While this was obviously filmed at Paramount's Astoria Queens studio, much of the Times Square footage is obviously blue screen. You can tell because the people in the foreground are not the same ratio of height as those clothes up, and once you get past that, you can enjoy this pre-code drama for the fun elements that it has.
The film stars William Powell as a rackateer working in the gambling industry whose wife Kay Francis has sent him divorce papers. He calls her up and asked her to tear up her copy, but she says she must think about it. Francis admits that she knows what he has been doing all along, and cannot deny her love, but still fears how his life will affect their marriage.
When Powell's younger brother, Regis Toomey, arrives in town with wife Jean Arthur, it is revealed that he has a gambling addiction problem and Powell has been hiding his real occupation from him. But Toomey wants to find out where the action is and Powell, desperate to get his brother on the straight and narrow, allows him to participate in a card game where he will lose badly and thus be forced to give up gambling.
The tables turn when Powell finds himself in trouble and Francis desperately tries to find him. While this isn't on the same level of other gangster movies of the early thirties, it is great for its pre-code elements and a view of 42nd Street that really was captured by the title song of that 1933 musical. Powell is both charming and sleazy, and Francis gets to show both her glamour and her strength. But Toomey is rather one-dimensional and future big star Jean Arthur has hardly anything to do. It doesn't really give a glimpse into the downtrodden view of New York City during the depression, but overall it is an enjoyable film.
The film stars William Powell as a rackateer working in the gambling industry whose wife Kay Francis has sent him divorce papers. He calls her up and asked her to tear up her copy, but she says she must think about it. Francis admits that she knows what he has been doing all along, and cannot deny her love, but still fears how his life will affect their marriage.
When Powell's younger brother, Regis Toomey, arrives in town with wife Jean Arthur, it is revealed that he has a gambling addiction problem and Powell has been hiding his real occupation from him. But Toomey wants to find out where the action is and Powell, desperate to get his brother on the straight and narrow, allows him to participate in a card game where he will lose badly and thus be forced to give up gambling.
The tables turn when Powell finds himself in trouble and Francis desperately tries to find him. While this isn't on the same level of other gangster movies of the early thirties, it is great for its pre-code elements and a view of 42nd Street that really was captured by the title song of that 1933 musical. Powell is both charming and sleazy, and Francis gets to show both her glamour and her strength. But Toomey is rather one-dimensional and future big star Jean Arthur has hardly anything to do. It doesn't really give a glimpse into the downtrodden view of New York City during the depression, but overall it is an enjoyable film.