Convention Girl (1935)

Director:

Luther Reed

Writers:

George Boyle (novel)
George Boyle (screenplay)

Release Date:

31 October 1935 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

A cabaret hostess is broken-hearted because she loves a gambler who does not love her. |

Plot Keywords:

Prostitution | Based On Novel

Cast

  (Credited cast)

Rose Hobart	...	Cynthia 'Babe' Laval
Weldon Heyburn	...	Bill Bradley
Herbert Rawlinson	...	Ward Hollister
Toni Reed	...	Tommy Laval
Shemp Howard	...	Dan Higgins
Ruth Gillette	...	Helen Shalton, singer-call girl
James Spottswood	...	John 'Cupid' Pettyjohn
Sally O'Neil	...	Gracie, call girl
Lucille Mendez	...	Peg, call girl
Nancy Kelly	...	Betty, call girl
Alan Brooks	...	Ernest
William H. White	...	Penrod
Nell O'Day	...	Daisy Miller
Laliva Browne	...	Mrs. Pettyjohn
Isham Jones	...	Himself

Also Known As:

Atlantic City Romance (UK)

Runtime:

66 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Victor High Fidelity Sound System)

Filming Locations:

Atlantic City, New Jersey, USA

Company:

Falcon Pictures Corporation

Soundtrack:

I've Got Sand In My Shoes

In Spite Of The Lead Character's Vocation Of Prostitute, This Is A Thoroughly Sweet-Natured Melodrama.

A representative attempt of its period at sentimental realism, this Falcon Pictures Corporation production, made by Reel Enterprises, a Great Depression era Poverty Row studio, features Rose Hobart as Cynthia "Babe" Laval, a world weary lady of the evening and procuress who has secured a virtual monopoly on call girls in Atlantic City, where most of this film was shot, all while her quest for true romantic love forms the nub of the work. Babe plays Cupid for her rounded heel charges during sales conventions and for this story it is a convocation of washing machine company representatives where it appears that Babe may have chanced upon her dream man, perhaps the best of her recent prospects, a cultured middle aged soap industry nabob, Wade Hollister (Herbert Rawlinson), who patently returns Babe's ardour as the two develop an impassioned relationship. This mutual attraction is most unpleasant to Babe's former swain, Bill Bradley (Weldon Heyburn), whose aggressive wooing of her has been unavailing because Bill owns and operates an illegal gambling joint and after she plainly seems to prefer Ward's more respectable background, Bradley discovers that he is out of her future plans and the setting is created for a clash between the suitors. Those viewers interested in United States social and cultural history will have a whale of a time watching well-selected plot incorporated footage of the era's Atlantic City Boardwalk, including scenes of acrobats, the famous Diving Horse at Steel Pier, vast crowded beaches, and the still popular wicker rolling chairs, all nicely integrated into a scenario that has little enough weight of its own to carry a narrative forward. Released also as Atlantic CITY ROMANCE, the affair offers some pleasing musical interludes, notably vocal solos by Ruth Gillette and pert Nancy Kelly, each accompanied by Isham Jones and his dance orchestra (an alert viewer can spot Woody Herman as a sideman, playing alto saxophone). Despite a featherweight plot line that might well have used a trifle more wit, and a screenplay that emphasizes a key plot device of blackmail, with its target being a lady of the evening whose portion takes in an attempted murder of her younger brother, a pleasant tone has ousted any potential emphasis upon the distasteful, aided greatly by a solid supporting cast; acting laurels must go to talented Hobart. Reissued upon an Alpha Entertainment DVD that, as is customary with that company, lacks any extra features or much needed remastering, the film as a result has only indifferent audio quality and merely adequate visual reproduction, although there is but a minimum of excisions.