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)
Featured reviews
Given her origins--her mother died while giving birth to her--Buster Green (Loretta Young) is averse to taking risks and not inclined to marry. Her plan is to rise above her station as a department store clerk through dedicated hard work. But when she meets Wallie Dennis (Norman Foster) she finds herself succumbing to his spontaneous style and marries him--only to find out on their honeymoon that he makes his "living" as a gambler.
He promises to reform but betrays her faith in him time and again. So when she finds herself pregnant she feels she has no choice but to cast him out and go it alone. Faced with mounting bills and prospect of giving birth to her child in poverty, she turns to gambling herself in a desperate attempt to reverse her fortunes.
19 year old Loretta Young is superb in this cautionary romantic tale; her combination of pluck and beauty make us root for her all the way. Winnie Lightner, playing her stalwart friend and defender Georgine, lends the story a down-to-earth realism as well as comic relief.
Gregg Toland's cinematography is crisp and economical--a highlight is the suspenseful scene that overlays a slow zooming in on Young's reactions over exciting footage of the horses at the track as her horse gains on the others in the race. Ray Enright's pacing of the story is masterful: the last ten minutes as things come to a head will keep you on the edge of your seat.
This general storyline has been filmed dozens of times--but Loretta Young's performance and the taut direction makes this one a keeper!
He promises to reform but betrays her faith in him time and again. So when she finds herself pregnant she feels she has no choice but to cast him out and go it alone. Faced with mounting bills and prospect of giving birth to her child in poverty, she turns to gambling herself in a desperate attempt to reverse her fortunes.
19 year old Loretta Young is superb in this cautionary romantic tale; her combination of pluck and beauty make us root for her all the way. Winnie Lightner, playing her stalwart friend and defender Georgine, lends the story a down-to-earth realism as well as comic relief.
Gregg Toland's cinematography is crisp and economical--a highlight is the suspenseful scene that overlays a slow zooming in on Young's reactions over exciting footage of the horses at the track as her horse gains on the others in the race. Ray Enright's pacing of the story is masterful: the last ten minutes as things come to a head will keep you on the edge of your seat.
This general storyline has been filmed dozens of times--but Loretta Young's performance and the taut direction makes this one a keeper!
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.
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.
Glamour is what is missing from movies today. Alone in our living rooms and Inured to the smaller-than-life figures on our little TV sets, we've lost sight of the larger-than-life gods on the mammoth screens in darkened movie palaces, surrounded by hundreds of our neighbors. Not even Marlene Dietrich photographed by von Sternberg and Lee Garmes could outshine spectacular 19 year old Loretta Young, presented here by the great Gregg Toland. This cautionary tale of a naive young woman, swept off her feet by a glib, compulsive gambler (Norman Foster) should edify young couples everywhere. This mercifully brief, cliche-riddled show should also serve as a reminder that the screenplay is the most important element in any movie.
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.
Did you know
- TriviaFilm debut of James Ellison.
- GoofsNear the start of the film 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 close-up 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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