Fourth billed Mae West steals everything but the camera as star George Raft claimed in this slickly made Paramount pre-code about a night club owner who falls for a society dame (Constance Cummings) busted by the Depression and depressed herself around marrying for cash and security with someone (Louis Calhern) she honestly tells lacks love for.
Joe Anton (Raft) runs a nightclub that is the envy of the area. Other mobsters want to buy him out but his asking price is astronomical. On the side he's being coached by an English teacher (Allison Skipworth) so he can make gains in society, especially when "Miss Park Avenue" makes the scene.
Filled with scene stealers (Wynne Gibson, Skipworth, an abrasive Roscoe Karns) West lays waste to them with a few one liners and that unique strut announcing herself. Raft is a slightly uneven mix of tough and vulnerable while bad boy chaser Cummings also runs hot and cold. The set design drips style while Ernest Haller delivers his usual solid, sensual lens work but the subplot of dealing with the mobsters moving in on his territory is hackneyed and heavy handed in what is more of a comedy than romantic or mobster drama supplied by its 'life jacket," Mae West.
Joe Anton (Raft) runs a nightclub that is the envy of the area. Other mobsters want to buy him out but his asking price is astronomical. On the side he's being coached by an English teacher (Allison Skipworth) so he can make gains in society, especially when "Miss Park Avenue" makes the scene.
Filled with scene stealers (Wynne Gibson, Skipworth, an abrasive Roscoe Karns) West lays waste to them with a few one liners and that unique strut announcing herself. Raft is a slightly uneven mix of tough and vulnerable while bad boy chaser Cummings also runs hot and cold. The set design drips style while Ernest Haller delivers his usual solid, sensual lens work but the subplot of dealing with the mobsters moving in on his territory is hackneyed and heavy handed in what is more of a comedy than romantic or mobster drama supplied by its 'life jacket," Mae West.