You Can't Buy Luck (1937)
When a gambler is accused of murder, the pretty orphanage employee he loves sets out to prove him innocent of the crime.
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Sadly Over-hyped
For all the hype it got I was expecting a lot more!
I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.
I really wanted to like this movie. I feel terribly cynical trashing it, and that's why I'm giving it a middling 5. Actually, I'm giving it a 5 because there were some superb performances.
Hedda Hopper is the only big name name I recognize in this short version film from RKO. Joe Baldwin (Onslow Stevens) races horses, and is rather superstitious. His girl is Jean Jason (Maxine Jennings), and she wants to secretly toot off to europe with her "friend" Paul (Vinton Hayworth). Lots of intrigue, murder, mayhem. some story elements in here, about adopting, and helping out an orphanage home. Baldwin gets blamed for a killing, but did he really do it? We watch the courtroom drama, while his new girl runs around and tries to find the truth. Hedda Hopper has only a small role in this one. Too bad. Not a very exciting tale, but its not bad. Helen Mack is in here as "Betty". She worked with some of the greats of Hollywood. Check out her story on https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helen_Mack . Directed by Lew Landers, who had popped onto the scene in the early 1930s. Shown on TCM now & then, this one kind of has a murder noir feeling.
Onslow Stevens and Helen Mack never achieved true greatness in movies, but they had some success in TV and Broadway, perhaps because of the many films they made for the studio system (like this one) that were of unexceptional quality. The plot summary listed above could be the storyboard for the movie, so I won't waste your time; however, a quick scan above should give you an idea of how odd the story is. Summing up the first half, Onslow Stevens is an extremely superstitious gambler, down on his luck. By way of an orphanage that has brought him his bad luck he finds instant love with an all too nice girl played by Helen Mack. The second half is best stated as an "innocent man framed for murder gets nice girl to find proof he's not guilty while on the lam then convinces cops to set up real killer in the nick of time--the end" type of story. Heard that one before? If you need background noise while working on a really late night then this is your movie.