Only Yesterday

An incredible opening sequence, offering a crash course on the Wall Street disaster of October 29, 1929 as the camera cruises lingeringly from stock exchange through society party, shows Stahl at his very best. On the day that ruins him, the dispirited tycoon hero (Boles) has his conscience coincidentally prodded by a letter from the girl (Sullavan) he ruined in the days of his youth, and he remembers... A pleasing conceit, reminiscent of Letter from an Unknown Woman, but developed on lines that run more to sentimentality than to the incandescent romantic despair of Ophüls' film. Some remarkable sequences, nevertheless, with unfailingly elegant direction from Stahl and a radiant performance from Sullavan (her debut) making up for the stodgy Boles.