Good story, Not enough for a whole film

Don't listen to the Hype. It's awful

A Disappointing Continuation

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

" . . . don't they raise the bars (to her leading a normal life) for her?" Gold-digging hooker Kay Arnold plaintively asks her latest "sap's" Mommy. By Kay's logic, Mrs. Strong should welcome her into the Railroad Mogul Family with open arms upon Kay's assertion that she's no longer a Walking Venereal Disease. IT'S A WONDERFUL SEX LIFE, director Frank Capra contends during LADIES OF LEISURE. Capra seems to be preaching that the Robber Barons and the Barin' Bobbers should all be friends (to anachronistically paraphrase OKLAHOMA!). Speaking of Barin' Bobbers, most of Kay's infamous nude silhouette strip scene beginning at 42:32 midway through her first sleep-over at Sap Jerry Strong's Bachelor Pad has gone missing from the surviving print of this 1930 Anything Goes Era flick, thanks to the Pope's over-zealous Scissormen who began snipping the "Good Bits" (or "Pinkies") from America's cinematic output, both retrospectively and Forward even until Today, back in 1934. Though some have complained about this method of "filling the Stacks" of the Secret Vatican Library, can you imagine how many Altar Boys and First Communion Girls have been saved from Total Debauchery by this trove of FORBIDDEN H0LLYWOOD?

This early talkie (so early I understand there was a silent version shot simultaneously) introduced me to the actor Lowell Sherman. Sherman plays drunken cad/best friend to leading man Ralph Graves, who portrays a rich artist. Barbara Stanwyck plays a roaring twenties-esque party girl who ends up modeling for Graves.Stanwyck is excellent and captivating. This was early in her career, and it must've been clear that she was destined to become a star after this film came out. Ralph Graves, on the other hand, turns in one of the worst performances I've ever seen. Stiff, wooden, he almost sinks the picture. He doesn't connect emotionally with his own character or anyone else's. His career seemed to tank after this film. No surprise there. Lloyd Sherman plays your proto-typical cad, and he's the best thing in the movie. He's a scoundrel, overtly trying to get down Stanwyck's pants while still maintaining his charm. Though you're supposed to root against him, you kind of like this ne'er do well. He fully embodies the role, and as far as talkies are concerned, I'd say he invented the drunken cad, the inebriated sophisticate. Actors as disparate as William Powell (think Thin Man) to Dudley Moore (think Arthur) owe Sherman a debt of gratitude. Like Ralph Graves, Sherman is kind of forgotten today. It's not because, like Graves, he didn't have the goods to last and make his mark. It's because Sherman died a few years later, of pneumonia. At the time of his death, he was just starting to direct as well. If you love charming movie scoundrels, raise a glass in Mr. Sherman's honor. He would approve.

Considering that movies only began to talk in 1928, this early sound film starring BARBARA STANWYCK as a girl of ill repute (she calls herself a party girl), and RALPH GRAVES as an artist who wants to use her as a model, is not bad at all. It's certainly one of the better jobs in sound recording for a film made in the early '30s. As usual with films of this period, there is almost no music on the soundtrack except for the moment when "The End" is flashed on the screen. In the TCM print I watched, the screen then fades to black while some "exit" music is played against a dark screen.Stanwyck is the prostitute with a heart of gold who finds a good man and doesn't want to let him go, even when his family objects to their union when he proposes marriage. She is convinced by the mother to give him up--but circumstances change after she makes a rash decision.Stanwyck is excellent at conveying the brassy qualities of the character, but then reveals the softer nature of the girl as she falls in love with the man who only wants to paint her portrait. The tenderness of the romance that develops is full of nuances that one wouldn't expect from a Frank Capra film. The sentimental ending is more in keeping with his usual style.RALPH GRAVES gives a quiet, assured performance as the man who finds that he does really love Stanwyck. LOWELL SHERMAN does his usual schtick as an inebriated friend who flounces around making wisecracks. MARIE PREVOST has some good moments as Stanwyck's roommate and NANCE O'NEIL does a good job as Grave's well-meaning mother.Stanwyck fans will appreciate her well modulated performance.

Barbara Stanwyck looked sweet and innocent, even though her character is supposed to have been around.For someone making only her fourth movie, she was a treat to watch, and not just because of her looks. She gave a terrific performance.Others have criticized Ralph Graves, in his twelfth year of film acting, but I thought he was marvelously realistic, giving a wonderful under-acted performance.Jimmy Cagney said when he, and some others, came to California with their under-acting, they changed Hollywood. Graves might have been just ahead of his time.Lowell Sherman was surely the pluperfect movie cad. In this film, too, he gave a superb performance.Marie Prevost, though, stole the show ... well, she at least came in a close second to Stanwyck. Her brash, brassy character was funny, touching, adorable ... even if she wasn't someone a young man might want to bring home to mother.Again there was a corny, silly telling of the story via a newspaper headline that surely could have been better told some other way; but, over all, this movie is a good story, well told and well acted, and a great look at its time in history.By the way, a note to Yard Bird: Most likely the reason it was made in silent and sound versions was to be sure every theater could play it. At the time, not all theaters had yet converted to sound.It was the sound version that played in May of 2009 on Turner Classic Movies. I would guess it is now available for purchase.Added early on 7 October 2017: In fact, "Ladies of Leisure" is available on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJ8HmUcuJfU