Gambling with Souls (1936)

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 | Rape | Floor Show | Alcoholism

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:

Crew or equipment visible: When Mae is marveling at the floor show during her first time at the club, the camera tracks around her and casts a distinct and heavy shadow across her and Molly.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Mau Mau Sex Sex (2001)

Dedicated To Avoidance of Vice.....And To Profits.

The highly-publicized success in 1936 of Thomas Dewey in disassembling the vice-focused operations of "Lucky" Luciano spawned a raft of exploitative films such as this one (also titled VICE RACKET), an advertisement for which states "Soiled souls in the marts of a great city......sensational events as recently seen in the nation's headlines", a popular item for many years in those side street theatres that presented movies showcasing flesh and decadence while ostensibly offering an "educational" service to alert audiences of the wages of sin and lust. Although in love with her financially straitened surgeon husband, Mae Miller (Martha Chapin) becomes frustrated because with only a budding practice, he cannot provide for her those luxuries that her friends enjoy, and she is easily lured by an acquaintance to an illegal gambling establishment where she soon becomes addicted to the feckless thrill of wagering, that leads to more dire events after she falls into a state of substantial indebtedness to the club's crafty owner. This is Lucky Wilder (Wheeler Oakman) who places extreme pressure through a threat of blackmail upon Mrs. Miller since her debt to him has exceeded $10000, an enormous amount during the Great Depression, and Mae is compelled to become a call girl for Wilder in order to pay the vicemaster what she owes him, but events still worsen for the doctor's wife when her younger sister Carolyn (Gay Sheridan) is entrapped in the same manner. The scenario is related in flashbacks, with a District Attorney's office as setting of the present where Mae is being grilled as an accused murder suspect, characterized by the D.A. as "You who thrive on the slime of life", and yet the case has not been decided for Mae Miller in this quite sleazily-toned but competently constructed low-budget potboiler that is well-edited and ably directed by Elmer Clifton, who in his palmy days had been a favoured director for the Gish sisters, with perky Sheridan and well-practiced villain Oakman both convincing in their roles.