Female

Alison Drake runs an automobile factory and runs it harder than the men around her. She applies the same rule to her evenings: she invites whichever young engineer she likes back to her house, and in the morning has him transferred to another branch. The system works perfectly until she meets an independent design engineer who neither accepts the invitation nor accepts the transfer, and for the first time she is dealing with someone outside the arrangement she built. This is one of the films made before the production code was properly enforced, and it carries that era's nerve. Its production is a story in itself: William Dieterle started it, William Wellman took over when Dieterle fell ill, and then, after the studio boss objected to one of the actors, the scenes were reshot by Michael Curtiz, who ended up the only name on the credits. Ruth Chatterton's Alison, despite the film's obedient ending, is still brought up as one of the era's most striking women.