A representative attempt of its period at sentimental realism, this Falcon Pictures Corporation production, made by Reel Enterprises, a Great Depression era Poverty Row studio, features Rose Hobart as Cynthia "Babe" Laval, a world weary lady of the evening and procuress who has secured a virtual monopoly on call girls in Atlantic City, where most of this film was shot, all while her quest for true romantic love forms the nub of the work. Babe plays Cupid for her rounded heel charges during sales conventions and for this story it is a convocation of washing machine company representatives where it appears that Babe may have chanced upon her dream man, perhaps the best of her recent prospects, a cultured middle aged soap industry nabob, Wade Hollister (Herbert Rawlinson), who patently returns Babe's ardour as the two develop an impassioned relationship. This mutual attraction is most unpleasant to Babe's former swain, Bill Bradley (Weldon Heyburn), whose aggressive wooing of her has been unavailing because Bill owns and operates an illegal gambling joint and after she plainly seems to prefer Ward's more respectable background, Bradley discovers that he is out of her future plans and the setting is created for a clash between the suitors. Those viewers interested in United States social and cultural history will have a whale of a time watching well-selected plot incorporated footage of the era's Atlantic City Boardwalk, including scenes of acrobats, the famous Diving Horse at Steel Pier, vast crowded beaches, and the still popular wicker rolling chairs, all nicely integrated into a scenario that has little enough weight of its own to carry a narrative forward. Released also as Atlantic CITY ROMANCE, the affair offers some pleasing musical interludes, notably vocal solos by Ruth Gillette and pert Nancy Kelly, each accompanied by Isham Jones and his dance orchestra (an alert viewer can spot Woody Herman as a sideman, playing alto saxophone). Despite a featherweight plot line that might well have used a trifle more wit, and a screenplay that emphasizes a key plot device of blackmail, with its target being a lady of the evening whose portion takes in an attempted murder of her younger brother, a pleasant tone has ousted any potential emphasis upon the distasteful, aided greatly by a solid supporting cast; acting laurels must go to talented Hobart. Reissued upon an Alpha Entertainment DVD that, as is customary with that company, lacks any extra features or much needed remastering, the film as a result has only indifferent audio quality and merely adequate visual reproduction, although there is but a minimum of excisions.
3 Reviews
The boardwalk of Atlantic City has an unconventional charm.
mark.waltz12 May 2021
Warning: Spoilers
If you're expecting to see a bit of what the lost film "Convention City" would have been like, you're going to have to look elsewhere. Yes, this deals with so-called party girls in Atlantic City who are hired for a good time, on the surface as escorts to the nightly shindigs where everybody gets drunk and nobody remembers anything the next day (or if they do wish to forget), but secretly providing extra services when the offer is right. Not all of these girls are necessarily bad girls, and in the case of Rose Hobart, her character of "Babe" is as good-hearted as they come.
Of course, being in love with a man she can't have (and one really not deserving of her love), she goes through a lot of heartache, but she's also tough and there for others like her which includes Sally O'Neal, Nell O'Day and Ruth Gillette, not as nice as the others. The men too are a mixed bag, going from the man she loves, James Spottswood (a married man, and a notorious gambler) to Weldon Heyburn whom she meets on the street and begins to spend quality time with. Then there's Shemp Howard in a non-comic role, barely recognizable without his trademark hairstyle, but his voice very distinguishable.
Great location footage and shots of the real Steel Pier makes this a nostalgic treat, and there are some interesting musical numbers as well. It's pretty good for a poverty row programmer, and Rose Hobart gives a good performance. But the storyline does get a little convoluted, going all over the place, indicating that the screenplay needed some tweaking. Still, it's a nice historical reference to hard times of the depression where women had to do things they may not have done otherwise.
Of course, being in love with a man she can't have (and one really not deserving of her love), she goes through a lot of heartache, but she's also tough and there for others like her which includes Sally O'Neal, Nell O'Day and Ruth Gillette, not as nice as the others. The men too are a mixed bag, going from the man she loves, James Spottswood (a married man, and a notorious gambler) to Weldon Heyburn whom she meets on the street and begins to spend quality time with. Then there's Shemp Howard in a non-comic role, barely recognizable without his trademark hairstyle, but his voice very distinguishable.
Great location footage and shots of the real Steel Pier makes this a nostalgic treat, and there are some interesting musical numbers as well. It's pretty good for a poverty row programmer, and Rose Hobart gives a good performance. But the storyline does get a little convoluted, going all over the place, indicating that the screenplay needed some tweaking. Still, it's a nice historical reference to hard times of the depression where women had to do things they may not have done otherwise.
The Call Girl You Have When You're Not Having a Call Girl
JohnHowardReid25 March 2014
Warning: Spoilers
An interesting movie that blows its chances to rate as something extra special when it opts for a conventional – if rather muddled and unbelievable – climax which will be of great interest to fans of the 3 Stooges, but will leave everyone else wondering why the plot has taken this sudden reverse-angle turn and negated all the excellent character build-ups that have taken almost a whole painstaking hour to set in place. Our super-slim heroine turns out to be not so much a convention girl as a conventional girl. In order to accommodate this reverse-climaxed plot, the not-so-bad guy promises to become a good guy, while the ingratiating man of distinction suddenly – and quite unbelievably – switches identity (something he would never do in real life) to become the bad guy! Bah! But at least all the fascinating views of Atlantic City as it was in the mid-1930s are still in place. There's also Isham Jones and His Orchestra which is often pushed to the background, alas, but it does have a couple of great numbers, including "I've Got Sand in My Shoes", delightfully rendered by Ruth Gillette who was either wasted – or not used as a vocalist at all – in most of her Hollywood movies. Available on a very good Alpha DVD.
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