Gambling Lady was the first of seven films that Joel McCrea and Barbara Stanwyck would team together in. But the fact that it's the first of them is the only distinguishing feature about this rather routine film that skips from a gangster story to a romance without missing a beat.
Stanwyck is the daughter of professional, but honest gambler Robert Barrat who commits suicide because he's broke and won't tie in with the gambling syndicate. But he's taught his daughter all he knows about various games of chance. She's so good that Kevin Spacey would definitely have picked her for his team in the current 21.
She's got two guys on the hook for her, rich playboy Joel McCrea and bookie Pat O'Brien. Claire Dodd is in her usual role as the other woman, in this case McCrea's other woman. Best in the film though is C. Aubrey Smith, McCrea's father who's the wisest rich guy around.
A murder, an alibi, a divorce, all figure in this film which when it started I thought would be one of Warner Brothers gangster flicks. Turned into a romantic melodrama which I wasn't expecting.
Joel McCrea was under contract to RKO at the time and this was one of those loan out deals. Neither he or Stanwyck thought much of the film, but they formed a lifelong friendship out of this and went on to such better films as Union Pacific, The Great Man's Lady, and Trooper Hook.
See all of those before you see this one.
