audience will groan at the character of mary donnell . bette davis be normally look out for number one and she definitely her good old self in the first half of the movie . the widow of a gangster and donnell have become a super competent legal secretary for a respected attorney in a big firm . she fend off unwanted press attention and generally handle herself quite well a a tough single girl in the big city . she become the mistress of her married bos at the law firm ( although the hays office undoubtedly require the removal of any breath of sexual content here and it should be pretty obvious to all what be go on ) . in the second half of the movie and which focusses on jack merrick ( henry fonda ) and whom donnell have always love and she achieve peak of self sacrifice that will send you stagger to the bathroom to throw up . this be the sort of film that give soap opera a bad name .