The Girl from 10th Avenue is a 1935 American

Cinema of the United States

The cinema of the United States, also known as Hollywood, has had a profound effect on cinema across the world since the early 20th century. Its history is sometimes separated into four main periods: the silent film era, classical Hollywood cinema, New Hollywood, and the contemporary period...

 drama film

Drama film

A drama film is a film genre that depends mostly on in-depth development of realistic characters dealing with emotional themes. Dramatic themes such as alcoholism, drug addiction, infidelity, moral dilemmas, racial prejudice, religious intolerance, poverty, class divisions, violence against women...

 directed by Alfred E. Green. The screenplay

Screenplay

A screenplay or script is a written work that is made especially for a film or television program. Screenplays can be original works or adaptations from existing pieces of writing. In them, the movement, actions, expression, and dialogues of the characters are also narrated...

 by Charles Kenyon

Charles Kenyon

Charles Kenyon was an American screenwriter, who wrote or co-wrote the screenplays for 114 films between 1915 and 1946...

 is based on the 1914 play Outcast by Hubert Henry Davies

Hubert Henry Davies

Hubert Henry Davies was a leading British playwright of the early twentieth century, following in the tradition of Arthur Wing Pinero and Henry Arthur Jones, but influenced profoundly by Thomas William Robertson...

. The film was released in the United Kingdom as Men on Her Mind.

Plot

Geoffrey Sherwood, rejected by Valentine French in favor of wealthier suitor John Marland, watches her wedding from outside the church. Inebriated, he becomes increasingly louder, drawing the attention of two policemen as well as Miriam Brady, a shopgirl on her lunch hour, who takes Geoff to a cafe to spare him from arrest. There they encounter Hugh Brown and Tony Hewlitt, two of his society friends, who offer Miriam $100 to keep an eye on Geoffrey and make sure he stays out of trouble.

The following morning the couple discover that while under the influence of alcohol they were married by a justice of the peace

Justice of the Peace

A justice of the peace is a puisne judicial officer elected or appointed by means of a commission to keep the peace. Depending on the jurisdiction, they might dispense summary justice or merely deal with local administrative applications in common law jurisdictions...

. Miriam offers to give her new husband his freedom, but he decides to remain with her. They set up housekeeping in an apartment in a lower class neighborhood, and while Geoff starts his own business, Miriam tries to improve herself with the assistance of Mrs. Martin, her landlady and a former showgirl.

With his bride helping him to stay sober, Geoff succeeds and the marriage remains solid until Valentine decides she wants him back. Miriam confronts the woman in a restaurant and their ensuing argument is reported in the newspaper. Miriam leaves Geoff who, realizing he truly loves her, tells Valentine they have no future together, finds his wife, and gives her a wedding band as a sign of his commitment to their marriage.

Production

This was the fourth screen adaptation of the Hubert Henry Davies play, Outcast, which had run for 168 performances at the Lyceum Theatre

Lyceum Theatre (New York)

The Lyceum Theatre is a Broadway theatre located at 149 West 45th Street in midtown-Manhattan.It has the distinction of being the oldest surviving Broadway venue , the oldest continuously operating legitimate theatre in New York City, and the first Broadway theatre ever to be granted landmark status...

 on Broadway

Broadway theatre

Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...

. The first was filmed in 1917 with Miriam Gibson and David Powell

David Powell

David Powell was a Scottish born stage and later film actor of the silent era. In his twenties Powell appeared in stage companies of Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree, Ellen Terry and Johnston Forbes-Robertson...

. Powell reprised his role in 1922 opposite Elsie Ferguson

Elsie Ferguson

Elsie Louise Ferguson was an American stage and film actress.-Early life:Born in New York City, Elsie Ferguson was the only child of Mr. and Mrs. Hiram Benson Ferguson, a successful attorney...

, who had starred in the original Broadway production. The 1928 version, with a Vitaphone

Vitaphone

Vitaphone was a sound film process used on feature films and nearly 1,000 short subjects produced by Warner Bros. and its sister studio First National from 1926 to 1930. Vitaphone was the last, but most successful, of the sound-on-disc processes...

 score and sound effects, starred Corinne Griffith

Corinne Griffith

Corinne Mae Griffith was an American actress. Dubbed "The Orchid Lady of the Screen", she was one of the most popular film actresses of the 1920s and widely considered the most beautiful actress of the silent screen...

 and Edmund Lowe

Edmund Lowe

Edmund Dantes Lowe was an American actor. His formative experience began in vaudeville and silent film. He was born in San Jose, California.-Film career:...

.

Cast

• Bette Davis
  Bette Davis
  Ruth Elizabeth "Bette" Davis was an American actress of film, television and theater. Noted for her willingness to play unsympathetic characters, she was highly regarded for her performances in a range of film genres, from contemporary crime melodramas to historical and period films and occasional...
  
   ..... Miriam Brady
• Ian Hunter
  Ian Hunter (actor)
  Ian Hunter was a British character actor.Among dozens of film roles, his best-remembered appearances include That Certain Woman with Bette Davis, The Adventures of Robin Hood , The Little Princess and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde...
  
   ..... Geoffrey Sherwood
• Katharine Alexander
  Katharine Alexander
  Katharine Alexander was an American actress. She appeared in 44 films between 1930 and 1951.She was born in Fort Smith, Arkansas and died in Tryon, North Carolina. She was one eighth Cherokee Indian...
  
   ..... Valentine French
• Colin Clive
  Colin Clive
  Colin Clive was an English stage and screen actor best remembered for his portrayal of Dr...
  
   ..... John Marland
• John Eldredge
  John Eldredge
  John Eldredge is an author, counselor, and lecturer of Christianity.-Life and work:While living in Los Angeles Eldredge was looking for a "worldview." After exploring other religions, Eastern mysticism, Lao-Tzu, and New Age spirituality, he discovered the writings of Francis Schaeffer, whom he...
  
   ..... Hugh Brown
• Phillip Reed
  Phillip Reed
  Phillip Reed was an American actor. He was perhaps best known for his role as Steve Wilson in a series of four films based on the Big Town radio series. Television appearances include a lead role in the 1955 anthology drama series Police Call. He also appeared as King Toranshah in the 1965 Elvis...
  
   ..... Tony Hewlett
• Alison Skipworth
  Alison Skipworth
  Alison Skipworth was an English stage and screen actress. She was born Alison Mary Elliott Margaret Groom in London....
  
   ..... Mrs. Martin

Critical reception

Variety

Variety (magazine)

Variety is an American weekly entertainment-trade magazine founded in New York City, New York, in 1905 by Sime Silverman. With the rise of the importance of the motion-picture industry, Daily Variety, a daily edition based in Los Angeles, California, was founded by Silverman in 1933. In 1998, the...

said the film "is fashioned from a pattern whose every turn and twist the dullest fan can easily anticipate . . . Narrative is chockful of implausible sequences and the plot . . . often gets itself into blind alleys. But deft direction plus smooth trouping by Davis make these defects not too noticeable."