Night Waitress

1936 "She knew how to handle men...until love taught one man how to handle her!"
5.7| 0h57m| en| More Info
Released: 18 December 1936 Released
Producted By: RKO Radio Pictures
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Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
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Synopsis

Helen Roberts, who's on probation, goes back to work as a waitress at Torre's Fish Palace, a San Francisco waterfront dive. The customers are low characters trying to make time with Helen and ex-rum runners trying to make a dishonest dollar. Some of the latter, including Helen's unwelcome suitor Martin Rhodes, are after a mysterious, valuable hidden "cargo"; when violence erupts, Helen finds herself innocently involved, and is soon on the run from both cops and crooks.

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Reviews

ThedevilChoose When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.
Sameer Callahan It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.
Guillelmina The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.
Francene Odetta It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.
MartinHafer It sure is interesting seeing how times have changed. Throughout the first portion of the film, Martin (Gordon Jones) shamefully sexually harasses a waitress at a warf-side dive. Again and again and again, he asks her out and completely refuses to take NO for an answer...and HE ultimately turns out to be the hero in the story!! Yikes!!Helen (Margot Grahame) is a waitress in a restaurant catering to the local sea men. Despite having a rough crowd, she keeps her distance, as she's on probation and wants to be a good girl. Later, there is a gangland killing in the restaurant and the police immediately single her out because of her past. So, she does what any heroine in a movie does---she goes on the run and Martin helps her sort things out...and finds out that some hidden gold is involved. This is a great illustration of the saying "Don't try this at home!", as I think running from the law and solving the mystery is NOT the best way of handling things!!This movie has B-movie written all over it. It comes in at a hasty 57 minutes (typical of a B) and has a plot that is very familiar to the style of movie. Apart from the sexual harassment, the film is a competent and reasonably enjoyable picture from RKO...a studio that made a lot of Bs.
bkoganbing A couple of innocent people, Gordon Jones and Margot Grahame get caught up in an effort to move some stolen gold out of the country in Night Waitress. Jones is a schooner captain who is hired to move the stuff, cargo unknown to him. Grahame is a waitress working at Billy Gilbert's waterfront dive establishment who just gets caught up in it. She also gets caught up in Jones. Had she not been on probation the cops would never even been interested.This B picture from RKO boasts the presence of one movie legend, Anthony Quinn as one of the gangsters involved in the heist. Quite an ingenious place to hide the gold, almost in plain sight.Nothing particularly special about this one, but it's fast moving and exciting entertainment.
kidboots Passable crime movie from RKO featuring two actors who didn't quite make the grade. At least in her home country Margot Grahame was known as Britain's answer to Jean Harlow and dubbed the "Aluminium Blonde" as well as being their highest paid star but Hollywood didn't really want to know, even after her sterling performance in "The Informer". Besides her looks had more in common with Lucille Ball or Barbara Pepper. And Gordon Jones, even though he worked solidly from 1932 until 1963 (the year he died), was destined to have a very familiar face even if you couldn't remember his name.Helen Roberts (Grahame) is back at her waitressing job after a brush with the law and with the full support of Papa Torres (Billy Gilbert) who just wants to see her make good. How anyone could have cast Grahame as a probation girl is amazing - her posh tones seemed more at home in Buckingham Palace than Tony's Fish Palace!!! When not brushing off unwanted suitors she also has to put up with the whispered innuendos about her past which makes her particularly hardened to breezy sea Captain Marty Rhodes (Jones) who wants to get to know her better. He seems to be mixed up with some pretty shady characters who feel he can lead them to a gold shipment but, like Helen, he is really just an innocent bystander who doesn't know what the mysterious shipment he has been hired to deliver, is!!!The most interesting thing about this movie is the number of familiar faces in smaller roles, forget about the two leads. Don "Red" Barry of later "Red Ryder" fame is Rigo who is organising the gold cargo, Marc Lawrence (here billed as Laurence) is Dorne, a thug (what else!!), another thug is played by Anthony Quinn who happened to get a couple of good close-ups. There was also Willie Best as a bystander and the always good Frank Faylen, he of the thousand bit parts and Dobie Gillis's always exasperated father, playing a policeman in the crowd.
CMUltra The story itself is fine, concerning a waitress on probation and a seemingly shady guy. She suspects him as a gangster but he has a charm nonetheless.From there the plot is fast paced (the running time is only 57 minutes)and fairly predictable. The acting is average overall, though the leads (Grahame and Jones) are a cut above.Honestly though, for movie buffs, the background is just as interesting. Anthony Quinn runs around as a gangster. Some of the sets look familiar as well.Worth a watch!