MEN OF CHANCE (1931)

Struggling artist Marthe (Mary Astor) and her gal pal Gertie (Kitty Kelly) are down and out in Paris. Gertie has established a connection with a Frenchman, though neither speaks the other's language, but Marthe gets mistaken for a prostitute and is arrested. Dorval (John Halliday), an American gambler who witnesses the incident, pays her fine for her; she assumes he wants sex as a reward, but he says he prefers playing chess—with human beings. He grooms her, passing her off as a countess, to attract a successful gambler and horse owner named Johnny (Ricardo Cortez). The plan is for her to marry him for his money, but unknown to Marthe, Dorval and his buddy Farley are also out for revenge against Johnny for all the money that he's cost them. The two indeed hit it off, and when Johnny is called back to the States, he takes Marthe with him and they marry on the ship (accompanied by Gertie as her maid). Over time, Marthe comes to love Johnny, and when she runs into Dorval, she tells him so. But he tells her a tale of woe and poverty, so thinking she owes him something, she starts innocently feeding him tips on Johnny's horses. Dorval then has Farley bribe the jockeys to lose, causing Johnny to start losing money and Dorval to start winning. When Johnny finds out what's been going on, he thinks she's selling him out on purpose and walks out on her. Dorval and Farley then get a distraught Marthe to participate in one last scheme: feed one of his heavily favored horses poisoned sugar just before a race. She agrees, but will she go through with it?

Horse race movies always confuse me; despite having had a part-time summer job at a race track, the intricacies of the sport and the betting are beyond me. But the fun here is following the intricacies of the character entanglements. It's a pre-Code movie, but still there are ambiguities about the sexual relationships. Is Gertie sleeping with sugar daddies? Did Marthe share her favors with Dorval? Is Dorval gay? (There is a cute scene in a bar with the punchline being that an effeminate man says to the bartender, "I’ll have a chocolate parfait with gobs of whipped cream.") If the plot is a bit predictable, the acting is good, especially Astor and Cortez. Kitty Kelly strains a bit in delivering the comic relief. Passable entertainment for its era. Pictured are Astor and Halliday. [TCM]