This is supposed to be the story of the life of Arnold Rothstein, gangster and gambler, who was killed over a gambling debt in 1928, with the name changed to "Murray Golden", and played by Spencer Tracy. Except it plays fast and very loose with the truth. There were several versions of this story told during the early era of talking film besides this one, the best known being "Street of Chance" starring William Powell and "The Czar of Broadway" with John Wray in the title role.
Spencer Tracy played tough guys in the precode era before he ever got to MGM, but he always brought quite a bit of empathy to even the hardest guy he played, and this role is no exception. The film has Murray Golden starting out small with small cons at a racetrack, eventually opening a high class gambling house where he starts to make the big dough, and then he gets into fixing sporting events, with one particularly tragic event being portrayed on screen.
All the while he considers his wife, Virginia (Helen Twelvetrees), to be his good luck piece. But she is just a bird in a gilded cage. She has no friends because Murray doesn't want her mixing with the kind of people he deals with and nice people stay at arms length, they have no children, and Virginia just sits home alone night after night.
The main struggle running through the film is the antagonistic relationship Murray Golden has with Al Mossiter (Robert Gleckler), a fellow gambler. This feud starts when Mossiter claims he has been cheated in Golden's gambling house. The end result is Golden making Mossitor look like a fool and a coward even though Golden pays Mossiter his gambling losses.
Mossiter loses his mistress to Golden (Alice Faye in a very early role), and loses every gambling encounter with Golden until Golden's luck runs out, specifically, his wife runs out. The film really sentimentalizes Golden's end in a way that is pure fiction, but it IS some clever Hollywood writing.
With Hobart Cavanaugh as Golden's long time superstitious associate who looks like he would be more at home running a country store, Henry O'Neill as Golden's childhood friend who grew up to be a cop and is the only one who can tell it to Golden straight, and Shirley Temple in a bit part as O'Neill's daughter.
Spencer Tracy played tough guys in the precode era before he ever got to MGM, but he always brought quite a bit of empathy to even the hardest guy he played, and this role is no exception. The film has Murray Golden starting out small with small cons at a racetrack, eventually opening a high class gambling house where he starts to make the big dough, and then he gets into fixing sporting events, with one particularly tragic event being portrayed on screen.
All the while he considers his wife, Virginia (Helen Twelvetrees), to be his good luck piece. But she is just a bird in a gilded cage. She has no friends because Murray doesn't want her mixing with the kind of people he deals with and nice people stay at arms length, they have no children, and Virginia just sits home alone night after night.
The main struggle running through the film is the antagonistic relationship Murray Golden has with Al Mossiter (Robert Gleckler), a fellow gambler. This feud starts when Mossiter claims he has been cheated in Golden's gambling house. The end result is Golden making Mossitor look like a fool and a coward even though Golden pays Mossiter his gambling losses.
Mossiter loses his mistress to Golden (Alice Faye in a very early role), and loses every gambling encounter with Golden until Golden's luck runs out, specifically, his wife runs out. The film really sentimentalizes Golden's end in a way that is pure fiction, but it IS some clever Hollywood writing.
With Hobart Cavanaugh as Golden's long time superstitious associate who looks like he would be more at home running a country store, Henry O'Neill as Golden's childhood friend who grew up to be a cop and is the only one who can tell it to Golden straight, and Shirley Temple in a bit part as O'Neill's daughter.