For her autobiographical melodrama, Adela Rogers St. Johns-journalist, fiction writer, sports reporter, and Hollywood insider-wanted Joan Crawford to play the independent, sensation-driven socialite, Jan. St. Johns's vinegar wit and street smarts might have been well served by that casting. But Norma Shearer gives Jan an uncomplicated sexual aggressiveness, and a steely self-possession that doesn't temper in the face of both violent and passive attempts by men and family to control her. Ultimately a morality tale about freedom's perils, the film's first half lives up to the pre-Code era's sometimes exaggerated reputation for sexual freedom. A playfully incestuous interchange opening the film is probably more provocative to today's sensibilities; it prepares us for the frankness to follow. Lionel Barrymore won an Oscar for his full-throttle performance as a celebrated, hard-drinking attorney (based on St. Johns's father) who must have invented the "if it doesn't fit, you must acquit" defense.-Lee Amazonas