Big Steve Halloway, gambler and proprietor of New York's Horseshoe Cabaret, is in desperate need of money. He arranges for his fellow bookies, especially Sorrowful Jones, to each pay him $1,000 for his racehorse, Dream Prince, to lose. With all bets being placed at the window, Sorrowful encounters a gambler, having lost $500, wanting to place his bet but unable to come up with $20. Instead, he places his little girl, Marthy Jane, as security, or in bookie's terms a "marker". "Marky", as she comes to be known, winds up under the care of Sorrowful Jones and his lady friend, singer Bangles Carson.
- Genre: Comedy, Family
- Studio: B.P. Schulberg Productions, Paramount Pictures
- Keyword: prayer, motherly love, little girl, orphan, bookie, mother figure, bedtime story, father figure, betting, gambling racket, abandoned child, collateral, blood donor, race horse, bookies
- Cast: Shirley Temple, Adolphe Menjou, Charles Bickford, Dorothy Dell, Warren Hymer, Lynne Overman
