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.

After starring in two flops, Barbara Stanwyck found herself with a Columbia contract (at that time not something to brag about) at the same time that Frank Capra, Columbia's whiz kid director was casting "Ladies of Leisure" from the 1924 play called "Ladies of the Evening". Stanwyck was not Capra's idea of Kay, the shopworn heroine and Stanwyck, who had had some awful filmic experiences (and being married to egomaniac Frank Fay didn't help) was unco-operative and had no confidence so she and Capra initially clashed. She apparently snapped "Oh Hell, you don't want any part of me" and walked out but Capra looked at some earlier tests and realised how wrong he was and a marvellous film team was born. Released in 1930, the movie became Columbia's greatest box office success to date with Stanwyck and Capra earning the highest praise.The story was a blend of "Pygmalion" and "Camille" with Jerry (Ralph Graves) becoming bored one night with yet another riotous party (Lowell Sherman as Bill has a marvelous scene when he paints a picture on a party-goers back!!) drives down to the waterfront and encounters hard boiled Kay (Barbara Stanwyck). She is also escaping from a boat party - she is a "party girl" and proud of it!! She is amazed that he is such a gentleman - "30 miles and not even a pass!!" Jerry is a painter and thinks he has found the perfect model for his picture of "Hope". As the sessions progress Kay finds she has deep feelings for him and during a heavy rainstorm when he convinces her to stay the night (again he is a proper gentleman), she awakes dewy eyed but he is all business.Jerry's mother (Nance O'Neill) is all set to like her but a chance meeting with bubbly Dot (Marie Prevost) convinces her that Kay is only a gold-digger and when she finally meets Kay, she is already convinced that she will bring Jerry down. To leave Jerry free to reconcile with his parents Kay goes to Havana with Bill, but on the boat attempts suicide when she can no longer keep up the charade. Stanwyck builds the dramatic intensity as the movie progresses, initially she is a good time party girl, shallow and glib but you start to see the deeper feelings come out. It wouldn't be a Stanwyck movie without a scene of high emotion and she definitely has a couple of those, especially her scene with Nance O'Neill.Another person who counted "Ladies of Leisure" as a milestone was Jo Swerling. She had been churning out poverty row productions for Columbia and confidently convinced Capra he could make "a silk purse out of a sow's ear" - she ended up becoming Harry Cohn's right hand woman!!!Highly Recommended.

Slow-moving, over-long hundred minutes that a few years ago would have been dubbed a "woman's" picture. Though directed by the legendary Frank Capra, too many scenes labor at getting the point across-- the overnight episode, the many scenes of Kay {Stanwyck} "pining" for her man. Frankly, I found myself hitting "fast forward" to eliminate some of the redundancies. Now, I'm not opposed to love stories; I'm just opposed to the needless stretching of a point, and this film has too many over-worked scenes. Too bad that the sparkling opening scene proves misleading. My guess is that movie makers in 1929 were still feeling their way through the new sound technology, even the talented Capra. Certainly, his later films show both the economy and pacing generally absent from this early effort.At least the young Stanwyck gets to show her acting chops as she runs the emotional gamut from great joy to deep sadness. It's quite a performance in an especially demanding role. The trouble is her co-star Ralph Graves has all the charm and appeal of dried cement. Next to Stanwyck, he's a deadening presence and makes drawn-out scenes seem endless. As a supposed artist, he's simply miscast. Unfortunately, he also sounds like one of those silent screen stars unable to deliver the new technology in convincing fashion. Too bad that the enlivening Prevost and the amusing Sherman don't have more scenes to boost the energy level.Nonetheless, there is one scene that almost redeems the rest. Mrs. Strong (Nance O'Neill) visits Kay to break off the disreputable Kay's engagement to her son Jerry (Graves). In an ace performance, Strong enters as a proud, assured woman of wealth and breeding, convinced that son Jerry is about to make a huge mistake marrying a floozie. However, as Kay's noble nature emerges under a common concern for Jerry's wellbeing, Mom begins to see past Kay's dubious reputation just as Jerry has. The emotional stages each moves through toward a mutual respect proves quite compelling. It's a marvelously written and performed sequence, full of nuance and conflicting emotion, and in my view the film's real centerpiece. Anyway, for those interested, the movie now stands mainly as an early look (before her teeth were fixed) at one of the screen's outstanding personalities.

Barbara Stanwyck looked sweet and innocent, even though her character is supposed to have been around.For someone making only her fourth movie, she was a treat to watch, and not just because of her looks. She gave a terrific performance.Others have criticized Ralph Graves, in his twelfth year of film acting, but I thought he was marvelously realistic, giving a wonderful under-acted performance.Jimmy Cagney said when he, and some others, came to California with their under-acting, they changed Hollywood. Graves might have been just ahead of his time.Lowell Sherman was surely the pluperfect movie cad. In this film, too, he gave a superb performance.Marie Prevost, though, stole the show ... well, she at least came in a close second to Stanwyck. Her brash, brassy character was funny, touching, adorable ... even if she wasn't someone a young man might want to bring home to mother.Again there was a corny, silly telling of the story via a newspaper headline that surely could have been better told some other way; but, over all, this movie is a good story, well told and well acted, and a great look at its time in history.By the way, a note to Yard Bird: Most likely the reason it was made in silent and sound versions was to be sure every theater could play it. At the time, not all theaters had yet converted to sound.It was the sound version that played in May of 2009 on Turner Classic Movies. I would guess it is now available for purchase.Added early on 7 October 2017: In fact, "Ladies of Leisure" is available on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJ8HmUcuJfU