Five and Ten (DVD), Warner Archives, Drama

Best known as a comedienne. Marion Davies demonstrates her dramatic skills in a sumptuously appointed melodrama pairing her with Leslie Howard, whom Davies personally selected for the role. As the story begins, the nickels and dimes that kept cash registers ringing have added up to huge wealth for driven five-and-ten magnate john Rarick, who moves with his family from Kansas to New York to set up new corporate headquarters and to insinuate the Raricks into high society. His daughter Jennifer (Davies). eager to pursue blue-blood status, receives $5000 from her father so she can attend a charity bazaar. There, she's attracted to handsome architect Berry Rhodes (Howard) and puts him atop her list of pursuits. But Rhodes is already affianced, and in the maneuvering, romantic complications and tragedy to follow, Jennifer, her family and even Rhodes must reweigh the value of love and kin over business success and society.