My Past is a 1931 film directed by Roy Del Ruth.
Doree Macy (Bebe Daniels) is a stage actress who seems to have a side business of hobnobbing with rich admirers. One of those admirers is John Thornley (Lewis Stone), owner of a steel factory. John hasn't gotten past cocktails and flirtatious talk with Doree, but she's happy to accept his invitation for a cruise on his yacht. John badgers his workaholic business partner Robert Byrne (Ben Lyon) into finally taking a break from the office and joining them on the cruise. Naturally, Bob and Doree fall in love and begin a passionate affair.
The only problem is, Bob's married. His wife Consuelo is in Europe and he gives the impression that a divorce is pending, but that turns out not to be true, as Doree learns when she sees a telegram from Consuelo reporting that she's on her way home. A broken-hearted Doree ends things with Ben and becomes more receptive to John's advances. However, after Consuelo returns home, Bob learns that she's been cheating on him too and she actually does want a divorce.
A pre-stardom Joan Blondell appears as Doree's gold-digging sidekick Marion.
Tropes:
- Cast Full of Rich People: A little thing like the Great Depression hasn't interrupted the Thornley Steel Works. John takes pleasure cruises on his own private yacht and Bob has an enormous mansion where he gives lavish parties.
- Dramatic Sit-Down: Doree does this when Bob walks out on her after finding out she slept with John, this being just moments after it seemed like they were getting back together.
- Gold Digger: While Doree's motives in hanging out with super-rich John are ambiguous, Marion is clearly in it for the money. After finding out that Doree is sweet on Bob, she arranges for Doree to get into Bob's car at the club, supposedly by mistake, while she gets into John's and snuggles up to him as soon as he gets in.
- Gray Rain of Depression: Doree is staring out the window at the pouring rain, depressed about the end of her relationship with Bob. When Marion walks in and notices that Doree is drinking in the morning, Doree says specifically that the rain is making her sad.
- Hypocrite: Bob's outrage over finding out that Doree and John had a fling, after he and Doree broke up, is pretty over-the-top considering that Bob was cheating on his wife to begin with.
- I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: John loves Doree, and she has asked him to marry her. But he knows that she really loves Bob. So he takes her to the French Riviera, where Bob is, and arranges for them to be together.
- Leg Focus: In one scene, Marion drops by and finds Doree in her bathroom, just out of the tub, sticking a long, lovely leg high in the air as she washes it with a cloth.Marion: Oh, polishing up the body, huh?
- Love Triangle: Between Doree, her admirer John, and her true love Bob.
- The Mistress: Doree becomes this to Bob, although she doesn't quite realize it, thinking that Bob's marriage is already irretrievably broken.
- Off-into-the-Distance Ending: John's yacht sailing away, after he has given up Doree.
- Old-Timey Bathing Suit: Doree wears just such a bathing suit when she wants to take a dive off of John's yacht—but she shucks it off after she gets in the water.
- Product Placement: A note in the opening credits says "Brunswick radios used exclusively."
- Shout-Out: Doree is shown reading The Maltese Falcon. This may also be Actor Allusion, as Bebe Daniels' next film was the 1931 adaptation of that novel.
- Skinnydipping: Doree dives into the ocean for a swim, then promptly takes her swimsuit back off and throws it onto the yacht. When a shocked Bob finds it hanging from the railing she cheerfully says "I can't swim in a suit!"
- Sympathetic Adulterer: Doree and Bob are a true-love match, as underlined when Consuelo comes home and is revealed to be a cold fish who has no real interest in Bob at all.
