Adapted from a famous “problem-play” by Eugene O’Neill, the film casts Norma Shearer, the actress who used to play the roles of “kept and left” woman whose chidren were usually taken away. On the contrary here is Clark Gable to be used as a “sexual object” and deprived of his son, who finally hates him. Robert Z.Leonard, to keep O’Neill’s “asides”, was the first american director to use “off-voices” to voice the characters thoughts.