The Woman I Stole (1933) watch online HD

I love movies from the 30's and this is one of my favorites. A great premise for a story. A successful business man returns to the site where he built his company presumably to get it back in gear but he's really there to take the wife of the man he left there to run the business back home with him. Intense confrontations with charismatic personalities and dialog.

It might remind some of RED DUST where Clark Gable is running a business in the far east just as the main character is here except it's an oil company I believe. But instead of the conflict being between two women, the conflict is two men wanting the same woman.

Fans of Fay Wray can see her in a role that is not overwhelmed with her screaming as in King Kong and she is not entirely sympathetic here.

The two men are the focus of the story as they begin as adversaries but gradually become friends. I think it does a great job of bringing the characters to a new understanding of themselves. A woman gets in the way of a friendship between two men. I can't remember what happens to the woman but I don't think she fares too well but not too badly either. I don't think it's misogynistic in other words.

Great entertainment. And you'll love the final scene.

First off, there are some very camp elements to this pre-code relic. The characters are shallowly scripted, but the principals creditably give them what they can. The ethnic stereotypes (and the wrong, wrong, wrong! depiction of Muslims at prayer!) may offend some, and anybody familiar with North Africa will notice many more howlers.

Still, Jack Holt's portrayal of Jim Bradler is almost Gable-esquire in its macho eloquence and Fay Wray is wonderful as hard, selfish Vida. The ending is unintentionally hysterical, but what elicits howls today may have only raised eyebrows among the cognoscenti in 1933.

While the story and production are impossible to take seriously, Holt and Wray make it very watchable, and the rest of it is just camp. Critically, I can't give this film high marks, but it's too fun to pass up.