City of Chance (1940) User Reviews (6)

Even with a weak leading lady, the film is quite good for a B.

[planktonrules · 7/10 · 11 September 2022]

"City of Chance" is a B-movie, as it runs less than an hour and was, like other Bs, made on the cheap. But it also is surprisingly good...and is directed by Ricardo Cortez of all people.

The film stars Lynn Bari as a nosey reporter who is in love with a guy who owns a high class illegal gambling joint. Instead of trying to get him to live without breaking the law, she is trying to get him shut down by working under cover with the police. But again and again, the boss and his old friend (Donald Woods and C. Aubrey Smith) seem to be one step ahead of her...and pretty much everyone else in the film!

The story is filled with interesting characters and small stories...most of which are quite entertaining. As for Bari, I felt her role was a bit broad and lacked subtlety....but I could easily look past this and enjoyed the movie immensely...and it proves B does NOT stand for bad movie!

The Business Of Gambling

[boblipton · 7/10 · 29 September 2023]

It's a busy night at the gambling house that Donald Woods runs with old-line, genial gambler C. Aubrey Smith. Besides the drunks, the woman who thinks the way to get her husband to stop gambling is to slip some crooked dice and 'discover' them at the table, closing the place down, Eddie Marr, who alternately tries to buy his share from Woods and kill him, and the threat of police raids, Lynn Bari shows up. She knows Woods from when they were both Texans growing up. Now she's a reporter, there to get some stories and cover the raid her paper has arranged in its campaign to shut down gambling.

It's a genial and enjoyable B from Fox's B division, and besides the always-delightful Smith, director Ricardo Cortez has directed a busy movie, full of incidents and people who are naughtier than they should be -- except for Smith and Woods. Cortez was born Jacob Krantz, so of course he became a Latin Lover type when he hit Hollywood. Sound revealed his Lower East Side accent, so he changed his star persona, moved from MGM to Warners, and had a nice career there. By the middle of the 1930s, the demand for someone who could play a hood or Sam Spade was on the downturn, so his acting career started to dry up. In 1939, he started to direct, and turned out some nifty B movies over the next couple of years.

By the middle of the 1940s, he was working on Poverty Row, so he quit the movies and returned to Wall Street, where he prospered, returning to the movies occasionally whenever John Ford wanted him for a role. He died in 1977 at the age of 76, having outwitted them all.

Rare, yes but that's all.

[searchanddestroy-1 · 25 July 2010]

I have never seen a Ricardo Cortez's film except this one. It seems it is hard to catch. I don't say it is a film noir, not really as I mean. Rather a sort of mix up between film noir and comedy. A story around a gambling house and a woman reporter. I have seen a thousand films of this kind in my life. I will forget it in a few days. But if you can watch this feature, don't miss it. It is worthwhile for a movie buff like me. I don't know the players, but I certainly have seen them in other films before.

Well folks, that's all you can say about it. Pure product of the thirties and early forties B pictures.

Underwhelming short B-- 'noir' movie. Mothing much to see.

[britlektorcomenius · 3/10 · 4 January 2024]

Underwhelming.

Very limited and static production - basically everything takes place in one set - almost a quasi-theatre piece. The only virtue is its short (56 mins). Mixture of very light 'noir' and some 'screwball' comedy. (The words 'screwball', 'zany' and 'swashbuckling' are personal turn-offs.)

The lead actress. Lynn Bari is very competent and veteran C. Aubrey Smith try their best. *If you don't recognise the latter's name, your brain will click when you see his picture.

There is a rather long lead-in, even for such a short film, and that turned me off almost in itself. The plot, if it had been dealt with more 'noirishly' with less of the screwball element, might have worked better.

Overall, one to skirt round.

Cool film Directed by the great Ricardo Cortez!!

[Sanbrunoboy1 · 9/10 · 7 April 2022]

I loved one of Cortez's earlier directed Films staring Glen Ford and Richard Conte in one of the very first movies called "Heaven wit a Barbed Wire Fence" which I highly recommend and this one is as entertaining. This one "City of Chance".. The familiar story of a Country girl moves to the big city of New York and dreams of being a big time Newspaper Reporter .She gets a newspaper.job then she try's to Crack a story about a Shady gambling spot aka Casino well you gots to watch it for the rest my friend.

"In here, we refer to the sucker as the customer."

[mark.waltz · 5/10 · 20 May 2021]

If there was ever evidence that character actor C. Aubrey Smith was the influence of Commander McBragg on the "Tennessee Tuxedo" Saturday morning cartoon, it is presented in this movie. Even though he had been deceased for years, his commanding presence was felt through reruns of his movies on late night TV, so it's easy to understand why a cartoon creator would utilize his presence for a memorable character. He's a proprietor of a gambling establishment, and for those he likes, he tries to convince them not to bet on horses or play at the roulette wheel. But for the pompous wealthy customers who comes into his establishment, it's obvious that he could care less if they lose their shirts.

This enjoyable programmer is a mixture of comedy and crime. There's also a bit of romance with the arrival of Texas rich girl Lynn Bari, searching for Donald Woods for mysterious reasons, obviously suffering from a gambling problem. Smith discovered that she is actually a reporter out to expose his crooked establishment, and sets out to stop her.

"I've never found a drink as intoxicating as a beautiful woman", the flirtatious Smith tells Bari, oozing charm but armed with suspicion. The opening narration by Jack Carson gives us a little tour of New York society, having started the film with a little bit of Elmer Bernstein's classic "Street Scene". The supporting cast has many familiar faces including Grady Sutton as Bari's escort, Jack Norton in his usual drunken mode and Mantan Moreland. Fast moving and over before you know it, this is a perfect little B feature, not at all striving for awards, but packing in a lot of entertainment in just an hour.