New York bookie Sorrowful Jones runs his "horse room" from behind a false wall in a Broadway barber shop. When gangster Big Steve Holloway's horse Dreamy Joe makes a surprise win, Sorrowful reluctantly pays his customers, all of whom had bet on the horse. That night, Sorrowful arrives at Big Steve's nightclub for a meeting and is surprised to find all the local bookies gathered together. Big Steve reveals to them that he fixed the race by giving Dreamy Joe a "speedball," and now demands a $1,000 payment from each bookie in exchange for notifying them in advance when Dreamy Joe will lose or win. Before the next race, Sorrowful accepts bets on Dreamy Joe, although he knows the horse will lose. Against his own rules, he even accepts a marker from Orville Smith, who leaves his four-year-old daughter Martha Jane as collateral. Orville is killed by Big Steve and his henchman, Once Over Sam, after intercepting a phone call in his office and learning about Big Steve's subterfuge. When Orville does not return for Martha Jane, Sorrowful's partner, Regret, insists that Sorrowful take Martha Jane home for the night. The next day, Sorrowful's former girl friend, burlesque performer Gladys O'Neill, comes by to help take care of the girl. Big Steve also visits and reveals that the racing commission is investigating him. In order to make a final win with Dreamy Joe, Big Steve transfers ownership of the horse to Martha Jane, and plans to drug the horse at the next race, which will kill it. Later, Orville's body is found floating in the East River, and Sorrowful learns that the little girl's mother is also dead. Unaware of Big Steve's set-up, Gladys insists that Sorrowful give Martha Jane all of Dreamy Joe's winnings if he should win the next race, or else she will turn him in to the police. Big Steve soon discovers that Martha Jane is Orville's daughter and seeks to get rid of her, but Sorrowful hides her on a fire escape and refuses to allow Big Steve or Sam to take her. Martha Jane falls from the fire escape and is hospitalized, and while she is in a coma, she calls out for Dreamy Joe. Desperate to save the little girl, Sorrowful and Regret steal Dreamy Joe from the racetrack and bring the horse into Martha Jane's hospital room. The horse's whinny awakens Martha Jane out of her coma just as police detective Reardon arrests Big Steve and Sam for Orville's murder. When Reardon suggests that Martha Jane will be placed in an orphanage, Sorrowful proposes to Gladys, and they marry, and spend their honeymoon taking their newly adopted daughter Martha Jane to an arcade.

Director:
Sidney Lanfield	Director
Oscar Rudolph	Assistant Director
Cast:
Bob Hope	as Sorrowful Jones
Lucille Ball	as Gladys O'Neill
William Demarest	as Regret
Bruce Cabot	as Big Steve Holloway
Thomas Gomez	as Reardon
Tom Pedi	as Once Over Sam
Paul Lees	as Orville Smith
Houseley Stevenson	as Doc Chesley
Ben Weldon	as Big Steve's bodyguard
Emmett Vogan	as Psychiatrist
Mary Jane Saunders	as Martha Jane Smith
Walter Winchell	as Narrator
John Shay	as Doctor
John "Skins" Miller	as Head phone man
Allen Ray	as Horse player
Sam Finn	as Horse player
Bob Kortman	as Horse player
James Davies	as Horse player
John Mallon	as Horse player
Frank Mills	as Horse player
Tony Cirillo	as Horse player
Jack Roberts	as Horse player
James Cornell	as Horse player
Douglas Carter	as Horse player
Dario Piazza	as Horse player
Helen Chapman	as Window dresser
Josephine Allen	as Woman selling violets
Sid Tomack	as Waiter, Steve's place
Patsy O'Byrne	as Charwoman
Ralph Peters	as Cab driver
Ed Dearing	as Police Lt. Mitchell
Arthur Space	as Plainclothesman
William J. Cartledge	as Jockey
Speer Martin	as Jockey
Mickey Martin	as Jockey
Pat Lane	as Bookie
Billy Snyder	as Bookie
Kid Chissell	as Bookie
Eddie Rio	as Bookie
Marc Krah	as Barber
John Butler	as Shabby man
Charley Cooley	as Shorty
Jerry Hunter	as Newsboy
William Yip	as Chinese man
George Chan	as Chinese man
Erville Alderson	as Undertaker
Harry Tyler	as Blinky, blind man
Ethel Bryant	as Nurse
Betty Corner	as Nurse
Louise Lorimer	as Nurse
Sally Rawlinson	as Nurse
Eric Alden	as Attendant
Lyle Moraine	as Attendant
Clara Carleton	as Agnes "Happy Hips" Noonan
Charles Hamilton	as Policeman
Len Hendry	as Intern
Delmar Thomas	as Exercise boy
Henry Hope	as Motorcyclist
Cinematography:
Daniel L. Fapp	Director of Photography
Haskell Boggs	Camera Operator
G. E. Richardson	Stills
Earl Crowell	Gaffer
Writer:
Melville Shavelson	Screenwriter
Edmund Hartmann	Screenwriter
Jack Rose	Screenwriter
Producer:
Robert L. Welch	Producer
Editing:
Arthur Schmidt	Editing Supervisor
Music:
Robert Emmett Dolan	Music Score
Ray Evans	Composer
Effie I. Canning	Composer
Jay Livingston	Composer
Art Director:
Hans Dreier	Art Director
Albert Nozaki	Art Director
Visual Effects:
Gordon Jennings	Special Photography Effects
Farciot Edouart	Process Photography
Make-Up:
Wally Westmore	Makeup Supervisor
Nellie Manley	Hair
Costume-Wardrobe:
Mary Kay Dodson	Costumes
Art Department:
Sam Comer	Set Decoration
Bertram Granger	Set Decoration
Sound:
Harold Lewis	Sound Recording
John Cope	Sound Recording
Film Production - Main:
Curtis Mick	Production Manager
Lupe Hall	Script Supervisor
Irving Newmeyer	Grip

The film's title card reads: "Damon Runyon's Sorrowful Jones." The film opens with a foreword narrated by newsman Walter Winchell, who was a good friend of Runyon's. According to a Paramount News item, Winchell donated his salary to the Damon Runyon Cancer Fund, which Winchell had established in the writer's name. Although Maurice Cass is listed in the CBCS as "Psychiatrist," Emmett Vogan plays that role, and Cass does not appear in the film. This film marked Mary Jane Saunders' feature film debut. Also included in the film are excerpts from a number of popular songs, such as "Yankee Doodle Dandy" and "Sweet Adeline." The 1934 Paramount film on which Sorrowful Jones was partially based was titled Little Miss Marker, and was directed by Alexander Hall, and starred Adolphe Menjou and Shirley Temple (see AFI Catalog of Feature Films, 1931-40; F3.2523). Also based on Runyon's story were Universal's 1962 film Forty Pounds of Trouble, directed by Norman Jewison and starring Tony Curtis, Suzanne Pleshette and Claire Wilcox; and Universal's 1980 film Little Miss Marker, directed by Walter Bernstein and starring Walter Matthau, Julie Andrews and Tony Curtis. Bob Hope and Lucille Ball reprised their roles in a Lux Radio Theatre broadcast on November 21, 1949.

Released in United States on Video April 7, 1988

Released in United States Summer July 4, 1949

Re-released in United States on Video May 19, 1993

Released in United States on Video April 7, 1988

Re-released in United States on Video May 19, 1993

Released in United States Summer July 4, 1949

Based on the short story "Little Miss Marker" by Damon Runyon in Collier's (26 Mar 1932), and the 1932 Paramount film of the same name, written by William R. Lipman, Sam Hellman and Gladys Lehman.