This "B" movie fails to rise above its budgetary restrictions, but still entertains. In essence, it gives you a villain you love to hate.
Margie Foster (June Havoc) loses her job and becomes desperate to make ends meet, especially if she wants to be a good girl. She runs into a woman named Pearl (Iris Adrian), who shows her how to make money via theft. Margie then tries to turn her life around, leaving San Francisco for Los Angeles, where she finds a job waitressing. She makes some good friends and builds a stable life.
Then she meets Mitch Moore, played with delicious unctuousness by Cesar Romero. She fails to see through his façade of caring and pays the price. Besides Romero's solid performance, Lon Chaney, Jr. Is very watchable as Mitch's sidekick, Gus.
This is no noir classic, but it is like watching a train wreck. The viewer can anticipate almost every development. Most of the film is told in flashback, to explain how Margie comes to her final condition. And it is done seamlessly.
However, some of the acting lacks verisimilitude. And the film's score is melodramatic, intrusive and overcooked---more like what you might expect in an episode of "Dragnet".
Margie Foster (June Havoc) loses her job and becomes desperate to make ends meet, especially if she wants to be a good girl. She runs into a woman named Pearl (Iris Adrian), who shows her how to make money via theft. Margie then tries to turn her life around, leaving San Francisco for Los Angeles, where she finds a job waitressing. She makes some good friends and builds a stable life.
Then she meets Mitch Moore, played with delicious unctuousness by Cesar Romero. She fails to see through his façade of caring and pays the price. Besides Romero's solid performance, Lon Chaney, Jr. Is very watchable as Mitch's sidekick, Gus.
This is no noir classic, but it is like watching a train wreck. The viewer can anticipate almost every development. Most of the film is told in flashback, to explain how Margie comes to her final condition. And it is done seamlessly.
However, some of the acting lacks verisimilitude. And the film's score is melodramatic, intrusive and overcooked---more like what you might expect in an episode of "Dragnet".
