Playing Around

Working class stenographer Sheba Miller (Alice White) thinks she's heading for a dull, luxury-less married life with her Regular Joe beau, Jack (William Bakewell), a soda jerk that works for Sheba's father, cigar store owner Pa Miller (Richard Carlyle). Trying to show Sheba a good time on his meager earnings, Jack takes her to an exclusive underworld nightclub, The Pirate's Den. Realizing he does not have the dough-re-mi for the Den, Jack tries to leave when Sheba defiantly enters a "knees contest" judged by gentlemanly gangster Nicky Solomon (Chester Morris). Nicky selects Sheba for the silver cup by slipping a garter on her thigh, and the rest is sparks and swoons. Sheba promptly defies Pa and leaves Jack in the cold and hitches her star to Nicky. But smooth-talking Nicky has a secret he has less jack than Jack, but is desperate to do anything to change that -- including robbing Pa's cigar store!

• crime
• drama
• musical
• romance