# White Shoulders

White Shoulders is a lost 1931 American pre-Code comedy-drama film directed by Melville W. Brown and starring Mary Astor and Jack Holt, with major supporting roles by Ricardo Cortez and Sidney Toler. The film was produced and distributed by RKO Pictures. The screenplay by Jane Murfin and J. Walter Ruben was adapted from Rex Beach's short story, The Recoil.
The film touched on the topics of gold-digging, adultery, bigamy, gigolos, and theft. The rights to the story were optioned in late 1930, and the film went into production in March 1931. After approximately four weeks of filming, the film was screened in May.
A remake of the 1924 silent film entitled The Recoil, RKO released the film on June 6, 1931, and it did not perform well at the box office, making it yet another film by RKO to suffer a similar fate. Critically, it was a mixed batch of opinions, ranging from poor to very good. Most reviewers enjoyed at least some of the acting, but virtually all thought the plot was either too convoluted or simply implausible, although some at least gave it credit for its originality.

## Plot

Norma Selbee is a chorus girl trying to make it in New York City. Her fortunes are not going well, and she is flat broke and on the verge of starvation when she meets Gordon Kent. Kent has spent the last several years in the back woods, utilizing his mining engineering acumen to accumulate a large fortune of approximately $20 million. He has come to the big city looking for a good time, hopefully among the "white shoulders" of the fair damsels of the Big Apple. Upon meeting Norma, he falls head over heels for her and proposes on their first evening together. Norma is reluctant to agree, for she is not a gold-digger, and she is not in love with Kent. But she has no prospects, and she feels that she may come to love him in time, so she agrees, and the two are immediately married.
In a whirlwind of activity, Kent books them on a ship to Europe for their honeymoon which is leaving shortly. On the trans-Atlantic crossing, and upon their arrival on the continent, Kent showers Norma with gifts and fine living. Somehow, she still finds a way to feel unwanted by him. While she wishes that he would spend more time with her, rather than money on her, he also has a business he still has to run. When they travel to Paris, they run into an old acquaintance of Norma's, Lawrence Marchmont, who instantly understands a meal ticket when he sees one. As Kent is distracted by his business dealings, he begins to woo the lonely Norma. She at first resists his advances, but eventually succumbs to Marchmont's attentions, and the two run off together.
Devastated, Kent hires investigators to look into the background of the pair. It is discovered that Marchmont's real name is Tommy Pierce, a two-bit con artist who is wanted by the police in several countries. Kent also finds out that Norma's first husband, who Kent knew about, never legally divorced Norma, so technically she is a bigamist. Deciding to teach the pair a lesson, he pairs the private investigators to follow them and ensure that they cannot part from one another. It soon becomes apparent to Norma that the only thing that Marchmont/Pierce was interested in was her jewels, and she has to resume her chorus girl activities in order to support Marchmont/Pierce's drinking habit. However, when either of the two attempts to leave, they are returned to each other, under threat of turning them over to the police for arrest. There are only two problems with this plan: Kent is in love with Norma; and Norma has fallen in love with Kent.
Marchmont/Pierce thinks he has figured a way out of the unpleasant situation when Norma's first husband, Jim Selbee, turns up. The two plan a blackmail scheme to be hatched on Kent, only to have it foiled by Norma. With that plan spoiled, the two con-men turn to plan "B", deciding to abscond with Norma's jewels. The night of the robbery, as they are breaking into the safe, the pair argue, resulting in Marchmont/Pierce shooting Selbee, and killing him. Marchmont/Pierce is arrested for the murder, and with Selbee out of the way, Norma is free to return to Kent. She is reticent, due to her guilt over her relationship with Marchmont, but Kent convinces her to return, and the pair is reunited.

## Cast

(Cast list as per AFI database, and The RKO Story)
* Mary Astor - Norma Selbee
* Jack Holt - Gordon Kent
* Ricardo Cortez - Lawrence Marchmont
* Sidney Toler - William Sothern
* Kitty Kelly - Maria Fontaine
* Robert Keith - Jim Selbee
* Nicholas Soussanin - Head waiter