Shopworn

Kitty Lane (Barbara Stanwyck) loses her father in a construction accident. With his dying breath, he tells her to be tough. She goes to work for her aunt as a waitress in a college town. The college boys are all after her. She falls for stiff medical student David despite clashing at first. His father is a powerful judge and his mother does not approve. David is going away with his mother for 6 months. He proposes marriage. The family pretends to go along in front of David but then the judge puts her away for violating the public morals act after refusing to accept his $5000 bribe. David is told that she took the payout when she's actually sentenced to prison work for ninety days. She joins the Follies upon released and becomes a big time star. Six years later, David comes looking for Kitty. His mother still refuses to accept "that shopworn woman".

This is a rather simple and weak romance. The guy is stiff and his character is lacking. He is nothing special but she is another story. A young Barbara Stanwyck is starting to gain traction and one can see the reason. She has amazing screen presence and a powerful personality. She's a rising star and overpowers her acting partner. She is something to behold.

Have always been a big fan of classic film (pre-1970s) of all genres, and certainly don't have anything against comedy and romance. Far from it, there are many classics. Other than my love for classic film, the biggest reason for wanting to see 'Shopworn' was Barbara Stanwyck. Have always found her a wonderful actress and have yet to see a bad performance from her (though there is plenty more to see), one of the better ones of her generation in my view.

'Shopworn' is certainly watchable, it actually takes a lot for me to say that something is lacklustre or less. At the same time, it is a disappointment when it actually had all the ingredients to be very good and even great with the right execution and there is much better in the genre. Stanwyck comes off very well but she deserved better and there are things done pretty well, but what should have particularly worked doesn't quite and the waste of ZaSu Pitts is unforgivable.

The best thing about 'Stanwyck' in a classic example of a performance that is much better than the film itself, her character's determination, dignity, charm, sensuality and wit are all brought out brilliantly and quite relateably. The best of the rest of the actlors is by a mile a frighteningly beastly Clara Blandick. While not mind-blowing, the photography is very pleasing to look at. Especially clever in a banquet scene later on in the film.

Furthermore, the costuming and settings are handsome, and the music fits nicely and while not amazing it at least fits and is pleasant. There are a good deal of very snappy dialogue, with lines tht do put a smile on the face. The story has its charms and is not dull at least. The chemistry between Stanwyck and Regis Toomey has its moments and the direction, while not exactly special, is not the kind that is indifferent or amateurish.

On the other hand, Toomey generally is very bland and looks stiff. If he was a better presence his and Stanwyck's chemistry would have been more believable. Pitts has very little to do, and her rather subdued presence means that she doesn't really register.

Would have slightly forgiven the lack of surprises if the film didn't let itself down as much in the last 15-20 minutes or so. This portion felt rather rushed and contrived, and did it really need "to" on the somewhat convenient and saccharine way that it did?

All in all, above average for mainly Stanwyck but disappointing. 6/10

This is an early Barbara Stanwyck film, Shopworn, from 1932.

After her father dies in a construction accident, Kitty Lane (Stanwyck) keeps her promise to her dad and goes to live with his sister (Zasu Pitts). There, she works as a waitress.

It's a college town, and the guys are ga-ga over her, though she turns them all down. She falls for a bookish man, David (Regis Toomey), a medical student who doesn't seem to pay attention to her.

David comes from a good family - his father is a Judge, and his mother is possessive. She does not approve of Kitty. She fakes an illness and David finds that he must take her to a specialist in Vienna. Before he leaves, he proposes to Kitty, intending that she join them.

Everyone pretends to go along, but while packing, the police show up and arrest her for violating the public morals act, after she refuses the $5000 offered her. She is sentenced to prison for 90 days. David is told she took the money.

Upon her release, Kitty joins the Follies and makes a great success. Six years later, David visits her dressing room. She leads him on just to reject him, but later, the two talk it out and get back together. But his mother is still a pain, referring to her as "that shopworn woman."

One major scene was cut from this film - while in prison, Kitty miscarries a pregnancy, so it seems that she and David had quite the romance going.

I wouldn't say that Regis Toomey, who became a prolific character actor, and Barbara Stanwyck are well-matched. In the beginning, his role is that of an easily-influenced young man where his parents are concerned, and back in those days, this wasn't unusual. Later on he seems better able to stand up for himself. But as a couple, even when she was just starting out, Stanwyck had star quality, so it doesn't really work.

Stanwyck was a petite ball of fire, versatile, strong and charismatic, with a beautiful figure to boot. What a pleasure to see her in these early films. Watch it for her.

This is a pretty ordinary little film about a young waitress (Barbara Stanwyck) who falls in love with a wealthy college student (Regis Toomey) who will go on to become a doctor, and how his mother strives to break up their relationship. I rounded it up a bit because of Stanwyck's performance; she is such a natural and has a couple of great scenes. I also liked how she was such a strong woman - her character was toughened by her father's death, and she stands up to unwanted advances while waitressing, endures being sent away to a woman's reformatory on morality charges, and tells Toomey off when he returns to her after she's made it as a dancer. Being committed for trumped up morality reasons is outrageous today, but it was reality then, and the mother had also considered getting her committed to an asylum, a real practice stemming from the 19th century. If you don't like 'em or they're threatening in some way, lock 'em up. The ending is unfortunately a little dippy, but you could do worse than watch this one, and it's almost entirely due to Stanywck.

One of the great scenes has her throwing money in a guy's face after he tries to bribe her into leaving town to get her out of Toomey's life: "What are you trying to make of me - what you wish I was? Something cheap and common, something that money can buy? Well, you can't. Nobody can! You and the nice, decent people who sent you here are the real cheap ones, trying to put a price on something there isn't any price for! If that's being decent, I'm glad I'm common! If that's being rich, I'm glad I'm cheap, and I'm gonna stay cheap! Because no matter how cheap I am, I'm not for sale!"

Babs is a poor-but-honest small-town waitress in love with Regis Toomey (which in itself can't be easy), but she runs afoul of his mom, a pre-Auntie Em Clara Blandick, who is revealed to be snobbish, dishonest, unreasonable, and insufferably class-conscious. Even by the standards of the time, where lower-class gals always had a hard time of it crashing into society, Babs must endure endless humiliations, including ZaSu Pitts as an underwritten aunt. This Columbia potboiler, written and shot by folks who were also working on Capra early talkies at the time, is rather like Capra without Capra, and the anonymous direction doesn't allow for much style. But Stanwyck was always worth watching, and she gets to run through an impressive gamut of emotions before the hasty and unconvincing happy ending. And it's satisfyingly short.