His Brother's Wife
At the Rothmore Institute in New York City, Professor Fahrenheim (Jean Hersholt) prepares to travel to the jungles of South America on a two-year project to find a cure for spotted fever, which has been ravaging the Rothmore Mines. Fahrenheim's research assistant, Chris Claybourne (Robert Taylor), agrees to accompany him, but insists on taking a few weeks off before the trip in order to have some fun. Chris ends up at a gambling club run by a crooked mobster name "Fish-Eye" and soon loses five thousand dollars on credit. That night, Chris meets beautiful model Rita Wilson (Barbara Stanwyck), who tags along on his gambling spree. In the coming days, the two fall in love, and when she learns that he will soon be leaving for the jungle, she persuades him to stay.
When Fish-Eye demands immediate payment of his gambling debt, Chris turns to his brother Tom (John Eldredge) for financial assistance. Suspicious of Rita, Tom offers to pay Chris' debt, but only if he leaves for the jungles as planned—and without Rita. Chris agrees to the proposal and postpone his marriage to Rita until after he returns in two years. Angered by his decision, Rita breaks off the relationship and returns on her own to the gambling club, where she accepts Fish-Eye's offer to work for him as an escort to lure wealthy gamblers to his club in exchange for paying off Chris' debt. Soon after, Tom visits the gambling club and sees Rita, who confesses that it was she who paid Chris' debt with money she inherited from her grandmother.
Later that year, on Christmas Eve, Chris returns to New York City and learns that Tom and his fiancée have broken up, and that his brother resigned from his position at the hospital. When pressed for an explanation, Tom tells Chris that he fell in love with Rita and that they were secretly married, but later she ridiculed him and refused to stay with him. Believing the worst about Rita, Chris goes to the gambling club looking for her. Filled with remorse over her actions, she confesses her mistakes and admits that she still loves him, not his brother. Chris proposes that she accompany him to the jungle as a friend and wait for Tom to agree to a divorce before renewing their relationship.
A few months later, when word arrives that Tom obtained the divorce, Chris tells Rita that he planned all this in order to get back at her for her actions. When she offers to let him use her to test their new serum, Chris refuses and bitterly sends her away. Initially, Professor Fahrenheim planned to test the serum on Chris, but now he has second thoughts about the potential danger to his assistant. When Rita learns that Chris will be used for the testing, she secretly injects herself with the disease in order to save Chris. Moved by her actions and realizing that he still loves her, Chris produces more serum and saves Rita's life. Soon after, Chris and Rita get married and sail back to New York City.
revenge, melodrama