Playing Around (1930)
THE SCREEN; The Good-Looking Gunman.
By Mordaunt Hall
Published: March 31, 1930
Sandwiched in between interesting news reel subjects and an orchestra delivering stirring selections from the opera, "Orpheus," there is at the Warners' Strand a talking picture reveling in the title of "Playing Around." It hardly can be accused of being an adult diversion. It has a comely girl, named Sheba Miller, played by Alice White; a prepossessing young man called Jack, acted by William Bakewell, and a reprehensible person known as Nicky Solomon, impersonated by Chester Morris.
Sheba becomes a subject of gossip for the wagging tongues of the tenement house in which she lives with her father. This fact does not cause her much annoyance, for by that time she is enjoying the company of Nicky, who has diverse ways of getting money when he is out of funds. Nicky, moreover, is the owner of an expensive roadster, and it is to be presumed that Sheba likes being seen going hither and thither in the car at most of the dark hours.
Although this girl wins a popularity contest, one is impelled to think that she does so through her looks and figure rather than through her intellect. Both she and Nicky find the vernacular more convenient in retailing their thoughts and impressions.
Nicky takes Sheba to a restaurant where she consumes a "half mile" of spaghetti, a dish which is one of her favorites. The bill comes to $3, but Nicky has not even that amount in his pocket. He is supposed to be a glib talker, or Joe, the restaurant proprietor, is an old fool, for he (Nicky) not only succeeds in owing the bill but also in borrowing $100 from Joe.
Things are running none too smoothly for Sheba, for her old father objects to her staying out late and throwing Jack overboard for some unknown. He wants to meet this Nicky. He does quite unexpectedly, for Nicky, being short of ready cash, decides to add to his list of crimes by holding up the cigar store where Sheba's father is employed. The old man turns to get some cigars, and, then suddenly perceiving that Nicky has intentions on the cash register, he tries to seize a revolver, but the desperate Nicky is too quick for him. There is a pistol report and the old man crumples up behind the counter.
So the moral to this tale is: Never run around with a man you really don't know in a flashy car, for he may turn out to be as bad as Nicky.
But let it not be supposed that Sheba's father died. He doesn't. The shot only caused a flesh wound, and great is the joy of Sheba when she hears the good news. By that time she is only too ready to listen to Jack's proposal of marriage and live on the $35 a week he earns as a soda fountain attendant.
Mr. Morris acts his part commendably. Miss White is acceptable for such a narrative and Mr. Bakewell makes Jack a character whose brain power is at least accelerated in the closing scenes.
The Good-Looking Gunman.
PLAYING AROUND, with Alice White, Chester Morris, William Bakewell, Richard Carlyle, Marion Byron, Maurice Black, Lionel Belmore, Ann Brody and Nellie V. Nichols, based on a story by Vina Delmar??? directed by Mervyn LeRoy; Universal sound news reel; Vitaphone subjects with Barry and Whitledge, Eddie Buzzell and others. At Warners' Strand.
