The Glad Rag Doll

One of director Curtiz' early talkies for Warner Bros. He directed well over a hundred films for this studio, including CASABLANCA (1943) and most of the Errol Flynn classics. This film has a shocker opening, with Costello's rejected suitor putting a pistol to his head and pulling the trigger. The initial scene is a Pirandello-like twist; it proves to be a stage play, with Costello the lovely heroine. After the performance, the lovesick Rankin visits Costello, bearing blossoms, and persuades her to visit his ancestral Philadelphia mansion. She meets his family: the stern and disapproving Graves, dirty old man Grant, snobbish but lascivious and kleptomaniacal Gordon...