You Can't Buy Everything (1934)

Director:

Charles Reisner

Writers:

Dudley Nichols (original screenplay) and
Lamar Trotti (original screenplay) ...

Release Date:

26 January 1934 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Romance

Tagline:

"Lady for a Day" Becomes QUEEN OF WALL STREET

Plot:

Hannah is so tight with her money that she takes her son, Donnie, to the charity ward a week after he hurts his leg...

Plot Keywords:

Money | Charity | Grudge | Trolley Car | Ship

Cast

  (Complete credited cast)

May Robson	...	Mrs. Hannah Bell
Jean Parker	...	Elizabeth 'Beth' Burton Bell
Lewis Stone	...	John Burton
Mary Forbes	...	Kate Farley
Reginald Mason	...	Dr. Lorimer
William Bakewell	...	Donny 'Don' Bell as a man
Tad Alexander	...	Donny Bell as a boy
Walter Walker	...	Josiah Flagg
Reginald Barlow	...	Mr. Tom Sparks
Claude Gillingwater	...	Banker Asa Cabot

Runtime:

82 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English | German

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Sound System)

Certification:

USA:Passed (National Board of Review)

Company:

Cosmopolitan Productions

Trivia:

Some cast members in studio records/casting call lists did not appear or were not identifiable in the movie. These were (with their character names, if any): Minerva Urecal (Maid), Eric Wilton and Sherry Hall (Bank teller). Robert Young was announced as a cast member, but he also did not appear.

Soundtrack:

The Wedding March

Roman A Clef

This is a biography of Hetty Green, the Witch of Wall Street, a woman who went head to head with the other robber barons of the Gilded Age and who usually came out ahead. They had to change the name for fear of lawsuit by her heirs. It was the common, if apocryphal story of how she made her son go to a free clinic, rather than pay a doctor that sent the lawyers at the studio screaming for a cover name for the character.

In truth, Mrs. Green was a monstrously greedy character who, if she did not sell tainted pork to the Union Army, as did her fellow Robber Baron, Armour, did go to free clinics herself, rather than pay for medical treatment. She also forged her aunt's will and tried to bribe the judge in the case, but those are mere trifles in her story.

Almost inevitably, the writers soften her character, making her more sinned against than sinner in love, and the anonymous benefactress of scrubwomen and so forth. Doubtless people would have refused to see the real story, because there was no real story beyond a woman living a tough life, going head-to-head in the man's world of Wall Street and doing it well. Enough of a story for me, perhaps, but not enough to sell the studios.

The performances are sterling, and May Robson is having a lot of fun playing an out-and-out villainess, much as Edward Arnold would the next year, playing Jim Fisk, the man who precipitated the Panic of 1869. That's softened too. Still, actors love playing villain. They have fun, and the audience does, too. So have some fun and see this one.