White Shoulders

White Shoulders is a lost[4] 1931 American pre-Code comedy-drama film directed by Melville W. Brown and starring Mary Astor and Jack Holt, with major supporting roles by Ricardo Cortez and Sidney Toler.[5] The film was produced and distributed by RKO Pictures. The screenplay by Jane Murfin and J. Walter Ruben was adapted from Rex Beach's short story, The Recoil.

The film touched on the topics of gold-digging, adultery, bigamy, gigolos, and theft. The rights to the story were optioned in late 1930, and the film went into production in March 1931. After approximately four weeks of filming, the film was screened in May.

A remake of the 1924 silent film entitled The Recoil, RKO released the film on June 6, 1931, and it did not perform well at the box office, making it yet another film by RKO to suffer a similar fate. Critically, it was a mixed batch of opinions, ranging from poor to very good. Most reviewers enjoyed at least some of the acting, but virtually all thought the plot was either too convoluted or simply implausible, although some at least gave it credit for its originality.