Fri 11 May 2018
Movie Review: PORT OF MISSING GIRLS (1938).
Posted by Steve under Mystery movies , Reviews[7] Comments
PORT OF MISSING GIRLS. Monogram Pictures, 1938. Harry Carey, Judith Allen, Milburn Stone, Betty Compson, Matty Fain, George Cleveland. Director: Karl Brown.
The nominal star of this minimally interesting movie is Harry Carey, but to my mind why is he still using silent film techniques — dramatic gestures, grotesque grimaces and so on — in 1938? To my mind, Milburn Stone is by far the more natural actor.
As Della Mason (!!), a night club singer on the lam, accused of killing the manager of the joint where she’s the star attraction, Judith Allen is very pretty, but when the movie was over I couldn’t pick her out of a lineup of other young starlets at the time.
She ends up on the cargo ship owned by Captain Storm (Carey), and on which Milburn Stone’s character is the radio operator. The kicker is that Storm, due to circumstances in his life, soon revealed, hates women. Stone, on the other hand, is most definitely attracted.
Forced to leave the runaway singer on land, they find what other reviewers call a brothel. The code has toned the place down a lot. It looks like no brothel I was ever in ever saw depicted on the screen. A dull, bare walls sort of tourist attraction, it’s more a place for couples to stop in on a lark and see where poor women whose lives have fallen in on them are forced to live, or in Della’s case, are singing.
There is a lot of plot shoved into this hour plus (but just a very small plus) movie. You will be happy to know that it all works out in the end.
May 11th, 2018 at 10:06 pm
I like Judith Allen a lot better than you do. Try her in Boots and Saddles (1937) opposite Gene Autry with a bad guy played by Gordon Elliott,later, and not too much so, to become Wild Bill.
Betty Compson, who went unmentioned in your comments was nominated for an Academy Award in The Barker (1928) opposite Milton Sills, which seems to have been a precursor to Lilliom, which in itself gave birth to Carousel, and awful film, despite fine playing, but a grand theatrical experience.
May 11th, 2018 at 10:08 pm
Oh, the idea that Lilliom and Carousel evolved from The Barker is entirely mine. A kind of fantasy.
May 12th, 2018 at 2:23 am
Audiences would not have accepted Harry Carey without his tried and true schtik from his silent and early talkie Westerns, they were part of the reason he was cast in so many roles.
Stone’s leading man career was fairly short and diverse, despite the effort made he was a born character actor.
Barry,
May I just borrow the idea THE BARKER evolved into LILLIOM and then CAROUSEL once in a while, it’s a delightful idea?
May 12th, 2018 at 10:10 am
Audiences in 1938 couldn’t have, but while watching this movie and Milburn Stone, I kept thinking that I was watching a story about something that happened in Doc Adams’ youth.
May 12th, 2018 at 7:49 am
I’m a big fan of Carey Sr. but I have to agree he’s not always able to rise above his material.
May 12th, 2018 at 9:50 am
The original stage play LILIOM was written by Ferenc Molnar in Hungary in 1909. It was a big hit on Broadway in 1921.
I’m not sure how the film THE BARKER (1928) would influence this.
I haven’t read the original play LILIOM or seen it on stage. Or seen THE BARKER. It’s possible that THE BARKER had an influence on the later adaptations of LILIOM in the 1930’s (two films and a radio version by Orson Welles).
The only thing I liked in Frank Borzage’s 1931 film version of LILIOM were the spectacular design elements. But am nervous, as always, about the idea of a ‘hero” who’s abusive the women, Yecch!. Paging #MeToo.
May 12th, 2018 at 7:36 pm
Mike Grost,
I don’t think Barry meant THE MARKET connection literally, only that it was a cool concept. Agreed about abusive heroes, but here the story is about his redemption, not his abusive ways, that is part of what he needs redempion from.
CAROUSEL has great music but I much prefer LILLIOM.