IMDb > Shopworn (1932)

Overview

User Rating:
6.6/10   132 votes
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Down 9% in popularity this week. See why on IMDbPro.
Director:
Nick Grinde
Writers:
Sarah Y. Mason (story)
Jo Swerling (dialogue) ...
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Contact:
View company contact information for Shopworn on IMDbPro.
Release Date:
25 March 1932 (USA) more
Genre:
Drama | Romance more
Tagline:
A SUPERB ARTISTE IN HER MOST GLAMOROUS ROLE...Barbara STANWYCK (original print ad - mostly caps) more
Plot:
A poor but honest and hardworking waitress from way across the tracks meets and falls in love with a college student from the upper-stuffy class... more | add synopsis
Plot Keywords:
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User Comments:
has its moments more (9 total)

Cast

  (Complete credited cast)

Barbara Stanwyck ... Kitty Lane
Regis Toomey ... David Livingston
Zasu Pitts ... Aunt Dot
Lucien Littlefield ... Fred
Clara Blandick ... Mrs. Helen Livingston
Robert Alden ... Toby
Oscar Apfel ... Judge Forbes
Maude Turner Gordon ... Mrs. Thorne
Albert Conti ... Andre Renoir
James Durkin ... District Attorney (scenes deleted)
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Additional Details

Parents Guide:
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Runtime:
72 min | USA:66 min (re-edited version)
Country:
USA
Language:
English
Color:
Black and White
Aspect Ratio:
1.37 : 1 more
Sound Mix:
Mono (Western Electric System)
Certification:
USA:Approved (PCA #4749-R: for re-release) | USA:TV-G (TV rating)
Company:
Columbia Pictures Corporation more

Fun Stuff

Trivia:
The print shown on Turner Classic Movies, from Sony's archives, displays title credits which were modernized and re-designed in 1938 for a re-release that took place only after several minutes worth of deletions were made to meet the standards of the Production Code, which was more rigorously enforced starting in 1934. more
Quotes:
Toby: [tries to grab Kitty's hand, but she pushes it away] Say Kit, won't you go to the show with me tonight?
Kitty Lane: For what?
Toby: Well, you can't do much with a crowd around.
Kitty Lane: That's why I like crowds.
[Fred calls out an order from the kitchen, and Kitty walks away.]
Toby: [following her] But Kit, there's a lot of things I want to tell you.
Kitty Lane: Only one, Toby. And the answer is "no."
Toby: Don't you know any three-letter words?
Kitty Lane: Nix!
Toby: [good naturedly] Why you...
[...]
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Movie Connections:
Featured in Barbara Stanwyck: Fire and Desire (1991) (TV) more
Soundtrack:
Bridal Chorus (Here Comes the Bride) more

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User Comments

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5 out of 5 people found the following comment useful.
has its moments, 19 January 2008
6/10
Author: mukava991 from United States

This fast-moving film features Barbara Stanwyck in her early period when she usually played a tough, lower-class dame with a hot temper who stands fast to her principles. This character is virtually identical to the ones she played in NIGHT NURSE, LADIES THEY TALK ABOUT and BABY FACE. Here she is a waitress who falls in love with a rather bland medical student (Regis Toomey) whose nasty and snobbish mother (an excellent and truly scary Clara Blandick) schemes with a corrupt judge (Oscar Apfel) to separate the young lovers by sending Stanwyck to one of those reformatories that pop up so frequently in films of this era. The ever-fluttery Zasu Pitts is on hand as Stanwyck's aunt - what a comedown from GREED.

In one scene Stanwyck, trying to memorize the dictionary as a means of self improvement, shows her suitor a list of words beginning with the letter "e" which she has written down. He reads them aloud, stops after "ejaculate," looks at her with some curiosity and says that even he would never use such a word. That moment immediately pigeonholes this film as pre-Code. The scene continues artfully with one-word exchanges all starting with the letter "e." Later, while Lucien Littlefeld is conversing about the Stanwyck-Toomey relationship with Oscar Apfel, a couple of lines are very clumsily overdubbed by other actors. Makes one wonder what was actually said. Late in the film there is an imaginative banquet scene in which the camera carefully pans the length of a dining table highlighting the place cards (each a little paper doll inscribed with a guest's name) while the corresponding but off-screen voices converse on the soundtrack; then the camera moves back to reveal the whole table and all of the people we have been listening to. The yard between the diner where Stanwyck works and the house where the owners live is well depicted: tattered laundry hanging on a line, overflowing garbage cans and kittens playing.

The screenwriter Robert Riskin contributes some snappy and witty dialogue. He worked quite frequently with Frank Capra, penning the scripts for IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT, MEET JOHN DOE, LADY FOR A DAY and MR. DEEDS GOES TO TOWN, among others. All of these films address the issue of "decency" – what truly constitutes decency? Saying you are decent or actually being decent?

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