"Gambling Lady" should have been an excellent film. After all, it starred Barbara Stanwyck, Joel McCrea, Pat O'Brien and C. Aubrey Smith. However, the film really is, at times, embarrassing because the writing seems awfully poor.
When the film begins, you learn that Lady Lee (Stanwyck) is a gambler with a heart of gold(?). She is a professional gambler financed by mob money...yet she inexplicably is honest(????). During her work, she meets a rich guy, Garry (McCrea) and he falls in love with her instantly...though WHY is never really understood. Eventually they marry and seem pretty happy. However, an old girlfriend of Garry's soon arrives and makes a real muck of the marriage. How she destroys the marriage is just plain bizarre...one of MANY story elements that just seemed to stretch the story WAY beyond the audience's ability to suspend disbelief.
The bottom line is that the film repeatedly makes little sense. The characters and what they do just never gels and the film left me feeling bored and a bit annoyed that the script wasn't worked out logically. Tough to like.
When the film begins, you learn that Lady Lee (Stanwyck) is a gambler with a heart of gold(?). She is a professional gambler financed by mob money...yet she inexplicably is honest(????). During her work, she meets a rich guy, Garry (McCrea) and he falls in love with her instantly...though WHY is never really understood. Eventually they marry and seem pretty happy. However, an old girlfriend of Garry's soon arrives and makes a real muck of the marriage. How she destroys the marriage is just plain bizarre...one of MANY story elements that just seemed to stretch the story WAY beyond the audience's ability to suspend disbelief.
The bottom line is that the film repeatedly makes little sense. The characters and what they do just never gels and the film left me feeling bored and a bit annoyed that the script wasn't worked out logically. Tough to like.