Plot
The film tells the story of "Marky" (Temple), whose father gives her to a gangster-run gambling operation as a "marker" (collateral) for a bet. When the man loses his bet and commits suicide, the gangsters are left with the girl on their hands. They decide to keep her temporarily and use her to help pull off one of their fixed races, naming her the owner of the horse to be used in the race.
Marky is sent to live with bookie Sorrowful Jones (Menjou). Initially upset about being forced to look after the girl, the gangster eventually begins to develop a father-daughter relationship with her. His fellow gangsters become fond of her and begin to fill the roles of her extended family. Bangles (Dell), the girlfriend of gang kingpin Big Steve (Bickford) also begins to care for Marky. Being around the gang has a somewhat bad influence on the child, and she begins to develop a cynical nature and a wide vocabulary of gambling terminology and slang.
Read more about this topic: Little Miss Marker
Famous quotes containing the word plot:
“Trade and the streets ensnare us,
Our bodies are weak and worn;
We plot and corrupt each other,
And we despoil the unborn.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“Those blessed structures, plot and rhyme—
why are they no help to me now
I want to make
something imagined, not recalled?”
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“Persons attempting to find a motive in this narrative will be prosecuted; persons attempting to find a moral in it will be banished; persons attempting to find a plot in it will be shot.”
—Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835–1910)