Barbara Stanwyck was TCM's Star of the Month some months back, which gave me the chance to record some of her movies that I hadn't seen before. One that has a fairly pedestrian plot, but is redeemed by good performances from the cast, is Gambling Lady.
Stanwyck is the titular gambling lady, a woman named Lady Lee who makes an OK living is the sort of "escort" provided by a gambling syndicate to people who need a dealer or something for a high-stakes poker game or some other form of gambling. Of course, the syndicate wants to boost the odds in its favor even if that's by less than honest means. This is something Lady Lee says she absolutely doesn't care for. As a bit of foreshadowing, one night at the club she meets wealthy Peter Madison (C. Aubrey Smith) who, for whatever reason, doesn't seem to mind being taken by this charming woman.
Not that there's going to be anything romantic between them, since Smith was about 70 at the time the movie was made. And Lady Lee already has someone theoretically more her type pursuing her in the from of horse racing bookie Charlie Lang (Pat O'Brien). For Lady, it's more of a friendship than anything romantic. As she works for the syndicate and makes good money, she keeps coming across young Garry (Joel McCrea), although she keeps rebuffing him even though he's clearly into her. One night he sneaks up to the room where Lady will be playing, only for undercover police to get in the elevator with Garry.
Garry wants to marry Lady, but she claims she won't fit into his society and doesn't want to anger his parents. Except that this is Garry Madison, son of Peter whom we've already met. So they marry and live happily ever after, yeah right since we're only a third of the way into the movie. On their honeymoon they meet Garry's old girlfriend Sheila (Claire), and when Garry and Lady invite society over on their return to America, Sheila has followed them and insists on gambling against Lady. Lady wins a bunch of Sheila's jewels, and takes the betting seriously, not giving Sheila back her jewelry even though Sheila obviously thought this was all a lark.
Things get more complicated when Charlie gets into legal issues requiring a large bail. Garry's money would cause scandal, so Lady pawns those jewels. Except, that also causes difficulties when Lady gives the pawn ticket to Charlie. Garry wants it so he can quietly get the jewels back without Lady knowing. However, Charlie gets killed, and all signs point to Garry since he's got the ticket. In fact, he was with Sheila, who has been trying to break up Garry and Lady's marriage.
Now, is this movie going to have a happy ending? The answer is yes, and that unfortunately is something that requires a bit of a cop-out for the movie to get that ending. The material is stuff that we've seen quite a few times in the early 1930s, and which frankly strains credulity. None of this is the fault of the cast, who all give it their best and mostly succeed. But that script? Oy. Gambling Lady is OK, as long as you can get past the unoriginality of it.
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