Bionda avventuriera

George Raft has come up from the gutter, dragging his pals, James Gleason, Lynn Overman, and Edgar Kennedy with him. Now he's running a gambling joint in Palm Beach. When broke heiress Dolores Costello (credited as "Dolores Costello Barrymore") tries to pawn her jewels in a last effort to break the house, Raft thanks her kindly and takes her into partnership, converting her house into a swanky casino, with Mrs. Barrymore to offer some class.

The pals, however, think Raft is going daffy for the dame, and going high hat. So they hire confidence trickster Ida Lupino and Reginald Owen as her uncle to distract them. However, Owen and Miss Lupino have their own ideas as to how to play this mark.

This typically well cast and funny Paramount comedy runs along its tracks at a good clip. It's not just that I am fond of the players -- I've recently read a book about the Costello family -- and always ready to enjoy the layered performances in a good movie about confidence players. Screenwriters Eve Greene and Philip MacDonald have crafted a superior script, and Alexander Hall shows his usual dab hand at directing comedy. Edgar Kennedy gets to do a slow burn twice!

Johnny Lamb (George Raft) runs a very successful gambling hall. However, when he meets a classy lady, Lucille (Delores Costello), Johnny's friends were scared, as they assumed class AND dames would ruin Johnny. So, they hire a couple of grifters (Ida Lupino and Reginald Owen) to distract Johnny from Lucille. But the problem goes too well...he falls for the new woman AND the two grifters use this as a chance to fleece Johnny out of everything they can get! In other words, Lucille could NEVER be THIS bad for Johnny! So what's next? Watch the film.

This is a cute but inconsequential film. In other words, it's enjoyable and worth seeing BUT not exactly a must-see either. It's made a bit better due to some nice supporting actors (Lynne Overman, James Gleason and Edgar Kennedy) and a light, enjoyable script. Fun.

George Raft is gorgeous in anything. He just can't go wrong.

This was a real treat...to catch George Raft and Ida Lupino and one of the best supporting casts I have ever seen, including the little poodle.

Even the names of the characters - one, because of his impeccable English is called "Dictionary" and another "Bicarbonate". The plot is excellent and revolved around the friendship between a shady and illegal casino owner and an impoverished society woman. This evolves into a partnership. Considering this was 1936 (and pre-Hayes) there are some risque lines as when the society woman says to the crook as he drops her off after a night at the casino "what would you like for breakfast?" There are lots of terrific fun turns in this movie and the 3 henchmen are not to be missed. A treasure of a movie. I give it 8 out of 10.

Johnny Lamb (George Raft) operates a gambling house disguised as a farmhouse. One night a society lady (Delores Costello as Lucille Sutton) is tapped out for cash and wants to trade her jewelry for chips. He says nothing doing. When she tells him that her Palm Beach mansion will be foreclosed upon unless she can win a big pot at gambling, Lamb comes up with a different idea. He'll go in partners with her on his gambling operation and pay off the mortgage if he can move his casino into her house and if she will introduce him to her friends and teach him to operate with some class. At the end of a year he'll consider their debt paid and she will have her house back free and clear. Lucille agrees to this arrangement.

But Johnny's three street-wise rather crude friends don't like this new situation so much. They find out Lucille is in love with Johnny and they just assume it is reciprocated. Also, Johnny has been making them dress as servants at their casino jobs and they feel they've been getting the "high hat" from him because of Lucille's influence.

So the three "mugs" come up with a plan. They get two grifters (Ida Lupino and Reginald Owen) to pose as a wealthy society woman and her uncle. They want Lupino to get Johnny to fall in love with her and therefore reduce Lucille's influence on him.

But it works too well. Because Johnny was never in love with Lucille in the first place, he instantly gravitates to Lupino, and she and her grifter friend set out to fleece Johnny for all they can get. Meanwhile the three mugs are completely unaware of the grifting going on.

This was a light piece of fluff in spite of the unrequited love and the imposters taking advantage of Johnny. And although George Raft and Ida Lupino are front and center for most of the running time, it was a good ensemble effort. The trio of mugs was especially well cast with Lynn Overmann as the more subtle of the three, Edgar Kennedy as the ill-tempered grump, and James Gleason as the talkative brains of the three.

Delores Costello was good enough, but at this point she hadn't acted for about five years in the very early talkie days when actresses were still taught to annunciate very clearly in "Singin In the Rain" style. She still seems to have that habit.