Barbara Stanwyck gave one of her inimitable and wonderfully enigmatic performances as a mill worker who marries her way into high society and soon experiences layers of frustration. Channeling her restlessness, she soon makes a positive though highly self-sacrificial decision on her daughter's behalf, and endures the agony of being replaced in her husband's life by an old, blue-blooded flame. King Vidor (<I>The Crowd</I>) directs with a fascinating sense of duality about Stanwyck's character: is her lower-caste vulgarity something to sneer at or something to applaud for the contrast she presents to the mannered upper classes? Stanwyck plays the riddle brilliantly, right down to the final moment of her character's weird self-satisfaction at being ostracized from her daughter's honeyed life. <I>--Tom Keogh</I>
Viewer Reviews The mom (Barbara Stanwyck) is a tacky, tastless woman, but loves her little daughter so very much that she makes what I consider to be the ultimate sacrafice. I won't ruin the end for you by saying what she does, but it is one of my favorite old movies.
Don't bother with the re-make, which I believe was done in the 90's sometime. It's a terrible dissapointment.
