Years before Damon Runyon's stories helped make Guys and Dolls a huge hit on stage and screen, RKO combined his story "All Scarlet" with another by J. Robert Bren and Norman Houston, "Odds Are Even," for this fast-moving racetrack tale. The supporting cast is filled with Runyonesque eccentrics like small-time trainer Tom Martin (Harry Carey) and his two racing buddies, Judge (Berton Churchill) and Warbler (Ray Mayer). But the main focus is on Carey's daughter, Ruth, played by Ann Dvorak, one of the least appreciated, most unfairly neglected actresses of the '30s. Dvorak had made a big splash as Paul Muni's sister in Scarface (1932), leading to a Warner Bros. contract, but her constant quarrels with them over script selection and inequitable pay led to her spending most of her time there on suspension. After a year off the screen, she was loaned to RKO for this and another film, giving her the chance to play the spirited lady trainer out to revive her father's business and take on a man's world. Although the film was made on a low budget, with newsreel footage taking the place of actual location work at the story's Santa Ana settings, her performance helps keep the whole thing afloat.

By Frank Miller