This is a Pre-Code film that by no means is perfect, but that I've always considered overall good and quite well done. There's major convincing sense of atmosphere and environment, and definitely of being stranded in place.

Joan Crawford gives an excellent very strong performance, that I think serves her and the character well. But I think Walter Huston pours his character on too thick; maybe it's the nature of the stifling character in and of itself that largely is why Huston's performance has never been one that I've taken to or cared for.

A dud in the movie is, in my opinion, usually excellent Beulah Bondi, as Rev. Davidson's holier-than-thou wife. I don't care for Miss Bondi's one-note "canned" feeling performance or the grating characterization; I think another middle-age actress could and would have gone about it via a different approach that would have worked much better.

It's mostly Joan Crawford and the compelling sense of atmosphere, also Guy Kibbee's and Matt Moore's (he as the doctor) performances, that have long made and kept me a fan of this film.

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