''She Couldn't Say No'' is a 1930 American Pre-Code drama which stars

Winnie Lightner Winnie Lightner (born Winifred Josephine Reeves; September 17, 1899 – March 5, 1971) was an American stage and motion picture actress. Perhaps best known as the man-hungry Mabel in ''Gold Diggers of Broadway'' (1929), Lightner was often typ ...

, fresh from her success in ''

Gold Diggers of Broadway ''Gold Diggers of Broadway'' is a 1929 American pre-Code musical comedy film directed by Roy Del Ruth and starring Winnie Lightner and Nick Lucas. Distributed by Warner Bros., the film is the second all-talking, all-Technicolor feature-length fi ...

'' (1929). It was adapted from a play by Benjamin M. Kaye. An aspiring singer ends up in a love triangle with a gangster and a socialite.

Synopsis

Winnie Harper (Lightner) is a nightclub entertainer. This club is owned by a notorious gangster named Big John (Marshall). Jerry Casey (Morris), a gangster, begins dating Winnie and becomes her manager in an attempt to go straight. Jerry manages to put Winnie in a fancy society nightclub. Morris, however, falls in love with Iris, a rich customer (Eilers). In order to be able to buy gifts worthy of his new socialite girlfriend, and also to get money for Winnie's upcoming revue, Jerry asks Big John for another job. Jerry tells Winnie about his love for Iris but she thinks that Iris is not serious about their relationship. Later on, Jerry gets arrested and Winnie pays his bail, but is broken-hearted when Jerry leaves her to return to Iris. Winnie, with the help of Tommy Blake her pianist (Arthur), lands a job in a revue and attempts to forget Jerry. Nevertheless, when she hears that Jerry is in trouble with his fellow gang members, she goes to try to help him.

Cast

as Winnie Harper *

Chester Morris John Chester Brooks Morris (February 16, 1901 – September 11, 1970) was an American stage, film, television, and radio actor. He had some prestigious film roles early in his career, and received an Academy Award nomination for ''Alibi'' ( ...

as Jerry Casey * Sally Eilers as Iris * Johnny Arthur as Tommy Blake, Harper's pianist * Tully Marshall as Big John * Louise Beavers as Cora

Songs

All songs were performed by Lightner. * "Watching My Dreams Go By", lyrics by

Al Dubin Alexander Dubin (June 10, 1891 – February 11, 1945) was an American lyricist. He is best known for his collaborations with the composer Harry Warren. Life Al Dubin came from a Russian Jewish family that emigrated to the United States from Swi ...

, music by Joe Burke * "A Darn Fool Woman Like Me", Al Dubin and Joe Burke * "Bouncing the Baby Around", Al Dubin and Joe Burke * "Ping Pongo" * "The Poison Kiss of That Spaniard"

Preservation status

''She Couldn't Say No'' is now considered a

lost film A lost film is a feature or short film that no longer exists in any studio archive, private collection, public archive or the U.S. Library of Congress. Conditions During most of the 20th century, U.S. copyright law required at least one copy o ...

, but the soundtrack survives intact on

Vitaphone Vitaphone was a sound film system used for feature films and nearly 1,000 short subjects made by Warner Bros. and its sister studio First National from 1926 to 1931. Vitaphone was the last major analog sound-on-disc system and the only one th ...

disks.

Notes

External links