Times Square Lady Film Review

This MGM second feature film is a bit of a mess with an unfocused plot and a dimwitted ending but it was primarily a vehicle to see how Robert Taylor did. He had just come out of the Leading Man factory all clean and slick like a newly cracked egglette and MGM was leading him through his paces - loan him out in a few films, small parts in a few films and leading man in B pictures like this. It must have gone ok because in the following year he was leading man in Camille with Greta Garbo. Here he gets Virginia Bruce who I would watch over Garbo any time. Corn fed middle American girl from North Dakota, her high cheekbones always fascinate me as do her milky eyes. A favorite of mine in the B Actress World. Taylor comes across as authentic as a Renoir in a Hallmark store. He was much better years later when he lost that slick sheen.

Toni Bradley (Virginia Bruce) inherits her father's businesses when he suddenly dies. She hardly knew him while living in Iowa with relatives and quickly finds out her father's businesses were on a thin line of the law - dog racing, a hockey team, a nightclub and some gambling rackets. The managers of these establishments set out to con her into thinking they are all losing money except the nightclub run by Steve Gordon (Robert Taylor), They want her to sell out for a small amount and then they sell it for $300,000. Gordon is given the job of romancing her and persuading her that a woman should not be in this sort of business. I kept waiting for her to tell them to screw off and take over but it doesn't go that way. She falls for the slug.

In the film as support is the always enjoyable Nat Pendleton as the buffoonish servant of Gordon's, Helen Twelvetrees as one of his girls, Isabel Jewell as Toni's best friend and Pinky Tomlin as more comedy relief. Pinky was a musician and song-writer who played with Louis Armstrong at one point. He sings his big hit here - "The Object of My Affection.". This could and should have been better - there was the kernel of a good tough plot but it kind of melts away when they spend five minutes trying to milk a cow as Pinky sings to it.