Erin O'Brien Moore was a well known stage actress but Hollywood couldn't find much for her to do. There was the supportive wife of "Black Legion", a small but effective part as the inspiration for "Nana" in "Life of Emil Zola" and the lovesick nurse in Shirley Temple's "Our Little Girl". She was given almost as much fanfare (said in a sarcastic manner!!) as the very understated Dorothy Wilson. Wilson was a secretary to director Gregory La Cava when he cast her in "The Age of Consent" and until she retired (too soon) she very really conveyed the angst and sensitivity of troubled teenage girls.
Phillip Eden (Richard Dix) has a gambling problem but he also has a little daughter who thinks he is the moon and the stars. Sometimes they are "in the dough" but more often subsisting on leftovers, but Alice (Edith Fellows) wouldn't have it any other way. When a discarded mistress (Shirley Grey) seeks to get even by informing his ex-wife, aloof, haughty Florence (Moore) of the whereabouts of his child, Phillip ties her to a chair and beats a hasty retreat, with Alice, to Italy. The police soon catch up with him and he is charged with murder!!! It seems that while Berenice was tied to the chair a faulty gas jet caused her death and he is sentenced to 15 years.
Years later Jennie, Alice's old nurse, visits Phillip with bad news about Alice. True to her nature, Florence is making her life a misery and in addition to forbidding her to marry the boy she loves, she has sapped Alice's spirit, leaving her a bed ridden invalid. It's a pretty preposterous story but Richard Dix, as usual, brings believability to his role of the irresponsible dreamer. He escapes from prison and as "Uncle John" tries to help the melancholy Alice (Wilson) recapture her "joie de vive". He also meets Alice's young man (Bruce Cabot) and at the end stakes "his greatest gamble" in an effort to help them find happiness.
In the wrong hands it could have been maudlin but with the always excellent Dix, Moore and Wilson, the gamble pays off!!
Phillip Eden (Richard Dix) has a gambling problem but he also has a little daughter who thinks he is the moon and the stars. Sometimes they are "in the dough" but more often subsisting on leftovers, but Alice (Edith Fellows) wouldn't have it any other way. When a discarded mistress (Shirley Grey) seeks to get even by informing his ex-wife, aloof, haughty Florence (Moore) of the whereabouts of his child, Phillip ties her to a chair and beats a hasty retreat, with Alice, to Italy. The police soon catch up with him and he is charged with murder!!! It seems that while Berenice was tied to the chair a faulty gas jet caused her death and he is sentenced to 15 years.
Years later Jennie, Alice's old nurse, visits Phillip with bad news about Alice. True to her nature, Florence is making her life a misery and in addition to forbidding her to marry the boy she loves, she has sapped Alice's spirit, leaving her a bed ridden invalid. It's a pretty preposterous story but Richard Dix, as usual, brings believability to his role of the irresponsible dreamer. He escapes from prison and as "Uncle John" tries to help the melancholy Alice (Wilson) recapture her "joie de vive". He also meets Alice's young man (Bruce Cabot) and at the end stakes "his greatest gamble" in an effort to help them find happiness.
In the wrong hands it could have been maudlin but with the always excellent Dix, Moore and Wilson, the gamble pays off!!