Gambling on the High Seas (1940)

Found out that Jane Wyman's 30's and early 40 pictures were interesting, so caught this dark horse recently. She does that snappy dialog like no other. There was a lot more of it in some of the detective venues she did for a while ("Crime by Night," "Private Detective"). Old story of an actress/actor getting started in a type, doing it well, and then getting stuck there. It's a wonder they break out, but we know she did. After being featured in this type of picture, Ms. Wyman moved up to better ones, playing the female star's girlfriend and similar for a while. Always strong, more energetic and assertive than her later starring dramatic roles. Of course, there are others of interest in the subject picture. It's a programmer actually, with some good actors on their way up. Those can be a bit of a find at times. The Gilbert Roland character was a change from what we have gotten used to seeing from him. Low key, understated performance. Kind of a relief from the more typical volatile crime boss type. Interesting picture to me for these reasons.