Release calendarTop 250 moviesMost popular moviesBrowse movies by genreTop box officeShowtimes & ticketsMovie newsIndia movie spotlight
    What's on TV & streamingTop 250 TV showsMost popular TV showsBrowse TV shows by genreTV news
    What to watchLatest trailersIMDb OriginalsIMDb PicksIMDb SpotlightFamily entertainment guideIMDb Podcasts
    OscarsEmmysToronto Int'l Film FestivalHispanic Heritage MonthIMDb Stars to WatchSTARmeter AwardsAwards CentralFestival CentralAll events
    Born todayMost popular celebsCelebrity news
    Help centerContributor zonePolls
For industry professionals
  • Language
  • Fully supported
  • English (United States)
    Partially supported
  • Français (Canada)
  • Français (France)
  • Deutsch (Deutschland)
  • हिंदी (भारत)
  • Italiano (Italia)
  • Português (Brasil)
  • Español (España)
  • Español (México)
Watchlist
Sign in
  • Fully supported
  • English (United States)
    Partially supported
  • Français (Canada)
  • Français (France)
  • Deutsch (Deutschland)
  • हिंदी (भारत)
  • Italiano (Italia)
  • Português (Brasil)
  • Español (España)
  • Español (México)
Use app
  • Cast & crew
  • User reviews
  • Trivia
IMDbPro

Play Girl

  • 1932
  • Unrated
  • 1h
IMDb RATING
5.9/10
379
YOUR RATING
Norman Foster and Winnie Lightner in Play Girl (1932)
DramaRomance

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.

  • Director
    • Ray Enright
  • Writers
    • Frederick Hazlitt Brennan
    • Maurine Dallas Watkins
    • Maude Fulton
  • Stars
    • Winnie Lightner
    • Loretta Young
    • Norman Foster
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • IMDb RATING
    5.9/10
    379
    YOUR RATING
    • Director
      • Ray Enright
    • Writers
      • Frederick Hazlitt Brennan
      • Maurine Dallas Watkins
      • Maude Fulton
    • Stars
      • Winnie Lightner
      • Loretta Young
      • Norman Foster
    • 13User reviews
    • 3Critic reviews
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • Photos7

    View Poster
    View Poster
    View Poster
    View Poster
    View Poster
    View Poster
    View Poster

    Top cast34

    Edit
    Winnie Lightner
    Winnie Lightner
    • Georgine Hicks
    Loretta Young
    Loretta Young
    • Buster 'Bus' Green Dennis
    Norman Foster
    Norman Foster
    • Wallace 'Wally' Dennis
    Guy Kibbee
    Guy Kibbee
    • 'Finky' Finkelwald
    Dorothy Burgess
    Dorothy Burgess
    • Edna
    Noel Madison
    Noel Madison
    • Martie Happ
    James Ellison
    James Ellison
    • Elmer
    Edward Van Sloan
    Edward Van Sloan
    • Moffatt - the Boss
    Sheila Bromley
    Sheila Bromley
    • Wedding Girl
    • (scenes deleted)
    Betty Farrington
    Betty Farrington
    • Mrs. Braddock
    • (scenes deleted)
    Ralf Harolde
    Ralf Harolde
    • Willie
    • (scenes deleted)
    Nat Pendleton
    Nat Pendleton
    • Dance Hall Plumber
    • (scenes deleted)
    Harold Waldridge
    Harold Waldridge
    • Messenger
    • (scenes deleted)
    Robert Bennett
    • Floor Boy
    • (uncredited)
    Eileen Carlisle
    • Rose, a Salesgirl
    • (uncredited)
    Eddy Chandler
    Eddy Chandler
    • Delivery Man
    • (uncredited)
    Charles Coleman
    Charles Coleman
    • Floorwalker
    • (uncredited)
    Jack Curtis
    Jack Curtis
    • Carpenter in Hardware Department
    • (uncredited)
    • Director
      • Ray Enright
    • Writers
      • Frederick Hazlitt Brennan
      • Maurine Dallas Watkins
      • Maude Fulton
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

    User reviews13

    5.9379
    1
    2
    3
    4
    5
    6
    7
    8
    9
    10

    Featured reviews

    wireshock

    Loretta Young Shines in this Suspenseful Romance!

    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!
    6AlsExGal

    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.
    4Fred_Rap

    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.
    5theognis-80821

    Young Loretta Young+Gregg Toland=Movie

    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.
    5gridoon2025

    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.

    More like this

    Four Frightened People
    6.1
    Four Frightened People
    Symphony of Six Million
    6.1
    Symphony of Six Million
    Employees' Entrance
    7.2
    Employees' Entrance
    Air Mail
    6.6
    Air Mail
    Brief Moment
    6.3
    Brief Moment
    What Price Hollywood?
    7.0
    What Price Hollywood?
    Vanity Fair
    5.5
    Vanity Fair
    The Sin of Nora Moran
    6.7
    The Sin of Nora Moran
    The White Sister
    6.1
    The White Sister
    Call Her Savage
    7.0
    Call Her Savage
    Born to Be Bad
    6.1
    Born to Be Bad
    The Magnificent Matador
    5.6
    The Magnificent Matador

    Related interests

    Mahershala Ali and Alex R. Hibbert in Moonlight (2016)
    Drama
    Ingrid Bergman and Humphrey Bogart in Casablanca (1942)
    Romance

    Storyline

    Edit

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      Film debut of James Ellison.
    • Goofs
      Near 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.

    • Soundtracks
      The Wedding March
      (1843) (uncredited)

      from "A Midsummer Night's Dream, Op. 61"

      Music by Felix Mendelssohn

      Played briefly when the passport is shown

    Top picks

    Sign in to rate and Watchlist for personalized recommendations
    Sign in

    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • March 12, 1932 (United States)
    • Country of origin
      • United States
    • Language
      • English
    • Also known as
      • Love on a Budget
    • Filming locations
      • Warner Brothers Burbank Studios - 4000 Warner Boulevard, Burbank, California, USA(Studio)
    • Production company
      • Warner Bros.
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Tech specs

    Edit
    • Runtime
      • 1h(60 min)
    • Color
      • Black and White
    • Sound mix
      • Mono
    • Aspect ratio
      • 1.37 : 1

    Contribute to this page

    Suggest an edit or add missing content
    • Learn more about contributing
    Edit page

    More to explore

    Recently viewed

    Please enable browser cookies to use this feature. Learn more.
    Get the IMDb App
    Sign in for more accessSign in for more access
    Follow IMDb on social
    Get the IMDb App
    For Android and iOS
    Get the IMDb App
    • Help
    • Site Index
    • IMDbPro
    • Box Office Mojo
    • License IMDb Data
    • Press Room
    • Advertising
    • Jobs
    • Conditions of Use
    • Privacy Policy
    • Your Ads Privacy Choices
    IMDb, an Amazon company

    © 1990-2025 by IMDb.com, Inc.