Shopworn (1932)

Shopworn (1932) | Barbara StanwyckShopworn (1932)

Genre: Drama/Romance
Director: Nicholas Grinde
Writers: Jo Swerling and Robert Riskin
Producers:  Harry Cohn
Cast:   Barbara Stanwyck as Kitty Lane, Regis Toomey, Zasu Pitts
Release Date: 25 March 1932
Synopsis: A waitress falls for a wealthy young man but has to fight his mother to find happiness.
Distributor: Columbia Pictures

Ray’s Review


Barbara stayed at Columbia for her next film, she needn’t have bothered, Shopworn was a second rate programmer that brought little or no credit to anyone involved in it.

It is a very contrived soap opera about a small-town waitress who eventually and unbelievably, finds fame as an actress.

She is romanced by a medical student, the uncharismatic Regis Toomey, who even at 30 years old looked middle aged, he certainly wasn’t leading man material and it wasn’t long before he became a busy character actor. The medical student becomes a surgeon, but before the inevitable happy ending Barbara has to put up with his jealous, possessive mother, played by Clara Blandick, (Auntie Em in The Wizard of Oz).

I rarely watch this dreary sudser, but her next film was definitely a step up in the right direction.

Note: Ray’s Review features in this website courtesy of Ray Johnson, as published in britmovie.co.uk website’s forum legendary Barbara Stanwyck thread. Ray also manages the best forum on Barbara Stanwyck, Yahoo Groups’s Miss Barbara Stanwyck, click on the Forum menu item to be redirected.