Genre: Drama
Director: Lionel Barrymore
Writers: Jo Swerling
Producers: Harry Cohn, Frank Fouce
Cast: Barbara Stanwyck as Barbara O’Neill,Ricardo Cortez, Monroe Owsley, Sally Blane
Release Date: 6 March 1931
Synopsis: A taxi dancer with a jealous husband finds herself falling for a wealthy client.
Distributor: Columbia Pictures
Ray’s Review
For her next film, Barbara returned to Columbia for a film that was originally called Roseland, then Anybody’s Girl, before they settled on the title of Ten Cents a Dance. This was the seventh, and last film directed by actor Lionel Barrymore. Unfortunately he was suffering from crippling arthritis that was eventually to confine him to a wheelchair. He was taking medication that caused him to fall asleep during the shooting, and as Barbara commented, “As a performer, you just had to try harder.”
She played a dance hall hostess who knew how to handle a tough customer. “What’s a guy got to do to dance with you gals?” asked one obnoxious customer, to which our heroine snarled, “All ya need is a ticket and some courage.” This was typical of Barbara in these films of the early 1930’s, always ready with a crack, and showing that she knew how to handle any man.
Her vulnerability occasionally surfaced, which is how she makes the mistake of marrying a weakling clerk (Monroe Owsley).
He embezzles money from his boss, Ricardo Cortez who just happened to be a customer at the dance hall, and has fallen in love with Barbara, incidentally this is the only time that she ever played a character called Barbara.
She realizes that she is married to a total loser, but borrows the money so that she can save him from jail and tells him that she wants a divorce, knowing that his boss is waiting for her.