William Powell is on the "Street of Chance" in this 1930 film also starring Kay Francis, Jean Arthur, and Regis Toomey.
I will admit right off that I did not recognize either Arthur or Toomey in this film.
Powell plays "Natural" Davis, a character modeled on the famed gambler Arnold Rothstein. The film portrays a couple of incidents in Rothstein's life, but in my opinion, the character is very loosely based on Rothstein.
Natural Davis is a professional gambler, and as a result, his wife Alma (Kay Francis) is divorcing him. He begs her to stay with him, eventually promising her that he will not only quit gambling, but go away with her on an extended trip..
When is brother Babe (Toomey) comes to town, Natural learns that his wedding gift of $10,000 has been spent gambling. Babe is a big winner and now has $50,000. He's in New York to gamble for $100,000 more so he can buy into a partnership.
Let me pause for a minute. The amounts of money these people are talking about are unbelievable. In 1930, $100,000 was 1,611,946.11 in today's money! Usually in films people are robbing banks for $5,000 or trying to get $50 from someone.
To continue - Natural does not want his brother to pursue the life of a gambler, so he's determined to make sure Babe is cleaned out. He arranges for his associates to help him, joining Babe in a game. It doesn't quite work out as he hoped. In a bind, he has to break his promise to Alma temporarily, but she doesn't buy it.
Powell is natural and very effective, and the film moves quickly, with people picking up their dialogue cues. Often in early talkies, actors were still adjusting to sound. As a result you get pauses between lines of dialogue, and, because of stage training, big gestures and loud voices. Powell has none of this. He's tough yet elegant and sympathetic yet ruthless.
Francis doesn't have much to do as Natural's suffering wife, but she's very good. The rest of the acting is fine, but you could have knocked me over with a feather when I learned that Babe was Regis Toomey and his wife was Jean Arthur! Arthur had none of the characteristics she later developed. Here, she's pure ingenue.
One of the most interesting things about these precode films is that because there is no Hayes code, the ending is not predictable as it is in many later films. The end of this kind of surprised me.
