I picked this up because it was billed as a romantic comedy, and my wife loves 30s and 40s comedies. But it’s really more of a dramatic character study, with a little comedy and even less romance thrown in. It hasn’t aged well: the film gets stale at points, as the combination of Depression-era pathos, melodrama, and some dislikable characters got a bit much for me. But there were lots of high points too: John Barrymore’s semi-humourous, semi-tragic alcoholic was particularly good; Jean Harlow and Wallace Beery’s bickering couple had some chermistry that sometimes missed the mark but sometimes just nailed it; and Marie Dressler’s faded actress was the best of the bunch. It was worth watching once just to experience the great ensemble, but not a movie I could wholeheartedly recommend.