Times Square Lady


1h 8m 1935
Times Square Lady

Brief Synopsis

A gambler's assistant helps the boss's daughter fight off a crooked lawyer.

Film Details

Genre
Drama
Comedy
Release Date
Mar 8, 1935
Premiere Information
New York opening: week of 14 Mar 1935
Production Company
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Corp.
Distribution Company
Loew's Inc.
Country
United States

Technical Specs

Duration
1h 8m
Sound
Mono (Western Electric Sound System)
Color
Black and White
Theatrical Aspect Ratio
1.37 : 1
Film Length
7 reels

Synopsis

When the twenty-two-year-old Iowian Toni Bradley inherits a number of businesses from her father, Broadway promoter King Bradley, she soon realizes that she has been saddled with, among other things, a New York nightclub, a hockey team, a racing sheet and a dog track. Upon her arrival in New York, Toni visits her new night spot, the Casa Nova Cafe, which is managed by the handsome Steve Gordon. There, she meets singer Pinky Tomlin of Durant, Oklahoma and hires him to sing in her club. Adam J. Fielding, a crooked attorney and executor of King's estate, takes Toni for a naive country girl and tries to bilk her of her fortunes. As part of his plan to fleece her, Fielding arranges for Steve to take Toni to a hockey game, where he has planned to stage a fight among the players of her team in the hope of upsetting her into disowning the team. When the player who has been crowned by his teammate's hockey stick threatens to expose the ruse, he is murdered. Next, Toni is escorted to the dog races, where a riot breaks out after news of a dog being poisoned is made known throughout the park. Upset that nothing she owns is on the level, Toni leaves town for a country drive with Pinky, and they run out of gas. Meanwhile, Fielding upbraids Steve for failing to get Toni to relinquish ownership of her properties. Steve, who has fallen in love with Toni, tells her that he can no longer go on "playing her for a sucker," and admits that he has been involved in a plan to mulct her of her fortunes. Toni expresses relief at the confession and reveals that she had known about the scheme all along but had pretended not to know in order to test his character. Genuinely concerned for her safety, Steve advises her to get out of the business, arguing that she will always be in danger as long as Fielding has in mind to oust her. Having already sampled some of Fielding's unsavory methods of doing business, Toni agrees to quit, but not before she and Steve devise a plan to heap misfortune upon Fielding and his men. Steve convinces Fielding to offer Toni cash to get out, but Fielding, suspicious of Steve's association with Toni, sends Mack, a Fielding henchmen who has been pressed into the racketeer's service through blackmail, to trail him. Toni takes Fielding's money, but then sells her businesses to Steve, who in turn finds buyers outside the combine and turns a hefty profit on the deal for Toni. Meanwhile, Margo Heath, Steve's jilted and jealous sweetheart, takes revenge on Toni by informing the Fielding gang about the deal Steve made behind their backs. Mack learns that Steve and Toni are planning an immediate trip to Bermuda and delivers the news to Fielding, who forces Steve into a taxi and abducts him. Regretting having double-crossed Steve, Mack admits to Toni that he told the gang his whereabouts, and the two, aided by Pinky, trick the gangsters and steal Steve from them. A chase ensues, but Steve and Toni escape safely, and as they board a steamer, Steve promises to give Toni his "personal undivided attention."

Film Details

Genre
Drama
Comedy
Release Date
Mar 8, 1935
Premiere Information
New York opening: week of 14 Mar 1935
Production Company
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Corp.
Distribution Company
Loew's Inc.
Country
United States

Technical Specs

Duration
1h 8m
Sound
Mono (Western Electric Sound System)
Color
Black and White
Theatrical Aspect Ratio
1.37 : 1
Film Length
7 reels

Articles

Times Square Lady


In Times Square Lady (1935), Robert Taylor, two years into his long-term MGM contract, has one of his first romantic leads, playing opposite Virginia Bruce, who has the title role as a young woman who inherits her wealthy father's businesses including a Manhattan nightclub. Taylor, initially involved in a scheme to take over Bruce's inheritance, has a change of heart after falling in love.

George B. Seitz, the director of Times Square Lady, earlier helped Taylor along on his way to stardom by coaching him through Society Doctor (1935), which also co-starred Bruce. Taylor biographer Jane Ellen Wayne wrote that "Seitz was able to bring something out in Taylor," and that it was under his direction that the eager young actor learned to relax on camera. Taylor's relationship with co-star Bruce goes back even farther, to an early MGM screen test in which both appeared.

According to Wayne, Bruce also was Nebraska-born Taylor's first romantic interest in Hollywood - although their relationship was kept secret beyond joint appearances arranged by the studio to promote their films at premieres and other events. Some said that MGM disapproved of 24-year-old Taylor's involvement with a woman who had been married and divorced and had a young daughter. "To make matters worse," wrote Wayne, Bruce "had received kidnap threats regarding her daughter and she preferred to stay as close to the child as possible." For whatever reason, the romance soon cooled, and in 1936 Taylor met Barbara Stanwyck, whom he would marry in 1939. (The two were divorced in 1951, and Taylor married Ursula Thiess, who would remain his wife until his death at age 57.)

Taylor also was approaching a major turning point in his career; on loan-out from MGM to Universal, he scored a huge success playing opposite Irene Dunne in Magnificent Obsession (1935) and emerged a full-fledged star. Taylor would spend the bulk of his career at MGM, where he enjoyed the longest-running movie contract in history.

Producer: Lucien Hubbard
Director: George B. Seitz
Screenplay: Albert J. Cohen, Robert T. Shannon
Cinematography: Lester White
Editing: Hugh Wynn
Original Music: William Axt
Principal Cast: Robert Taylor (Steve Gordon), Virginia Bruce (Toni Bradley), Helen Twelvetrees (Margo Heath), Isabel Jewell (Babe Sweeney), Nat Pendleton (Mack), Pinky Tomlin (Pinky), Raymond Hatton (Slim Kennedy).
BW-69m.

by Roger Fristoe

Times Square Lady

Times Square Lady

In Times Square Lady (1935), Robert Taylor, two years into his long-term MGM contract, has one of his first romantic leads, playing opposite Virginia Bruce, who has the title role as a young woman who inherits her wealthy father's businesses including a Manhattan nightclub. Taylor, initially involved in a scheme to take over Bruce's inheritance, has a change of heart after falling in love. George B. Seitz, the director of Times Square Lady, earlier helped Taylor along on his way to stardom by coaching him through Society Doctor (1935), which also co-starred Bruce. Taylor biographer Jane Ellen Wayne wrote that "Seitz was able to bring something out in Taylor," and that it was under his direction that the eager young actor learned to relax on camera. Taylor's relationship with co-star Bruce goes back even farther, to an early MGM screen test in which both appeared. According to Wayne, Bruce also was Nebraska-born Taylor's first romantic interest in Hollywood - although their relationship was kept secret beyond joint appearances arranged by the studio to promote their films at premieres and other events. Some said that MGM disapproved of 24-year-old Taylor's involvement with a woman who had been married and divorced and had a young daughter. "To make matters worse," wrote Wayne, Bruce "had received kidnap threats regarding her daughter and she preferred to stay as close to the child as possible." For whatever reason, the romance soon cooled, and in 1936 Taylor met Barbara Stanwyck, whom he would marry in 1939. (The two were divorced in 1951, and Taylor married Ursula Thiess, who would remain his wife until his death at age 57.) Taylor also was approaching a major turning point in his career; on loan-out from MGM to Universal, he scored a huge success playing opposite Irene Dunne in Magnificent Obsession (1935) and emerged a full-fledged star. Taylor would spend the bulk of his career at MGM, where he enjoyed the longest-running movie contract in history. Producer: Lucien Hubbard Director: George B. Seitz Screenplay: Albert J. Cohen, Robert T. Shannon Cinematography: Lester White Editing: Hugh Wynn Original Music: William Axt Principal Cast: Robert Taylor (Steve Gordon), Virginia Bruce (Toni Bradley), Helen Twelvetrees (Margo Heath), Isabel Jewell (Babe Sweeney), Nat Pendleton (Mack), Pinky Tomlin (Pinky), Raymond Hatton (Slim Kennedy). BW-69m. by Roger Fristoe

Quotes

Trivia

Notes

According to a pre-production news item in Hollywood Reporter, at the time authors Albert Cohen and Robert Shannon sold their story to M-G-M, actors Clark Gable and Jean Harlow were in consideration for the leads. Hollywood Reporter production charts list Noel Madison, Paul Hurst and G. Pat Collins as cast members, but their appearance in the released film has not been confirmed. Also, Hollywood Reporter pre-release news items list Ed Brady in the cast, and Oliver Marsh, not Lester White, as the director of photography. A Hollywood Reporter pre-release news item noted that while this picture was being edited, radio tenor Frank Hayes was hired to do an additional number to be cut into the film. It is not known if the musical number was added, however. Robert Taylor received his first top billing in this picture.