combine languid sexuality with innocence, and who, once she gets past the "ugly duckling" stage of the plot, is gowned to the hilt and superbly photographed by two of Fox's top cinematographers. Nora Lane has her moments too, as she admires a male physique with carnal delight and explains the facts of life to Miss Bennett. Another interesting sidelight of the film, especially since it predates Red Dust, is Weldon Heyburn in the first of a long series of blatant Clark Gable ripoffs, ripoffs that continued and changed as the Gable image changed. William K. Everson