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Men of Chance

1931 film

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Men of Chance is a 1931 American pre-Code drama film directed by George Archainbaud, starring Ricardo Cortez, Mary Astor, and John Halliday.

01Plot

A destitute Marthe Preston is in dire straits in Paris until gambler Richard Dorval comes to her aid. In gratitude, she agrees to a scheme of Dorval's to seduce and wed his rival, "Diamond Johnny" Silk, then help ruin Johnny's horse-racing business interests.

Marthe's inside information enables Dorval and an accomplice, bookie Joe Farley, to bribe Johnny's jockeys to deliberately lose races or to help them influence the odds. Johnny learns the truth and demands she leave. Martha has fallen in love with her husband, however, so she pretends to go along with a plot to poison Johnny's horse, double-crossing Dorval and rejoicing in Johnny's triumph.

02Cast

Uncredited:

03Critical reception

Mordaunt Hall of the The New York Times wrote, "The acting of Mary Astor and Ricardo Cortez in the principal rôles is a triumph of mind over some pretty painful dialogue." Hall also commented that the racetrack scenes were well done and captured some of the excitement of the track.

The Film Daily gave the film a more positive review, and described it as "an unpretentious but thoroughly entertaining story", and wrote that Ricardo Cortez and Mary Astor "do some of their best work."

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Sources and credits

This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article Men of Chance, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.

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