No Limit

"No Limit" is one of Clara Bow's later films. Now considering how famous she was in the silent era, it's rather surprising that Paramount would give her such a movie, as "No Limit" is a very slight and forgettable film.

The story is set in New York, which is good since Miss Bow grew up in Brooklyn. However, I'd read that she had a really thick New York accent, but it didn't seem that way at all in this movie.

Bunny (Bow) is an usherette at a theater. However, her life changes dramatically when a male friend (Stu Erwin) lets her use the apartment and limo he just inherited. Little do either know that this apartment is the setting for a high class illegal gambling hall!! There she meets the smooth talking Douglas (Norman Foster). He is a crook and a heel and his biggest interest in Bunny is bedding her. However, she's a nice girl and won't give in until she's married. So, he marries her...and tells his pals that he's only done it to score with Bunny and plans on soon dumping her. Considering this AND he's a thief, things don't bode well for Bunny. What's next?

I think the script made Bunny a bit too naive. That and the way the film ended certainly didn't make this anything more than a cheap B-movie...and considering Bow was STILL a hot commodity, I am shocked they gave her a film with such a silly plot. Se it yourself...and the final 15 minutes do get pretty dopey.

Stu Erwin's uncle dies, leaving him a movie theater, a mansion, and a limousine.... no cash. He doesn't need the house until he's married, so he lends them to Clara Bow, an usher in the theater he's sweet on. She discovers that the mansion is a gambling house, and the money rolls in until the cops close it down. She has also picked up Norman Foster, and they get married. It turns out that not only does he like to gamble; he's connected with a gang.

It's a pleasant pre-code romantic comedy, with plenty of scantily clad beauties and Erwin doing his slow-talking dope. Dixie Lee and Thelma Todd are two of the ushers, and while there's nothing much in it, Miss Bow's star power made this a very popular movie in 1931. Paramount publicity had it that she had had a nervous breakdown during the shooting. It doesn't show.

Clara Bow is solid in No Limit and it's amazing how good she got at acting in talkies, culminating in her terrific performance in Call Her Savage. But the script here is loose and the casting is bad for several key roles.

Stu Erwin is terrible as the "Swede" and he doesn't even bother trying for the accent that El Brendel or Joseph Cawthorne could have done in their sleep. Norman Foster (usually in Andy Griffith type parts) is also lousy as the lead thug (with a mustache yet)who falls for Bow. But they hardly matter.

The whole show here is Clara Bow. She's funny as the wisecracking usherette who isn't so wise after all when she babysits a swanky Art Deco apartment that turns out to be a gambling den. She has a great delivery of lines and looks terrific. The story just doesn't make much sense.

Harry Green is the theatre boss, Dixie Lee is Bow's chum, Thelma Todd shows up in a part that makes no sense, and Mischa Auer is a thug.

Starts off great but quickly falls into bizarre plotting that never goes anywhere.

In this early talkie, Clara Bow plays a movie usherette who who gets to babysit a Park Avenue apartment that turns out to be an illegal gambling den. Clara is wonderful as always, despite all the emotional stress on the set that is occasionally noticeable on screen. There's a lot of inside humor for Clara buffs in this film - for example, the scene where she gambles with what she thinks are 50 cent chips that are actually worth $100 apiece. History buffs will also appreciate the images of the New York City subway in the opening scenes. In fact, No Limit does for the El what It did for Coney Island. The story itself is lightweight fluff, of course, but it is very nicely done and the film can still make you laugh out loud. Well worth watching.

Cute theater usherette Clara Bow (as Helen "Bunny" O'Day) agrees to apartment sit for a friend, and unexpectedly finds the premises serve as a center for illegal gambling. There, she meets suave, but crooked, Norman Foster (as Douglas "Doug" Thayer). Mr. Foster is hot-and-bothered, and Bow is head-over-heels. "I thought you had 'It'," he tells her. Although Bow had long admired Foster's looks, she is put off by his forwardness. But, he pursues her to the alter. Can their marriage survive his underworld ties?

Paramount photography by Victor Milner gets "No Limit" off to a terrific start. The locations are great. Bow seems more self-assured than in previous "talkies"; her voice was never as big a problem as were her nerves. It's difficult to believe Foster would fail to recognize Bow, even in the dark; but, he is both a convincing and endearing heel. Stu Erwin (as Ole Olson) plays the unfortunate "dumb Swede". The film provides an opportunity to see the first Mrs. Bing Crosby, pretty Dixie Lee Crosby (as Dotty "Dodo" Potter). And, don't forget, Gary Cooper appears in "Fighting Caravans".

***** No Limit (1/16/31) Frank Tuttle ~ Clara Bow, Norman Foster, Dixie Lee Crosby