The film perhaps is best known for a line of dialogue spoken by a platinum-blonde Bette Davis in a Southern drawl — "I'd like ta kiss ya, but I just washed my hair."

Initially, greedy planter Lane Norwood is opposed to the idea and says he needs to work in his fields, but after the sudden death of his over-worked father, he grudgingly helps Blake achieve his goal and gives the young man a job as a bookkeeper when his vampish daughter Madge intercedes on his behalf.

Blake uncovers irregularities in Norwood's accounts and soon becomes embroiled in a battle between management and workers and torn between the seductive Madge and his longtime sweetheart Betty Wright.

When producer Darryl F. Zanuck urged Michael Curtiz to cast Bette Davis as Madge Norwood, the director responded "Are you kidding?

"[3] In his review in The New York Times, Mordaunt Hall described it as "a film which seldom awakens any keen interest...Richard Barthelmess gives a careful but hardly an inspired performance.

His general demeanor lacks the desired spontaneity and often he speaks his lines in a monotone...Michael Curtiz is responsible for the direction, which is uneven, and sections of the narrative are rather muddled.

Richard Watts, Jr. of the New York Herald Tribune stated "Miss Davis shows a surprising vivacity as the seductive rich girl," and Variety declared that her "rising popularity is the film's best chance for business."