The IMDb synopsis for this work, contributed by the redoubtable Les Adams, will allow a prospective viewer to have a firm idea of the storyline for this low-budget affair that might well serve as a template for how a flagrantly outrageous melodrama was to be constructed during its cinematic time frame, the years from the mid-1930s through the mid-1940s. The picture is taken from a long story entitled "I'll Buy Your Life" by Walter F. Ripperger (incorrectly listed upon the credits screen as Rippenger), first published in Street & Smith's DETECTIVE STORY MAGAZINE, March, 1941. Ripperger's tales appeared with frequency from 1934 to 1941 in pulp fiction periodicals, these magazines paying authors by the word, accepting nearly any submission that adhered to established popular standards, even if too whimsical to succeed as even a remotely rational narrative, as is the case with this film. Director Elmer Clifton, with aid from dialogue director George Rosener, is accountable for this treatment of the Ripperger original, and the result for the most part butts up against basic canons of common sense, essentially becoming merely artificial tosh that must go without the courage of its lack of conviction. An undernourished plot benefits from several musical numbers. A significant amount of the action occurs in a cabaret, Club Sirocco, where entertainment is provided for the most part by a highly popular Cuban band of the film's era, Eddie Durant And His Rhumba Orchestra, with Durant himself singing a version of Mysterio, by Leo Rojo. Talented second female lead, the striking Joan Woodbury, dances with skill and also sings a novelty number, "Incidentally", composed by her real-life husband, actor Henry Wilcoxon. Robert Regent, cast as lead Rose Hobart's blind brother, offers an abridged version of Stephen Foster's Beautiful Dreamer in his fine baritone. Clifton's established propensity for artistically composed closeups, maintained since his palmy days at the helm of top-tier silent motion pictures, has increased the merit of some episodes, but a strong barrier remains to viewer pleasure: a hackneyed scenario that as a consequence lowers the film to its station as merely a tiresome exercise in anti-climax. Despite flat direction that thereby pardons hamminess displayed by some veteran players, these are depreciated when always effectual Hobart is on screen, persuasively creating her role of a woman ready to sacrifice her life for a noble purpose. Reissued by Alpha Home Entertainment, the first name among those companies supplying little loved older films to a DVD buying public, has not, in accord with its policy, remastered this film; however, the print is visually satisfactory throughout, and its sound quality is fine, skips and elisions being infrequent. There are, as must be expected from Alpha, no extras provided upon the disk.
