Comet Over Broadway (1938)

Eve Appleton, wife of small-town garage owner Bill Appleton, has theatrical ambitions. Bill gets into an argument with a visiting actor over her, kills him accidentally and is sent to prison. Eve, realizing her part in Bill's fate, vows to right matters, and taking her infant daughter, goes away to make her way in the theatre. Later, she is forced to leave her baby girl with her friend "Tim" Adams. Bert Ballin befriends her and they fall in love, but she flees abroad and becomes a star. Back in America, as the Toast of Broadway, she is brought back to a realization of her former vows by Joe Grant, her hometown lawyer. Oh, back-of-hand-to-forehead suffering gesture, what is a girl to do?