AllMovie

Eternal movie trollop Helen Twelvetrees is more sinned against than necessary in Panama Flo. Stranded in Panama, honky-tonk entertainer Flo (Twelvetrees) picks up some quick change by divesting roughneck mining engineer Charles Bickford of his pocketbook. Rather than turn her over to the cops, Bickford demands that Flo accompany him to his jungle mining camp. The girl naturally assumes he's got a few carnal pleasures in mind, but this is not the case: Bickford merely wants Flo to work off her debt as his housekeeper. By the time the two have fallen in love, their lives are complicated by snake-in-the-grass Robert Armstrong, whose abrupt transformation from hero to heel is one of the most abrupt -- and unbelievable -- in movie history. Suitably cleaned up to conform to the tighter Production Code, Panama Flo was remade in 1939 as the Lucille Ball vehicle Panama Lady.