Sorrowful Jones

Sorrowful Jones is a 1949 film directed by Sidney Lanfield. The film stars Lucille Ball and Bob Hope. It is also known as Damon Runyons Sorrowful Jones.

Sorrowful Jones is a New York bookie who keeps his operation hidden behind a trap door in a Broadway barber shop. He suffers from a financial setback when a horse named Dreamy Joe, owned by gangster Big Steve Holloway, unexpectedly wins a race. Jones has to pay all the many customers betting on the horse to win, which empties his pockets completely.When visiting a night club, Jones learns that the race was fixed by Big Steve, who tells him about giving the horse a speedball. It turns out Big Steve has informed all the bookies in his circle of friends about the fixed race, and demands a sum of 1,000 from each one of them in exchange for this information. ........

Source: Wikipedia