Surprisingly fun George Raft vehicle - after seeing The Glass Key I was in an anti-Raft mood but he's very effective here. I wouldn't say "good" but he's so well cast it doesn't matter. He's a former gangster turned nightclub manager who is having a mid life crisis: he's attracted to a toff girl who used to live in his nightclub when it was a house, he's not sure he wants to do his job, he's got a crazy trashy ex who keeps causing him trouble, rival gangsters want to buy him out, he's taking self improvement lessons. It's an extremely likeable, engaging character and forms a strong core for the movie.
Raft's sex appeal is greatly exploited by the director - the opening scenes have great emphasis on him combing his hair, putting on clothes, hopping in and out of the bath while nude (this is pre-Code). Raft is helped by having a very strong support cast: Constance Cummings (as the classy girl he loves) looks pretty and is mostly good but is given a scene where she's allowed to monologue for far too long; Alison Skipworth is great fun as Raft's elocution teacher who winds up having a big night out with him in order to impress Cummings (she has a hilarious drunk scene); Roscoe Karns is solid as Raft's Man Friday; and especially there's Mae West, in her film debut, as a crony of Raft's.
Every line of West's is gold, and there's some stand out comic set pieces such as West winding up in bed with Skipworth both hungover, and West inviting Skipworth to work with her and the latter assuming West is a prostitute. It's a shame Raft didn't get to work again with West the two form a strong combination as their personas clearly came from the same world.
It's fast paced and unpretentious, Cummings gets turned on by Raft being violent, there's an unpleasant scene where Raft forces himself on Cummings, the abrupt ending was effective.
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