She Had to Choose
Cast & Crew
Ralph Ceder
Larry "buster" Crabbe
Isabel Jewell
Sally Blane
Regis Toomey
Maidel Turner
Film Details
Technical Specs
Synopsis
With her last dime, Sally Bates, an unemployed Texas tomboy newly arrived in Los Angeles, buys a doughnut and coffee at a drive-in barbecue stand, which is owned by former college football star Bill Cutler. After closing the drive-in, Bill and Wally, a waiter, find Sally asleep in her car and offer her a steak dinner. While Sally and Bill become acquainted over dinner, two hold-up men burst into the restaurant and threaten Bill at gunpoint. As Bill struggles with the armed men, Sally pulls out an old Texas six-shooter and wounds one of them. Grateful for Sally's life-saving courage, Bill offers her a job as a waitress and insists that she move in with his mother. Although she is in love with Bill, Sally hides her feelings, convinced that he prefers Clara Berry, a spoiled rich girl who is the stated choice of Bill's social climbing mother. While Bill dates Clara, Sally becomes involved with Clara's irresponsible brother Jack, a turn of events that worries Bill. One night, Jack gives Sally one of his sister's evening gowns to wear and takes her to a nightclub where Bill and Clara are dining. When Clara sees Sally in her dress, she ridicules her in front of Bill. Humiliated, Sally tears off the dress and leaves with Jack. Later, Bill finds Sally in Jack's "hideout" apartment and, assuming the worse, fights with Jack. During the struggle, Jack is accidentally killed, and Bill is charged with his murder. Bill's defense rests on his assertion that he was saving an "innocent" woman, an assertion that is threatened by a blackmailer who knows that Jack and Sally got married in Mexico just before the fight. To save Bill, Sally borrows $1,500 from Clara to silence the blackmailer and then corroborates Bill's testimony in court. During the trial, Bill, who has learned of Clara's loan, denounces Sally as a traitor. Once Bill is acquitted, a dejected Sally leaves Los Angeles, but before she has gone very far, Bill, having heard from Clara of Sally's sacrifice, intercepts her at a gas station and proposes.
Director
Ralph Ceder
Cast
Larry "buster" Crabbe
Isabel Jewell
Sally Blane
Regis Toomey
Maidel Turner
Fuzzy Knight
Arthur Stone
Edward Gargan
Huntley Gordon
Wallis Clark
Kenneth Howell
Eddie Featherston
Max Wagner
Crew
Houston Branch
James S. Brown Jr.
Larry Darmour
Frank H. Dexter
Al Dubin
J. A. Duffy
Izola Forrester
Charles Harris
Tom Lambert
Joseph Meyer
Mann Page
Billy Rose
Film Details
Technical Specs
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
Majestic borrowed Buster Crabbe from Paramount and Isabel Jewell from M-G-M for this production. She Had to Choose was Jewell's first starring screen role. Publicity for the film emphasized the fact that one of the primary settings in the film was the "newest type" of restaurant popular in Southern California-the drive-in barbecue stand. According to publicity items, an actual Los Angeles drive-in was used as a set in the production, which also featured an underwater swimming sequence with Buster Crabbe, who won a gold medal in free-style swimming at the 1932 Summer Olympics. Publicity items also state that popular actor Lee Tracy was Isabel Jewell's "boyfriend" at the time of shooting, and helped director Ceder to "devise new lines and re-arrange others."
