Anybody's Woman (1930)

IMDb plot summary: A man left by his wife gets drunk and marries a chorus girl.

Directed by Dorothy Arzner. Starring Ruth Chatterton, Clive Brook, and Paul Lukas.

Anybody's Woman tells the story of a burlesque dancer who spontaneously gets married to a man drinking away his sorrows at his wife's leaving him. When he sobers up in the morning, he's somewhat horrified at what he's done, but they decide to try and make it work. I didn't like Ruth Chatterton much in Sarah and Son, but she's a lot more interesting and relatable here. She's so easy to root for as she keeps trying to improve her situation but finds her past being constantly flung in her face. And so much of her rejection is thinly veiled as polite societal norms, so when she reacts against the underlying meaning we totally get it but also know how badly that's going to go for her. This is one of the few films in my 1930 project that was actually directed by a woman, so it perhaps makes sense that she brings such compassion to this character. While the ending of the film doesn't entirely work for me, it captured my attention more than some of the other melodramas of the time.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Anybody's Woman > Pi

Anybody's Woman < Kuroneko

Anybody's Woman < Die Hard

Anybody's Woman > 1408

Anybody's Woman < Interview with the Vampire

Anybody's Woman > The Light in Her Eyes

Anybody's Woman > Myn Bala: Warriors of the Steppe

Anybody's Woman > Nanny McPhee

Anybody's Woman > The Suburbans

Anybody's Woman > Showtime

Anybody's Woman > The Great Gatsby (1974)

Final spot: #1513 out of 3722, or 59%.