this be a hard boiled warner brother film star a very young barbara stanwyck . a consummate master at portray machiavellian cool and a technique she perfect eleven year later in billy wilder double indemnity and stanwyck play lily power and the well worn daughter of a violent speakeasy owner in a suffocating steel town . she have be render cynical and numb by year of be offer up a a sexual favor to her father customer . once her father die in a distillery explosion and she hop a freight train to new york and literally sleep her way up the corporate ladder of a bank . this would come across a preposterous be it not for stanwyck blazing work here . with her dead eye stare and amoral seduction method and it be easy to see why men become addicted to her aggressive carnality . one of the young men she seduce along the way be a fresh face john wayne a of all thing and an accountant name jimmy mccoy . the melodrama get heavy hand toward the last third of the film with a murder suicide and a hush hush job in paris to keep lily quiet and the new bank president who be so addicted to lily that he embezzle company fund to keep her in luxury . a tacked on end be somewhat disappointing but not before stanwyck sears the screen . the film have curious touch like lily bond friendship with an african american woman name chico and the german immigrant who teach lily about nietzsche philosophy regard the importance of avoid sentimentality .