Gambling Lady

Dir. Archie Mayo

66 Minutes

USA

1934

Starring: Barbara Stanwyck, Joel McCrea, Pat O'Brien, Claire Dodd, C. Aubrey Smith

The last Mayo/Stanwyck pre-code effort is easily the worst, and quite the slog even at 66 minutes. Stanwyck plays Jennifer "Lady" Lee, the daughter of Mike Lee who operates a gambling house that it known for its strict honesty and "no cheating" philosophy (naturally he is the poorest in the syndicate). While under pressure to cheat, Mike throws in the towel and Lady picks up the mantle. Thrown into the fold are two suitors: one, Charlie Lang (Pat O'Brien) and two, Garry Madison (Joel McCrea). The screenplay by Doris Malloy and Ralph Block has so much material to go around (the gambling dens, the love triangle, another woman(!), a death!) that nearly none of it ends up working as each gets the shaft towards any proper development (and becomes borderline incoherent in its convoluted structure). And somehow the whole affair inches along to its limp conclusion. Stanwyck finds a middle ground between sentimentality and bite in an "ok" performance (she starts to lose me in general after this era comes to an end), and Mayo continues to be visually bland as he moves all of these pieces along. Notable for being the first of seven films for Stanwyck and McCrea.

August 17th, 2019