.... and afterwards she retired to married life with western star Rex Bell.
When I watched this film this morning, the storyline did seem somewhat familiar to me - Man in a profession that requires lots of traveling and has lots of seedy characters spurns his mistress when a green young relative (in this case a son) shows up because he does not want her bad influence on him (it takes two to tango is apparently NOT in his vocabulary). The spurned mistress seeks revenge by paying a friend to vamp the green young relative, but the scheme backfires when the two actually fall in love. The original man/hypocrite in traveling profession rejects everybody involved and eventually hits the skids and ultimately eats humble pie.
That other movie was made the year before this -"The Crowd Roars" with James Cagney, Joan Blondell, and Ann Dvorak. I know this film is a sound remake of 1928's "The Barker", and I wonder if Warner Bros. didn't somewhat copy this material and make the Cagney film the year before. There are so many similarities. But I digress.
In this case the hypocrite is a carnival barker (Preston Foster as Nifty) who doesn't like that his grown but green son is spending time between college semesters (Richard Cromwell as Chris) by visiting him at the carnival. First Nifty kicks his long time mistress (Minna Gombell as Carrie) out of their mutual sleeping quarters because he doesn't want his son to get the right idea, and then when everybody in the carnival train is sharing a bottle of whiskey, Chris has some and passes out. That is when Nifty gives Carrie the boot as far as their relationship. Like it was her turn to watch the world's tallest infant.
Carrie decides to get even by paying fellow dancing girl Lou (Clara Bow) one hundred dollars to vamp "the kid". Lou works her stuff like a pro but falls in love in the process. Chris wants to marry Lou, but she wonders if she will just weigh down Chris in his quest for a legal career. And if Nifty would stop insulting them both long enough he might see that Lou is not as bad as he thinks she is. Complications ensue.
The screenplay really has nothing to recommend it that you probably haven't seen before. Maybe circus/carnival films were such a big thing when sound first came in because for the first time the audience could hear as well as see the excitement of the midway. Clara Bow still has "It" in this, her last film performance. And there are some good precode moments including a girl in the carnival sewing up the pants of a guy in the carnival. In thanks he says "I'll do the same for you some time." And then there is a fight that breaks out over the dancing girls that seems to encompass the entire carnival. I'm not even sure what the point of that scene was, but Depression era Fox pre-receivership did some strange things in their films. Keep an eye out for James Gleason towards the end of the film in a cameo role. Gleason was famous by this time and I'm not sure what he is doing here. But like receiving a delicious stuffed mushroom that you didn't order along with the proletariat hamburger that you did, it was a delightful if unexpected surprise.
Recommended for people who want to see Clara go out on top.
When I watched this film this morning, the storyline did seem somewhat familiar to me - Man in a profession that requires lots of traveling and has lots of seedy characters spurns his mistress when a green young relative (in this case a son) shows up because he does not want her bad influence on him (it takes two to tango is apparently NOT in his vocabulary). The spurned mistress seeks revenge by paying a friend to vamp the green young relative, but the scheme backfires when the two actually fall in love. The original man/hypocrite in traveling profession rejects everybody involved and eventually hits the skids and ultimately eats humble pie.
That other movie was made the year before this -"The Crowd Roars" with James Cagney, Joan Blondell, and Ann Dvorak. I know this film is a sound remake of 1928's "The Barker", and I wonder if Warner Bros. didn't somewhat copy this material and make the Cagney film the year before. There are so many similarities. But I digress.
In this case the hypocrite is a carnival barker (Preston Foster as Nifty) who doesn't like that his grown but green son is spending time between college semesters (Richard Cromwell as Chris) by visiting him at the carnival. First Nifty kicks his long time mistress (Minna Gombell as Carrie) out of their mutual sleeping quarters because he doesn't want his son to get the right idea, and then when everybody in the carnival train is sharing a bottle of whiskey, Chris has some and passes out. That is when Nifty gives Carrie the boot as far as their relationship. Like it was her turn to watch the world's tallest infant.
Carrie decides to get even by paying fellow dancing girl Lou (Clara Bow) one hundred dollars to vamp "the kid". Lou works her stuff like a pro but falls in love in the process. Chris wants to marry Lou, but she wonders if she will just weigh down Chris in his quest for a legal career. And if Nifty would stop insulting them both long enough he might see that Lou is not as bad as he thinks she is. Complications ensue.
The screenplay really has nothing to recommend it that you probably haven't seen before. Maybe circus/carnival films were such a big thing when sound first came in because for the first time the audience could hear as well as see the excitement of the midway. Clara Bow still has "It" in this, her last film performance. And there are some good precode moments including a girl in the carnival sewing up the pants of a guy in the carnival. In thanks he says "I'll do the same for you some time." And then there is a fight that breaks out over the dancing girls that seems to encompass the entire carnival. I'm not even sure what the point of that scene was, but Depression era Fox pre-receivership did some strange things in their films. Keep an eye out for James Gleason towards the end of the film in a cameo role. Gleason was famous by this time and I'm not sure what he is doing here. But like receiving a delicious stuffed mushroom that you didn't order along with the proletariat hamburger that you did, it was a delightful if unexpected surprise.
Recommended for people who want to see Clara go out on top.