Summary
In a landscape defined by the relentless friction between proletarian desperation and the gilded veneer of the American elite, Phyllis Shaw emerges as a poignant vessel of socioeconomic anxiety. Her trajectory is not merely a narrative of ambition, but a visceral reaction to the crushing weight of penury that threatens to stifle her youth. The film meticulously charts her rejection of Jerry, a character whose artistic idealism serves as an insufficient balm for the physical pangs of poverty. This rejection precipitates her encounter with Kirke, a man who embodies the predatory nature of the plutocracy. Kirke offers a Faustian bargain: a life of opulence detached from the sanctity of matrimony. The film thus transforms into a philosophical inquiry into the commodification of virtue, where the protagonist must navigate the treacherous waters between moral integrity and the seductive lure of material security. It is a stark, cinematic interrogation of the price of survival in an era where the feminine identity was often relegated to a form of aesthetic chattel.
Synopsis
Young Phyllis Shaw, tired of being poor, sets out to snag a rich husband. She meets a young artist named Jerry, who falls for her, but she rejects him because he's not rich. She then meets Kirke, who is exactly the type of man she's looking for, but with one problem--he won't marry her, but as his "kept woman" he will lavish her with money and gifts. What to do, what to do . . .
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