Gambling Lady (1934).avi

Brief Synopsis



Honest gambler Mike Lee commits suicide rather than succumb to the pressures of a gambling syndicate, headed by Jim Fallin, which wants him to run a crooked game. Charlie Lang, a player for the syndicate at the racetrack, takes up a collection for his daughter, Jennifer Lady Lee, and when he delivers it, he proposes to her. She gently turns him down, partly because he is playing a dishonest game and partly because she does not really love him. He accepts her dismissal, but they remain friends. Needing a job, Lady asks Fallin for a chance to play for the syndicate, but insists that she will only play in honest games. He sets her up playing with Park Avenue businessmen, and she becomes both a financial and a social success, especially after the men learn that she wins her games honestly. She particularly impresses a man she knows only as Peter, who had known her father, and they become friendly. One night, while playing at a society party, she meets Garry Madison, whose flirtations she discourages in spite of her own attraction to him. Her attraction turns to dislike, however, after a private club is raided because Garry naively allowed men he did not know to accompany him into the club. After she is bailed out by Charlie, Garry convinces Lady that he had nothing to do with the raid, and she agrees to go dancing with him. To prove his intention to marry her, he brings her home to meet his father. Nervous at first, she relaxes when she learns that her old friend Peter is Garry's father. To her surprise, when Garry leaves the room, Peter offers her a large sum if she will agree not to marry his son. Rather than fight, Lady turns to leave without the money. Ever the gambler, Peter offers to cut cards for Garry and Lady wins. Garry and Lady marry and the marriage is happy. When Sheila Aiken, a friend of Garry, returns from Europe, however, she determines to prove that Lady is not an appropriate wife for Garry. Lady challenges Sheila to a game and ends by winning her jewelry. Both Sheila and Garry are aghast when they learn that Lady intends to keep the jewelry. Later Charlie is arrested, and Lady asks Garry for money to post his bail. After Garry refuses her request because he is jealous of her friendship with Charlie, she pawns Sheila's jewelry. Charlie tells Lady that he has information on the syndicate and plans to blackmail Fallin. Just as Lady is explaining to Charlie that she cannot see him anymore, Garry walks in and throws him out of the house. After he learns that she pawned Sheila's jewels, Garry runs after Charlie to retrieve the pawn ticket. He does not return that night, and the next morning, Lady learns that Charlie is dead and that Garry has been accused of the murder. She tries to convince the police that the syndicate murdered Charlie, but they tell her that Garry will not reveal where he was when the murder occurred. Realizing that Garry believed she was in love with Charlie, Lady suspects that he spent the night with Sheila. She confronts her rival and learns that her suspicions are true, but that Sheila will not give Garry an alibi unless Lady divorces him. To save her husband, Lady agrees to Sheila's demands. Peter is stunned when he learns that Lady does not intend to forgive Garry and accuses her of being a fortune hunter. Witnessing her behavior after the divorce is granted, however, Peter begins to suspect the truth and, with Garry's help, worms a confession from Sheila. Garry and Peter find Lady about to sail for Europe and Garry and she are reconciled.