The Gambling Sex (1932) User Reviews

The Only Thing of Interest is the Title!!

[kidboots · 6/10 · 7 May 2015]

If any starlet had a noticeable lisp it was Ruth Hall who had a couple of pretty busy years during 1931,32 - even though her name was usually down the cast list. Here she is the star of a sleazy named poverty rower with nothing much to recommend it. She plays high living, bubbly Sheila who inherits her father's horse racing empire on his death. To outsiders she seems to forget her sorrow pretty fast as, with money burning a hole in her pocket, she is sucked into the world of gambling by Ralph Jordan, her father's crooked partner.

Her co-star was Grant Withers who a couple of years previously had been a young hopeful at Warners. A liking for alcohol as well as disastrous publicity from a doomed marriage to Loretta Young spelled doom for his career. He plays Foster, a horse trainer who knows all about high flying - that's how he lost his money and really wants Sheila to come to her senses. Only she knows how close she is to poverty and when Jordan accidentally sees a letter from her solicitor, wiping their hands of her because of her haste in spending her father's fortune, suddenly he isn't quite so keen on walking down the aisle with her!! One of these movies where you couldn't care less about the lead character, just another petulant heiress wanting to make whoopee!! Quite a lot of potential to make a crime drama concentrating on gambling corruption, it decided to focus on the vapidness of the rich with too much cash and time on their hands!!

Ruth Hall Can Act... For The Silent Movies

[boblipton · 4/10 · 30 March 2024]

When Ruth Hall's father dies, she inherits a considerable estate. Grant Withers and Maston Williams both want to marry her: Williams because she is rich, and Withers because he's in love. While Williams helps her spend her money at the gambling tables, Withers doesn't say anything out of pride. But Miss Hall is gambling the money away. Williams doesn't notice.

It's not a particularly well-written movie, since it lacks any insight into the urges or, indeed, addiction to gambling that afflicts a substantial portion of the population. However, it is fascinating to watch Miss Hall, who gives a superb physical performance. It is one in which you can read her every emotion. It's a pity that director Fred Newmeyer could not offer her sufficient direction to make the words of this Poverty Row movie equally interesting.

Miss Hall was born Ruth Gloria Blasco Ibáñez; the connection her novelist uncle had may have helped her in her career. Despite being a WAMPAS Baby Star, it had ended by 1935, and she retired to raise two children by husband Lee Garmes and to run an avocado farm. She died in 2003 at the age of 92.

Super-lovely Ruth Hall steals the show!

[JohnHowardReid · 7/10 · 12 May 2015]

An interesting film, although it's by no means the must-see movie the credits promise. Fred C. Newmeyer directed some of Harold Lloyd's best films (including Safety Last) and Ruth Hall (who was married to Lee Garmes) had an amazing Hollywood career that broke all the rules. She is the only star I know who would habitually work as the star in one movie and then accept an unbilled role as an extra in the next! In this one, of course, she is the star – and a super-lovely lady she is too. But not only is she alluringly beautiful, she's an excellent actress to boot and can be rated as thoroughly convincing from first to last. I can't say the same about Grant Withers who is very convincing in some scenes but seems unsure of himself and even a little hesitant in others. John St. Polis, however, makes the most of his scenes as Ruth's dad. The screenplay holds the interest and all told, this is a neat way to spend 60 minutes. Available on a very good Alpha DVD.