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PRESERVATION STATUS: Endangered. A beautiful Nitrate print exists at the UCLA Film Archive.

Paramount-Publix Corp. Distributed by: Paramount Publix Corp. January 24, 1931 (Copyright: Paramount Publix Corp>; January 23, 1931; LP1922). Sd (Western Electric New Process Noiseless Recording); b&w. 8 reels, 6,525 ft. 72-73 min. Passed by the National Board of Review.

Directed by: Frank Tuttle. Script: Viola Brothers Shore and Salisbury Field. Story: George Marion, Jr. Photographed by: Victor Milner. Edited by: Tay Malarkey.

CAST: Clara Bow ("Helen" Bunny O'Day), Norman Foster (Douglas Thayer), Stuart Erwin (Ole Olsen), Dixie Lee (Dodo), Harry Green (Maxie Mindil), Thelma Todd (Betty Royce), Kenneth Duncan (Curly), Mischa Auer (Romeo), Maurice Black (Happy) and G. Pat Collins (Charlie), William Davidson, Paul Nicholson, Frank Bagney.

COMEDY-DRAMA: New York usherette Helen "bunny" O'Day is attracted to Douglas Thayer, but refuses his offer of reward after she finds his lost cigarette case. When theater patron Ole Olsen asks her to take care of the apartment he just inherited while he is at sea, bunny agrees and is astonished to find the apartment on Park Avenue, complete with twelve rooms and a Rolls Royce. The superintendent sends her Charlie, whom she believes will be the butler, but who actually is a backer for the private gambling club that regularly takes place in a secret room in the apartment. Bunny is shocked, but stays when she sees that Douglas is one of the patrons. Bunny loses her job when her boss is robbed at the club one night during a hold-up. Douglas manages to retain some money Charlie had given Bunny, and with it she buys glamorous new clothes. Unknown to Bunny, Douglas is the leader of the bandits. When she rebuffs his amorous advances and insists that marriage is the only way he can touch her, Douglas marries her, seeing this as a way to live in an expensive apartment, and vows to his cohorts that he will divorce her the minute she turns into a "ball and chain." One night after Douglas claims he has a meeting to attend, Bunny dresses in her finest and returns to her old theater for a visit. She is introduced backstage to famous actress Betty Royce, who is making a public appearance with her famed million-dollar jewels. In the middle of Betty's speech, the lights go out and she is robbed, and Bunny sees Douglas in the crowd as she is leaving. At home, Douglas claims he was meeting someone to buy a diamond, and gives Bunny the diamond out of Betty's ring. While getting cigarettes from Douglas' coatpocket, Bunny finds Betty's empty ring and recognizes it as the source of her diamond. She is ready to confront Douglas when she overhears him talking to his cohorts about leaving town, because the police found out his wife visited Betty backstage the same night of the robbery. Bunny tries to keep him there, but when the police arrive, he escapes. Bunny is arrested as an accomplice and is prepared to take the blame for the robbery when Douglas appears and returns the jewels to the police. After doing time in jail, Douglas is released on parole and rejoins Bunny, who has become the manager of the theater, now owned by Ole Olsen. (All information from "The American Film Institute Catalog of Feature Films.")

Note: The working title of this film was Usherette. According to copyright records and Variety, some scenes were filmed on location in New York at a theater on Broadway and 66th Street, in Times Square Central Park, and on the elevated train from 155th Street to the Battery, and 6th Avenue. The unit filming tin New York returned in Nov. 1930, Variety incorrectly lists Clara Bow's character as Bernice O'Day." and Dixie Lee's character as "Dorothy Potter."


Click here for information about this title at the UCLA Film Archive.: Once in choose "Melvyl" database, then select "author" search and type in "Clara Bow".

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