The Lady Gambles
Brief Synopsis
Cast & Crew
Michael Gordon
Barbara Stanwyck
Robert Preston
Stephen Mcnally
Edith Barrett
John Hoyt
Film Details
Technical Specs
Synopsis
In Chicago, after she and her partner Frenchy are caught with loaded dice during a backstreet craps game, Joan Phillips is severely beaten by the men she was cheating. Soon after, Joan's estranged husband, David Boothe, tries to explain to the cynical doctor who is treating her injuries how his once vibrant and sophisticated wife became a sad, desperate woman: While David, a reporter, gathers information for a story at Hoover Dam, Joan drops by the casino in their Las Vegas hotel with a hidden camera, hoping to snap some photos for a possible article of her own. A gambling novice, she is soon spotted by Horace Corrigan, the casino's suave owner, who criticizes her secretive methods but gives her some free house chips with which to gamble. That evening, Joan samples the various casino games and tells David that she finds gambling "exciting." When David announces that they are leaving Las Vegas the following afternoon, she tries to persuade him to spend the night gambling with her, but he insists he has to work. Bored with gambling with worthless chips, Joan surreptiously borrows fifty dollars from David's $600 expense account and quickly loses it at the craps table. By early the next morning, Joan has used up all the expense account money and begs Corrigan, who is attracted to her, for a loan. Recognizing that Joan is a compulsive gambler, Corrigan refuses her. Joan tearfully pawns her camera and, with that money, wins back the $600. After she replaces the expense account money, Joan learns that her older, neurotic sister Ruth has just arrived from Chicago. Ruth, who helped rear Joan after their mother died from childbirth complications and now controls Joan through guilt, resents David, and he decides to return to Chicago alone. That evening, Corrigan offers Joan a chance to sit in on a private poker game, and when she declines, he flirts with the homely Ruth. Later, Joan cautions Ruth about Corrigan, prompting Ruth to angrily remind her about the engagement she once broke because of her. Distressed, Joan joins Corrigan's poker game, playing all night with Corrigan's stake. Joan wins $6,000, from which Corrigan pays her $800. Claiming to know what Joan needs, Corrigan then kisses her, but Joan politely resists him. David, meanwhile, calls Joan from Salt Lake City where he has stopped on his drive back to Chicago, and when Ruth tells him that Joan's bed has not been slept in, he heads back to Las Vegas. Upon arriving, David takes Joan to Hoover Dam and demands to know where she was the night before. When she insists that she was merely having fun in the casino, he warns her about spending too much time gambling. After she cheerfully proclaims that she can quit anytime, she and David decide to spend some time relaxing at nearby Lake Mead. David soon catches Joan slipping away to gamble, however, and she confesses that she cannot stop herself. Determined to save Joan, David quits his newspaper job and takes her to a beach village in Mexico, where they spend several blissful months. One day, David, who is writing a book, leaves for an overnight research trip, and while he is gone, Joan runs into a couple she met in Las Vegas. The couple persuades Joan to join them in a backroom craps game, and before long, Joan has gambled away David's savings. Upon deducing Joan's transgression, David sadly separates from her and returns to his job in Chicago. With only a little money, Joan goes to Las Vegas and asks Corrigan for work. Corrigan, who has sold his casino, hires Joan as a front for a new horserace syndicate that he and some others have formed. Joan's gambling continues at the track, but now she bets in order to raise money to repay David. When David, who has not heard from her in months, sends her divorce papers, she panics and, against Corrigan's orders, bets $200 on one of the syndicate's young horses. Although the horse wins, Joan is too frightened to collect her winnings, because her bet cost the horse its longshot standing, on which the syndicate members had been counting. Disgusted by Joan's actions, Corrigan leaves her to fend for herself at an out-of-the-way bus stop. Joan wanders from dive to dive, ending up in Shreveport, Louisiana, where she hooks up with crooked gambler Frenchy, and finally returns to Chicago. Back in the present, David and the doctor go to talk to the semi-conscious Joan and are joined by Ruth. As predicted by David, Ruth blames him for Joan's problems and accuses Joan of killing their mother. Overwhelmed by guilt, Joan tries to jump from the hospital window, but is saved by David. At last free of Ruth's emotional tyranny, Joan and David watch the sun rise together, confident that a new day has dawned for them.
Director
Michael Gordon
Cast
Barbara Stanwyck
Robert Preston
Stephen Mcnally
Edith Barrett
John Hoyt
Elliott Sullivan
John Harmon
Phil Van Zandt
Leif Erickson
Curt Conway
Houseley Stevenson
Don Beddoe
Nana Bryant
Anthony Curtis
Peter Leeds
Frank Moran
Esther Howard
John Indrisano
Polly Bailey
George Spaulding
Billy Wayne
Al Rhein
Joe Gilbert
Jeffrey Sayre
Francis Mcdonald
George Carleton
Peter Brocco
Jerry Paris
Harold Goodwin
Frank Mcfarland
Beatrice Gray
Manuel Paris
Rex Lease
Parke Macgregor
Perc Launders
Leo Anthony
George Bruce
Jack Gordon
Harry Mayo
Charles Sherlock
Ralph Brooke
Victor Heyden
Eddie Lebaron
Billy Cartledge
William Hudson
Watson Downs
Elmer Doyea
Ralph Montgomery
Doug Carter
Kenneth Cutler
Dona La Barr
Willie Bloom
Al Bayne
Sherry Hall
Eda Reiss Merin
Jim Toney
Howard Mitchell
Crew
Lillian Burkhart
Leslie I. Carey
Milton Carruth
William Coopersmith
Bob Ewing
Russell A. Gausman
Alexander Golitzen
David S. Horsley
Roy Huggins
Dorothy Hughes
Corson Jowett
Michel Kraike
Lew Leary
Ruby R. Levitt
Lewis Meltzer
Russell Metty
Max Nippell
Orry Kelly
Dean Paup
James Pratt
Oscar Saul
Frank Shaw
Frank Skinner
Joan St. Oegger
William Walling
Halsted Welles
Bud Westmore
Film Details
Technical Specs
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
The working title of this film was Gambling Lady, which also was the title of an unrelated 1934 RKO Radio picture that also starred Barbara Stanwyck. Opening credits include the following written acknowledgment: "The cooperation and technical advice of the officials and business men of Las Vegas, Nevada are gratefully acknowledged. The scenic backgrounds at Hoover Dam, also known as Boulder Dam, and Lake Mead were photographed through the courtesy of the Department of Interior, National Park Service and Bureau of Reclamation." Other scenes were shot at Sequit Point, CA, according to Hollywood Reporter. According to a May 1949 Los Angeles Daily News item, Las Vegas casino owners initially complained about the picture, saying it would "kill gambling" in that city.
The Lady Gambles marked the first time that Stanwyck and Robert Preston appeared together since the 1939 Cecil B. DeMille picture Union Pacific (see AFI Catalog of Feature Films, 1931-40; F3.4869). Liz Dennison and Gene Delmont were announced as cast members in Hollywood Reporter, but their appearance in the completed film has not been confirmed. A late November 1948 Hollywood Reporter news item reported that Walter Scharf was first assigned to write the film's score. On December 14, 1950, the Hallmark Playhouse broadcast a radio adaptation of the story, starring Stanwyck, Stephen McNally and William Conrad. On October 27, 1955, Lux Video Theatre broadcast a television version, starring Martha Hyer and Lyle Bettger, on the NBC network.
