A young woman's financial problems continue through a troubled marriage to a gambler.A young woman's financial problems continue through a troubled marriage to a gambler.A young woman's financial problems continue through a troubled marriage to a gambler.
Sheila Bromley
- Wedding Girl
- (scenes deleted)
Betty Farrington
- Mrs. Braddock
- (scenes deleted)
Ralf Harolde
- Willie
- (scenes deleted)
Nat Pendleton
- Dance Hall Plumber
- (scenes deleted)
Harold Waldridge
- Messenger
- (scenes deleted)
Robert Bennett
- Floor Boy
- (uncredited)
Eileen Carlisle
- Rose, a Salesgirl
- (uncredited)
Eddy Chandler
- Delivery Man
- (uncredited)
Charles Coleman
- Floorwalker
- (uncredited)
Jack Curtis
- Carpenter in Hardware Department
- (uncredited)
5.9408
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Featured reviews
odd title for an odd little film
Sometimes I think Warner Bros. named these early 30's films just as quickly and casually as they filmed them. There is nothing in this film about "play-girls". Also, although Winnie Lightner is top billed, this is really Loretta Young's picture. Loretta plays Buster Green, a salesgirl in a department store who wants to eventually become a store buyer. She wants no part of marriage and especially motherhood since her own mother died in childbirth. As they say, life is what happens when you are making plans. Buster falls for and marries the charming Wally Dennis, who claims he is a salesman but is actually a professional gambler. She doesn't find out until after they are married about the gambling, but Wally promises to get a real job. Months later, Buster finds out she is pregnant and only then finds out Wally didn't actually get a job like he promised he would - he is still gambling.
Loretta Young does the same wonderful job with this material that I have come to expect from her as she runs the gamut of emotions from hope to disappointment and from anger to terror, and she is one of two reasons to watch the film. The second reason are the antics of top-billed Winnie Lightner, who is actually playing in support here in this, the twilight of her film career. She plays Buster's best friend, roommate, and coworker prior to Buster's marriage. Her comic one-liners and facial expressions are priceless. If you know much about her rather short film career, one of the funniest moments in the movie is when she is scrubbing the apartment bathroom at night while the song "Singin in the Bathtub" plays in the background. That was the song she sang in the Warner Brothers all-talking revue in 1929 - "The Show of Shows" - when she was at the top of her game. Lightner is also quite good opposite Guy Kibbee, who plays the store assistant manager who loves her and won't let her work in any of the store departments where she might meet a man she likes better than him.
Loretta Young does the same wonderful job with this material that I have come to expect from her as she runs the gamut of emotions from hope to disappointment and from anger to terror, and she is one of two reasons to watch the film. The second reason are the antics of top-billed Winnie Lightner, who is actually playing in support here in this, the twilight of her film career. She plays Buster's best friend, roommate, and coworker prior to Buster's marriage. Her comic one-liners and facial expressions are priceless. If you know much about her rather short film career, one of the funniest moments in the movie is when she is scrubbing the apartment bathroom at night while the song "Singin in the Bathtub" plays in the background. That was the song she sang in the Warner Brothers all-talking revue in 1929 - "The Show of Shows" - when she was at the top of her game. Lightner is also quite good opposite Guy Kibbee, who plays the store assistant manager who loves her and won't let her work in any of the store departments where she might meet a man she likes better than him.
Very early Loretta Young film about the impact gambling has on a young couple...
Very early Loretta Young film: she's not even top billed. Winnie Lightner is - an interesting younger character actress. But it really is Loretta's movie. The plot involves Loretta's character falling in love with a gambler - and the complications which arise. Norman Foster plays the gambler: ironically, he married Miss Young's sister (Sally Blane) in 1937 - after being divorced from Claudette Colbert. Most memorable scenes in this movie are set in a department store circa 1932.
Movie is also notable as (apparently) the first movie of a very young James Ellison. Neither the title "Play Girl" or the alternate title "Love on a Budget" really describe this film. Entertaining melodrama from the early days of sound.
Movie is also notable as (apparently) the first movie of a very young James Ellison. Neither the title "Play Girl" or the alternate title "Love on a Budget" really describe this film. Entertaining melodrama from the early days of sound.
Empty fluff
Predictable story of department store clerk Loretta Young (she's beautiful and erotic and gives an honest performance) marrying compulsive gambler Norman Foster. Winnie Lightner provides the comic relief as her best friend. There is some pre-code innuendo, but it's all rather mild. ** out of 4.
You Can Bet on Loretta Young
Transfers at the "Mayfield Department Store" result in beautiful Loretta Young (as Buster "Bus" Green) being assigned to "Infants Wear" while comic relief pal Winnie Lightner (as Georgine Hicks) is sent to "Plumbing Supplies". The women, who share a bed, are unhappy with the new assignments. At home, they arrange a dancing date with Ms. Young's boyfriend James Ellison (as Elmer) and pal Norman Foster (as Wallace "Wally" Dennis), a "blind date" for Ms. Lightner. But, Mr. Foster thinks Young is "hot" and begins to pursue her. The two unexpectedly fall in love, but Foster has a dark secret. He's a compulsive gambler...
Meanwhile, sharp-tongued Lightner is romanced by older man Guy Kibbee (as "Finky" Finkelwald). This is a strange, carelessly scripted story about the effects of gambling. The heroine's problems, caused by her gambling husband, are alleviated by her own gambling; it doesn't make sense. An interesting point of characterization is that when Young's character was born, her mother died; for this reason, she is supposedly reluctant to marry, and have children. She is mistakenly called a "Play-Girl". But, Young and the cast are enjoyable. In real life, Young was close to co-star Foster; he married her sister, actress Sally Blane.
***** Play-Girl (3/12/32) Ray Enright ~ Loretta Young, Winnie Lightner, Norman Foster, James Ellison
Meanwhile, sharp-tongued Lightner is romanced by older man Guy Kibbee (as "Finky" Finkelwald). This is a strange, carelessly scripted story about the effects of gambling. The heroine's problems, caused by her gambling husband, are alleviated by her own gambling; it doesn't make sense. An interesting point of characterization is that when Young's character was born, her mother died; for this reason, she is supposedly reluctant to marry, and have children. She is mistakenly called a "Play-Girl". But, Young and the cast are enjoyable. In real life, Young was close to co-star Foster; he married her sister, actress Sally Blane.
***** Play-Girl (3/12/32) Ray Enright ~ Loretta Young, Winnie Lightner, Norman Foster, James Ellison
Loretta the lovely
The title is meaningless, the story just as pointless, and whatever interest there is to be derived from this girl-loves-gambler weepie comes from the delicate beauty of Loretta Young. The film is a feast for the eyes (with nary a morsel of food for thought) as masterly cinematographer Gregg Toland captures the poetry of Young's huge, soulful peepers and full promising lips with one lovestruck close-up after another. The following year's "Zoo in Budapest" and "Man's Castle" would cement her position as the Depression's most desirable waif, the pin-up girl of the bread lines. With the barrelhouse comedienne Winnie Lightner as her wisecracking pal and Guy Kibbee, criminally wasted as Lightner's swain.
Did you know
- TriviaTeasing her boyfriend, Buster says to him, "Come on, Gable, get hot!" The line is startling because a few years later Loretta Young would make Call of the Wild (1935) with Clark Gable and have a child by him.
- GoofsNear the start there are brief glimpses of various store departments. In the plumbing department, Winnie Lightner is in the background perched on a sink. That makes no sense, as it is only later on in the story that her character is reassigned from hardware to plumbing. (One publicity still for the film is a closeup of Winnie on the sink, but there is no such scene in the movie; probably a sequence involving Winnie in the plumbing department was deleted, but then Warners decided to use that opening shot figuring nobody would notice Winnie in the background.)
- Quotes
Georgine Hicks: [Wind blows away a pair of panties hang drying in the window] Oh! Oh! Oh-oh-oh!
Buster 'Bus' Green Dennis: What's the matter?
Georgine Hicks: Oh, there goes my last panties!
Buster 'Bus' Green Dennis: Well, now what are you gonna do?
Georgine Hicks: Keep off of step ladders.
- SoundtracksThe Wedding March
(1843) (uncredited)
from "A Midsummer Night's Dream, Op. 61"
Music by Felix Mendelssohn
Played briefly when the passport is shown
Details
- Runtime
- 1h(60 min)
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 1.37 : 1
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