Dotsthavesp I wanted to but couldn't!

Steineded How sad is this?

Acensbart Excellent but underrated film

Pacionsbo Absolutely Fantastic

SnoopyStyle Kitty Lane (Barbara Stanwyck) loses her father in a construction accident. With his dying breath, he tells her to be tough. She goes to work for her aunt as a waitress in a college town. The college boys are all after her. She falls for stiff medical student David despite clashing at first. His father is a powerful judge and his mother does not approve. David is going away with his mother for 6 months. He proposes marriage. The family pretends to go along in front of David but then the judge puts her away for violating the public morals act after refusing to accept his $5000 bribe. David is told that she took the payout when she's actually sentenced to prison work for ninety days. She joins the Follies upon released and becomes a big time star. Six years later, David comes looking for Kitty. His mother still refuses to accept "that shopworn woman".This is a rather simple and weak romance. The guy is stiff and his character is lacking. He is nothing special but she is another story. A young Barbara Stanwyck is starting to gain traction and one can see the reason. She has amazing screen presence and a powerful personality. She's a rising star and overpowers her acting partner. She is something to behold.

audiemurph TCM recently featured Barbara Stanwyck as their star of the month, giving them an opportunity to show a good number of the numerous films she pumped out very early in her career with Warner Brothers and Columbia. It is fascinating to watch several movies with the same star immediately one after another, because this way you get to determine how good an actor really is: do they become tiresome, or do they have staying power?Barbara Stanwyck was the real thing. Thanks to her understated skills, I found myself appreciating her more and more, the more films of hers I watched. By herself she could pull even the weakest script into something worth watching. "Shopworn", a typical quicky, was one of the best from those early days. Her range of talent was immense, playing, within this one film, a poverty-stricken waif and a successful Broadway star, playing happy and sad, incensed and appreciative, kindly and outraged, always with a dignity and slight detachment that are wondrous to watch. Again, it is sometimes only by watching multiple films of hers in succession to these nuances start to really make themselves known.This is a strong film, with a very good cast. Regis Toomey is very likable as Stanwyck's love interest, and Clara Blandick and Oscar Apfel, as Toomey's mother and her consort, are deliciously manipulative and evil. Zasu Pitts adds a little mild comedy to the proceedings, providing a nice contrast.Look for some very brave and quite interesting camera angles and panning sequences; one particularly good shot was taken of Stanwyck reaching under her bed for a suitcase - the camera is at floor level, shooting the scene from under the bed! Very unique and perhaps a little experimental for the time.I highly recommend this fast-paced little film; and highly recommend seeking out early Barbara Stanwyck gems like this!

Michael_Elliott Shopworn (1932) ** 1/2 (out of 4) Barbara Stanwyck plays Kitty Lane, a poor waitress who one days meets David Livingston (Regis Toomey) who is of course rich and comes from a respectable family. The two fall in love and decide to get married but his rather evil mother (Clara Blandick) will stop at nothing to keep them apart. Thinking he has left her, Kitty goes out to make something of herself. SHOPWORN is pretty predictable from start to finish but the attractive cast makes the film worth sitting through and especially since it runs a very fast 68-minutes. There's no question that the screenplay could have used a little work because everything that happens seems rather predictable and unoriginal even for 1932 standards. The poor girl being looked down upon by rich people is something we've seen many times and there's really nothing new done with it here. Even what happens to the character after she becomes famous is pretty standard stuff. What keeps the film moving along so well are the performances and especially the one from Stanwyck. She delivers a really well rounded performance as she perfectly nails both the tough and tender side of the character. Toomey is also quite good as the love interest and there's no question that Blandick does a very good job as the snake-hissing villain. Zasu Pitts is wasted in a supporting role but she's got one funny scene towards the start of the picture. The ending is one you'll see coming from a mile away and at times it gets so silly that I couldn't help but laugh but there's still enough going on here to make it worth viewing.

ksf-2 In her tenth film, Barbara Stanwyck is the poor, working girl (Kitty Lane) who only wants to marry the man she loves, but his snobby rich family keeps interfering. Filmed J-u-s-t before the production code came into being, they put her away on "morals charges". Regis Toomey (competent, but Mr. monotone) stars as David Livingston, who wants to marry Kitty, but doesn't have the guts to stand up to his family. They go their separate ways, but meet up again later, when Kitty has become the successful entertainer, although they don't make it clear just what she does for a living now; Wearing rings and fancy jewelry when they meet up again, she tells him "Careful Dave, I'm a notorious, woman, and you'll probably get yourself talked about!" Oscar Apfel (always played the judge or the police chief) and Clara Blandick (Mom Livingston) team up to stop the marriage, but it all works out in the end... One of Nick Grinde's first talkies as Director. He and Zasu Pitts (Dot) had been in silent movies for YEARS before this film. Fun film, no big surprises.