Gambling with Souls (1936)

User Rating:

4.1/10   

Director:

Elmer Clifton

Writer:

J.D. Kendis (writer)

Release Date:

September 1936 (USA)

Genre:

Crime | Drama

Tagline:

Soiled souls in the marts of a great city!...a true expose of the sensational events recently seen in the nation's headlines!

Plot:

Young girls are cheated in rigged gambling games and then forced into prostitution to pay off their debts.

Plot Keywords:

Doctor | Gambling | Gambling Debt | Sister Sister Relationship | Alcoholic

Cast

Martha Chapin	...	Mrs. Mae Miller
Wheeler Oakman	...	Lucky Wilder
Bryant Washburn	...	'Million Dollar' Taylor
Gay Sheridan	...	Carolyn
Vera Steadman	...	Molly Murdock
Edward Keane	...	Attorney (as Ed. Keene)
Robert Frazer	...	Dr. Miller
Gaston Glass	...	Officer
Florence Dudley	...	Jean
Eddie Laughton	...	Nick

Also Known As:

The Vice Racket

Runtime:

70 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Company:

Jay-Dee-Kay Productions

Trivia:

The dive restaurant where Carolyn goes slumming is the same one that appears in the opening scenes of Marihuana (1936/I). The house that Mae and her husband share also appears in Slaves in Bondage (1937) and the vanity set in Mae's bedroom also shows up in Tell Your Children (1936), where it's also owned by a character named Mae.

Goofs:

Boom mic visible: The shadow of the microphone moves up the wall in the foreground when the boy with the hat is dragged into a room.

Movie Connections:

Featured in Sex and Buttered Popcorn (1989)

Rather dull for an exploitation film

This is one of many so-called "educational films" of the 1930s that were really sad excuses for sleazy low-budget producers to make films that could slip nudity and banned material past the censor boards. Starting in late 1933 and early 1934, the Hays Production Code was dramatically strengthened to eliminate nudity, extreme violence and decidedly adult far from movies. Believe it or not, before this time, all kinds of taboos were relatively common in films coming from reputable Hollywood studios. However, after the Code was strengthened, perverts and the curious went looking for seedy material and found it in educational films that were really just excuses to show boobs and talk about sex and drugs. As educational material, some states DID allow these films to be seen, though I seriously doubt that parents went to them to learn how to better raise their children!

The main theme of GAMBLING WITH SOULS is forced prostitution. It seems that a local gambling den is actually a front where nice young ladies are hooked on gambling and then forced to become hookers to pay off their debt. The story begins with a police raid and seeing a blonde shooting one of the leaders of this hole. The rest of the film is her account to the police of what led her to this murder and how she lost everything due to gambling.

The film is very obvious and trite--with only passable acting and a script that, at times, is very silly. Certainly NOT a great film but oddly watchable if you are a bit of a voyeur and like bad films. Otherwise, beware.