Romance of the Underworld

Mary Astor is a hostess at a clip joint. Her mother has just died, and her 'boyfriend, Ben Bard has taken her entire bankroll. When the police raid the joint under detective Robert Elliott, she tiredly starts out to the paddy wagon. Elliott, however, chucks her under the chin, tells her to keep her chin up, and slips her $10. She does, and eventually becomes the secretary of businessman John Boles, who marries her. Eventually Bard shows up, takes her wedding ring and a bracelet, and demands $6,000 or he'll tell Boles about her past.

It's a quick programmer directed by Irving Cummings, in this period one of Fox Pictures' underrated workhorses. The performers all have small bits of business that they perform, like Ben Bard's shining his shoes by rubbing them against the back of his trousers. This being 1928, now-forgotten cameraman Conrad Wells -- he died in 1930 at the age of 32 in the same plane crash that killed Kenneth Hawks -- keeps the camera moving, usually with pull-outs from close-ups.

The copy I looked at was in poor shape, but this acerbic little morality tale is fairly typical of Cummings when he wasn't filling in for other directors. At 68 minutes, it's pretty cynical.