Discussion of "Ten Cents a Dance"

Ten Cents a Dance (1931) is an American pre-Code romantic drama directed by Lionel Barrymore and starring Barbara Stanwyck, Ricardo Cortez, Monroe Owsley, and Sally Blane.

Barbara O'Neill (Stanwyck) works as a taxi dancer at the Palais de Dance, a dance hall in New York City. Bradley Carlton, a wealthy patron gives Barbara $100 because he enjoys her company.

When Barbara discovers that Eddie Miller, a tenant at the same boarding house in which she lives is about to skip town because he is behind on his rent, she gives him the $100. Barbara asks Bradley to provide Eddie with a job, which he agrees to do. It isn't too long before Eddie and Barbara fall in love and Barbara quits the dance hall at Eddie's insistence.

Eddie grows dissatisfied with his life and starts to gamble and embezzle money from Bradley's company. Everything comes crumbling down and Eddie and Barbara's marriage is in trouble.

Will Eddie and Barbara work out their financial and marital problems? And what about Bradley? Where does he fit in?

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