Born To Be Bad (1934)

A "model" (Loretta Young) is a cold and tough little cookie with only one soft spot. Her kid (Jackie Kelk), the result of being an unmarried mother at age 15. She's raising him without any morals however, teaching him to be tenacious rather than ethical. When the boy is hit by a milk truck he's not seriously injured but she attempts to make money off it by suing the company. When her scam is exposed, she loses the boy when the court places him in a home for wayward boys. Directed by Lowell Sherman (SHE DONE HIM WRONG), the movie crams as much melodrama as it can in its brief running time, 1 hour and 2 minutes. The young Loretta Young is quite striking and hadn't yet atrophied into the steel like wholesomeness of her later roles. This being the early 30s, it appears that "model" is a euphemism for call girl and Young certainly drips with a resilient sex appeal until she goes all noble by the film's end. As a paean to mother love, this is no STELLA DALLAS or MADAME X. The film's male lead is Cary Grant, also in the early stage of his career and he's a bit of a stiff here with none of the charisma he would display later in the decade. It doesn't help that his character is unbelievably gullible and naive. With Henry Travers and Marion Burns as Grant's too good to be true wife.