Ladies of Leisure (1930)

Regista:

Frank Capra

Writers:

David Belasco (play) &
Milton Herbert Gropper (play) ...

Data di uscita:

5 aprile 1930 (USA)

Genere:

Drama | Romance

Slogan:

ALL TALKING DRAMA OF NEW YORK'S NIGHT LIFE

Plot:

An upper-crust artist hires a 'party girl' as a model; romance follows.

Plot Keywords:

Remake | Based On Play

Recensioni degli utenti:

Rough, but interesting.

Cast

Barbara Stanwyck	...	Kay Arnold
Ralph Graves	...	Jerry Strong
Lowell Sherman	...	Bill Standish
Marie Prevost	...	Dot Lamar
Nance O'Neil	...	Mrs. Strong
George Fawcett	...	John Strong
Juliette Compton	...	Claire Collins
Johnnie Walker	...	Charlie

Alias:

Ladies of the Evening (USA) (working title)
Femmine di lusso (Italy) [it]

Durata:

99 min

Nazionalità:

USA

Lingua:

Inglese

Colore:

Bianco e nero

Sonoro:

Mono (Western Electric Sound System)

Company:

Columbia Pictures Corporation

Curiosità:

Several sources list Graves' character name incorrectly as "Jerry Strange". (Perhaps his name was spelled thus in the silent version?) But in the soundtrack of the talkie version, spoken dialog clearly identifies his surname as "Strong", including the crucial phone call (trying to save the heroine's life), in which he says, "I'm Jerry Strong."

Citazioni:

Kay Arnold: When a dress costs over a hundred bucks, it's a frock!

Movie Connections:

Citato in Manhattan Parade (1931)

Colonna sonora:

FRANKIE AND JOHNNIE

Rough, but interesting.

This movie is one of the legendary Barbara Stanwyck's earliest starring roles. The title of the movie actually refers to prostitutes and that is what Stanwyck plays in this one, though it is, of course, only suggested. The set-up is that Stanwyck, a prostitute, is hired by a painter to be a model for one of his paintings. Through the course of the movie, Stanwyck's character, who has never know real love, is touched by the young painter's caring gestures (though to him, he is only being polite). As always, the beautiful Stanwyck carries the movie in the palm of her hand, and when the film is serious, it's pretty decent. Some problems arise in the humorous scenes with her chubby co-star (who died later in the decade because of self-starvation), a stereotypical, high-pitched, talkative New York girl who has too much of a silly vaudevillian personality to generate many laughs (remember, this is early 1930 and vaudeville was just beginning to wind down). Like a lot of early talkies, this movie is roughly edited, and the acting by the male lead is somewhat wooden. The story is okay, perhaps a bit too sentimental, but the movie is an interesting glance into the 1930s and the early stages of a screen Goddess' career.