Cafe Hostess
Brief Synopsis
Cast & Crew
Sidney Salkow
Preston Foster
Ann Dvorak
Douglas Fowley
Wynne Gibson
Arthur Loft
Film Details
Technical Specs
Synopsis
While patrolling the streets of the tenderloin district of a large city, plainclothesman Steve Mason enters "Club 46," a waterfront clipjoint owned by Eddie Morgan, a racketeer who poses as the piano player. Annie, a former hostess at "Club 46," is hostess Jo's friend, and when she returns to the club to tell Eddie that he ruined her life, she urges Jo to get Eddie arrested. While at the club, Annie witnesses Jo being harassed by racketeer Red Connolly, and starts a fight. When Dan Walter, a seaman on shore leave, and his two pals arrive at the club, they soon fall prey to Eddie's racket. Although Jo begins to enjoy Dan's company and would rather not "roll" him, she is compelled to follow Eddie's signals to do so. When Jo's attempt to steal from Dan fails, he leaves the place disillusioned. Dan returns, notices that Jo's face is bruised and, realizing that she has been attacked, asks her to marry him and leave with him to live in a small town. Jo accepts Dan's proposal, but when Nellie, who operates a nearby boardinghouse, overhears their plans, she reports Jo to Eddie. Returning to the clipjoint to say goodbye, Jo discovers that Eddie is planning to kill Dan. Jo desperately seeks Annie's help, but the drunken Annie bungles things and allows Dan to fall into Eddie's trap. As a last resort, Jo decides to try to force Dan's departure by ridiculing him before Eddie, and her plan works. When Dan is informed by Annie of the murder plot and Jo's attempt to save him, he returns to the club and starts a fight. While Steve, who has been trailing Eddie in connection with a warehouse hold-up, calls the riot police, Annie grabs Eddie's knife. The police arrive, break up the riot, and Eddie's stabbed body is found on the floor. Annie confesses to Steve that it was she who killed Eddie, and, realizing that the law demands that she be punished for it, is led away willingly as Dan and Jo leave to begin a new life in a small town.
Director
Sidney Salkow
Cast
Preston Foster
Ann Dvorak
Douglas Fowley
Wynne Gibson
Arthur Loft
Bruce Bennett
Eddie Acuff
Bradley Page
Linda Winters
Beatrice Blinn
Dick Wessel
Peggy Shannon
Veda Ann Borg
Lorna Gray
Betty Compson
Eve Lynn
John Tyrrell
Eddie Laughton
William Pawley
George Mckay
Walter Baldwin
George Lloyd
James Craig
James Blaine
William Lally
Ralph Peters
Stephen Soldi
Frank Austin
Mike Lally
Pat Mckee
Matty Roubert
Don Beddoe
Crew
Film Details
Technical Specs
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
A working title for this film was Street of Missing Women. This was the first film in which actor Herman Brix was credited as Bruce Bennett. According to the file for the film in the MPAA/PCA Collection at the AMPAS Library, in August 1939 the PCA warned Columbia that the story was in violation of the Production Code in three respects: First because of its "general sordid, low-toned background and flavor; second because the hero is shown to be a thief who is allowed to go off unpunished; and third because "Annie," a murderess, is also permitted to "go off scot-free." The PCA suggested to Columbia studio head Harry Cohn that he lift the story out of the "foul background of a low class beer dive and make the locale a swanky Broadway night club, whose patrons will not be unattached girls-'B' girls." The PCA also urged Cohn to make other changes in the script, including having "Jo" played as a straight non-criminal; eliminating anything that would suggest that the girls were prostitutes; and the removal of any implication that "Jo" and "Eddie" were having sex. Regional censorship reports contained in the PCA file indicate that censors in Alberta, Canada, and Pennsylvania ordered the removal of the following subtitle, which appeared at the beginning of the film: "B-Girls...Bar Girls...Cafe Hostesses...Products of a man-made system, these girls whose stock in a trade is a tireless smile, a sympathetic ear and a shoddy evening gown, they prey on the very men who made them what they are. The Cafe Hostess knows only one law...A lady must live!"
