Strange March vehicle, shared through a strong subplot with Raft. The film goes in two different directions at the same time. March is an engineering teacher wanting to escape a crowded campus for a special project near Boulder Dam. His wealthy student-mistress, Hopkins, is reluctant to
rough it in the wilds with him. While they talk it over they meet a couple in a nightclub, Raft, a thief, and his girl, Mack. Raft tells Mack that March and Hopkins are only "a couple of lugs learnin' about life," and explains to his upper-class companions the meaning of a low-born life. He steals
Hopkins' purse, not for his own ends but to help his pregnant girl friend. He later breaks jail to be with her in her hour of need, a break arranged by a compassionate Hopkins. Raft kills a cop in his escape and takes Hopkins and Mack to a hotel room, which the police besiege. As Hopkins cowers in
a corner during a wild shootout, Raft and Mack vow their eternal love and that they will never again be separated. They step to the window and together make a death dive to the street far below. Having learned the meaning of true love and devotion, Hopkins returns to March and goes west with him
into a new life. The improbable ending was highly criticized upon first release, as was the first part of the film (mostly blathering talk) and the almost complete disappearance of March in the second half, which is given over to Raft's melodramatics and a wow finish.
