starring Faye Emerson, Julie Bishop, Frank Wilcox
based on a play by Dorothy Mackaye
directed by Robert Florey
62 minutes
Unemployed actress Dorothy "Dot" Burton (Faye Emerson) helps a gang of three men to rob a bank. Something goes wrong during the heist. The men get away but she gets nabbed by the police. They don't have anything concrete to prove that she was in on the job until she finally tells them part of the story. She gets locked up in prison but before she loses her freedom she manages to steal the stolen loot from the gang of three and hide it.
Dot makes both friends and enemies in prison. Myrtle Reed (Julie Bishop) does what she can to help Dot but Lucy Fenton and Deaf Annie aren't as keen to help Dot, who has become something of a cause célèbre after getting her picture in the paper while she was being investigated.
Dot gets a visit from Cary, the leader of the gang. He comes in dressed as a woman and pretending to be her sister. He knows she knows where the loot is hidden but can't get her to spill, in part because (before she was locked up) she found out that they planned to skip town without giving her a share of the money. Their conversation is "overheard" by Deaf Annie, who can read lips. She and Lucy Fenton conspire to make Dot as miserable as possible.
Dot gets more than one letter from Kenneth Phillips (Frank Wilcox) an old friend who owns a radio station. They were reunited between the time the police picked her up and when she went to prison. He wants to help her but it takes some time for Dot to swallow her pride and respond to his letters.
Things look like they are going good and that Dot will get released on parole when Lucy and Annie interfere and make it look (to Dot) like Ken ruined her shot at parole. Dot sets up Ken for a fall, organized by Cary, before she learns that it was Lucy and Annie who ruined her shot at parole.
Thoughts
This was a wild ride. There was a lot packed into just over 60 minutes. It is silly and melodramatic at times but I enjoyed it.
Notes
This is the first and only thing in which I have seen Faye Emerson and Julie Bishop. This is at least the ninth film in which I have seen Frank Wilcox. Almost all of the parts he played in those movies were uncredited parts. The most recent film I have seen in which he appeared was North by Northwest (1959). Jackie Gleason had a small part in this movie as one of the gangsters.
Director Robert Florey I know best from Four Star Playhouse. He directed most of the episodes from the first season of that show. He also directed a couple episodes of The Twilight Zone (1959) that I have seen recently. I'm not sure why but in the credits he is listed as Florian Roberts.
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