Michael O'Keefe Barbara Stanwyck's fourth movie and famed director Frank Capra presents her the vehicle to start her ride to stardom. Jerry Strong(Ralph Graves)is the son of a wealthy railroad magnet(George Fawcett), but he angers dear old dad by not wanting to follow in his footsteps. Jerry wants to be an artist, although hasn't found his perfect model to pose for him. On a middle-of-the-night drive, the younger Strong rescues the lovely Kay Arnold(Stanwyck)sneaking out of a party. Yes, she describes herself as a "party girl"...this is the mid 30s, OK. Strong has found his model and Miss Arnold really wants the money to pose. It takes a while for a romance to begin smoldering; about the same time Jerry's father demands he leave the girl with the bad reputation alone or more or less lose his inheritance. It is not hard to recognize the beauty of the young Miss Stanwyck. My favorite sequence is watching her through a raindrop soaked window changing into sleepwear. This is a passionate romance drama, of course filmed in Black & White. Ninety-nine minutes passes quickly. Rounding out the cast: Lowell Sherman, Marie Prevost and Nance O'Neil.

DrScore 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.

st-shot Frank Capra's pre-code early talkie involving class consciousness and loose flappers is a rather slow going, sloppy melodrama that is salvaged by the fresh performances of Barbara Stanwyck, Marie Prevost and Lowell Sherman. Poor little rich boy Ralph Strong aspires to be a great painter but feels lost and empty amid his roaring twenties hanger ons bent on pleasure. He escapes them one night to clear his head and meets Kay Arnold, a professional escort, rowing a boat to escape the same madness from a yacht party. She agrees to model for Strong who eventually falls for her but is rejected by his family due to her past and station. After a visit from his mother Kay sacrifices her future happiness by agreeing to run off with one of Strong's party animal buddies.There's plenty of racy double entendre dialog in Ladies, convincingly uttered by the perfectly dissipated Lowell Sherman and low rent good time girls Stanwyck and the tragic Marie Prevost who all but steals the film in a supporting role. Ralph Graves as Strong on the other hand is wimpy and washed out, behaving at times like a sulking child.Capra and his regular cameraman Joseph Walker offer some beautiful tableaux that evoke the jazz age as well as beautifully lit atmospheric scenes of sensual tension. He allows these scenes to lag however and it doesn't help matters that Stanwyck and Graves lack chemistry. Other Capra tropes like the mawkishly sentimental scenes involving the parents and the lovers and the requisite redemption at film's end take whatever life Ladies of Leisure has and drowns it in a tearjerker ocean.

marcuspi I suppose the phrase "Women of Leisure" means prostitutes. I didn't know this before I watched this film, and actually I didn't even look at the title until the movie was almost over. If there was some hint that the girls were prostitutes, it would have made a lot more sense that the man's family didn't want her. Or the fact that Barbara Stanwyk's character was 'burst into tears' in love after only three days with the guy, even though he treated her like hell. The room mate was great. Especially in the restaurant scene when she asked her date if she looked fat, then proceeded to tell the waiter to add gobs and gobs of oil. All in all, you gotta like this movie, and Barbara Stanwyk. How she can attempt suicide by jumping in the harbor and wake up with perfect hair, I'll never know.