Play Girl

Very early Loretta Young film: she's not even top billed. Winnie Lightner is - an interesting younger character actress. But it really is Loretta's movie. The plot involves Loretta's character falling in love with a gambler - and the complications which arise. Norman Foster plays the gambler: ironically, he married Miss Young's sister (Sally Blane) in 1937 - after being divorced from Claudette Colbert. Most memorable scenes in this movie are set in a department store circa 1932.

Movie is also notable as (apparently) the first movie of a very young James Ellison. Neither the title "Play Girl" or the alternate title "Love on a Budget" really describe this film. Entertaining melodrama from the early days of sound.

Loretta Young is perfectly lit here, which enhances her beauty immeasurably, and she is quite believable in this role. I first saw her in her later movies--and on her TV show, swirling through the door every week--so it's quite a revelation to see her at the absolute peak of her talent and looks. Winnie Lightner does her usual gum-chewing, wisecracking shtick, and the rest of the cast is quite good. The script is a little weak, and things get a bit maudlin at times, although the pre-code one-liners are fun. (Winnie, as her bloomers blow off the makeshift clothesline and out the window: "Oh, that was my last pair of panties!" Loretta: "What will you do?" Winnie: "Stay off of ladders!")

Warner Brothers should have been embarrassed to release this. The story is both absurd and boring, the characters are as unbelievable as they are annoying and the direction is of the: just read your lines in turn and avoid any interaction with your fellow actors. As for the acting, Loretta Young is the only person who is actually acting giving this movie the impression that her scenes are taken from a different (professional) film which have been spliced into this dreadful piffle.

Worst of all is Winnie Lightner. I don't like to say anything bad about people, she might have been a lovey person but as an actress she is beyond terrible. She's so extraordinary awful that she almost makes this film unwatchable. Words cannot describe just how bad she is!

One slightly interesting line is said by Miss Young which portends her future fling with 'the king of Hollywood' - commenting on her beau's kissing technique she says: 'They can do better in movies - come on Gable, get hot.' There's absolutely nothing else of interest in this.

Maybe the reason this was made was simply to provide evidence to to those people now who believe that films of the 1930s were dreadful?

Transfers at the "Mayfield Department Store" result in beautiful Loretta Young (as Buster "Bus" Green) being assigned to "Infants Wear" while comic relief pal Winnie Lightner (as Georgine Hicks) is sent to "Plumbing Supplies". The women, who share a bed, are unhappy with the new assignments. At home, they arrange a dancing date with Ms. Young's boyfriend James Ellison (as Elmer) and pal Norman Foster (as Wallace "Wally" Dennis), a "blind date" for Ms. Lightner. But, Mr. Foster thinks Young is "hot" and begins to pursue her. The two unexpectedly fall in love, but Foster has a dark secret. He's a compulsive gambler...

Meanwhile, sharp-tongued Lightner is romanced by older man Guy Kibbee (as "Finky" Finkelwald). This is a strange, carelessly scripted story about the effects of gambling. The heroine's problems, caused by her gambling husband, are alleviated by her own gambling; it doesn't make sense. An interesting point of characterization is that when Young's character was born, her mother died; for this reason, she is supposedly reluctant to marry, and have children. She is mistakenly called a "Play-Girl". But, Young and the cast are enjoyable. In real life, Young was close to co-star Foster; he married her sister, actress Sally Blane.

***** Play-Girl (3/12/32) Ray Enright ~ Loretta Young, Winnie Lightner, Norman Foster, James Ellison

The title is meaningless, the story just as pointless, and whatever interest there is to be derived from this girl-loves-gambler weepie comes from the delicate beauty of Loretta Young. The film is a feast for the eyes (with nary a morsel of food for thought) as masterly cinematographer Gregg Toland captures the poetry of Young's huge, soulful peepers and full promising lips with one lovestruck close-up after another. The following year's "Zoo in Budapest" and "Man's Castle" would cement her position as the Depression's most desirable waif, the pin-up girl of the bread lines. With the barrelhouse comedienne Winnie Lightner as her wisecracking pal and Guy Kibbee, criminally wasted as Lightner's swain.