Escort Girl (1941)

So much average

Highly Overrated But Still Good

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

How amazing, a few months ago I came across a Kay Francis Monogram called "Allotment Wives" (1945). In it she played the head of a marriage racket whose daughter comes home from a fancy finishing school and decides she wants to be part of the racket as well. But good old Betty Compson was in the original (with a few variations). Compson seemed to have more come backs than Dame Nellie Melba (to use a colloquial phrase) but in reality she never stopped working. This movie was from exploitation producer J.D. Kendis who used a bit more daring in his movies about the sordid side of life.Compson is joined by Wheeler Oakman whose career went right back to Mabel Normand's "Mickey" where he was the male lead. By the early 1940s he was firmly ensconced in the exploitation grind. He may have been a nice guy but he had a sleazy look about him, ideally suited to this type of movie. This one deviates slightly from "Allotment Wives" - in this one Betty Compson plays Ruth Ashley, head of a big escort agency who has finally won a place in high society. The fly in the ointment is her daughter June (Margaret Maruis) who is coming home for a visit from her posh finishing school and doesn't know her mother's real occupation!!! As if Ruth doesn't have enough to worry about, June is also bringing her fiancée, Drake, who is coming to the city on an undercover assignment to expose - you guessed it, the head of the escort racket!!!The movie hovers between laughs and drama - the gals tell "hilarious" stories of their encounters with clients, there is even a pretty salacious striptease that doesn't leave much to the imagination. The main story is strictly dramatic and both Betty Compson and Wheeler Oakman with their professionalism make sure the movie is saved from being unintentionally funny. Drake, as part of his investigation, hires an escort and Stone (Oakman) to retaliate against June, who now wants to give up the agency and be really respectable, sends June along to be his date!!! There is the usual misunderstanding and June goes back to Stone's apartment to find out the truth. Stone obliges by telling her about her mother then June hits the bottle and cheesy lines fly thick and fast - "Hey, it looks like you're sobering up, have another drink" and the old standby "Sure I've been drinking - to try to forget my broken dreams" - I assure you it really is said!!!The film was pretty choppy - supposedly 68 minutes, my print was only 58 minutes. Even with 10 minutes out the story was pretty easy to follow.

I saw escort girl thinking it was going to be just another sleazy little exploitation film.its really not bad,it features the ever busy b-movie stars Wheeler Oakman and Betty Compson.who made about a bakers dozen of these sleazy b flicks.its about prostitution,way back in the day when they were called escorts.for an old movie its pretty racy,there is a strip tease scene where a dancer bares her breasts. though some parts are covered by pasties.this film is one of the better movies on the cult classics collection from mill creek entertainment.as usual its a film with a message.anyway i know actor Wheeler Oakman as the bad martian from flash Gordon's trip to mars(1938) i thought escort girl was enjoyable though the print is kind of choppy. must be from VHS.i thought the girl that answered the phones at the agency was funny with her facial gestures.I'm going to give escort girl 6 out of 10.

The only other reviewer at the time of my posting states that the quality of his VHS transfer was excellent, while my 'remastered' DVD print is about as second rate as they come. A lot of jump cuts and missed dialog however doesn't hurt the flow of the story all that much, but even so, what you're left with it are some of the most over the top melodramatic performances you'll find coming out of the era. All in service to the melodramatic nature of the story, as an undercover investigator attempts to expose the ring leaders of an escort bureau. Drake Hamilton's (Robert Kellard) mission becomes complicated when his fiancée is set up to make a call on him as a 'date' from the escort service, but the arrangement is so awkward you'll wonder why June (Margaret Marquis) just didn't explain the whole story when she got to his room.I'm always amazed at the way times have progressed when it comes to how expensive things are today. The fee for an escort back then - ten dollars plus expenses while on the date!!! That didn't include any business the gals did on the side, I guess that's where entrepreneurial ability came in.There are some genuinely laughable scenes here, not all of which were meant to be I'm sure. One which had a lush (Arthur Houseman) walking into a fern a couple of times, making this viewer wonder which of the two was more potted. And gee, I wonder how many drinks it would take to make a high roller like Snuggles (Isabel La Mal) look good. But the scene that will have you sit up and take notice is the dancing stripper, didn't she have a nice pair of ... legs?The grand finale really goes for the gusto, and I for one actually wondered how investigator Hamilton was going to explain the whole thing to the authorities. Now that would have made for a great sequel!

While this film is not as sleazy as SLAVES IN BONDAGE or GAMBLING WITH SOULS, two earlier films that featured star Wheeler Oakman as a pimp, ESCORT GIRL is slickly made and well-acted by a wonderful cast, and while it doesn't "show anything", it does have a seedy, dirty feel to it, even though it's not unlike a studio-bound, low-budget Grand National crime drama. Oakman, great as the heavy in so many westerns, gets a meaty role as the co-owner of a sleazy escort service, co-run with Oscar nominee and major star of the silent era Betty Compson. Compson's daughter, who has been attending fancy boarding schools in other states, does not know what business her Mom is REALLY in, and suddenly appears out of nowhere. When Compson and Oakman learn that the daughter's boyfriend (Robert Kellard, featured in some classic serials, and playing the title character in the 1947 Columbia serial TEX GRANGER) works for the District Attorney's office, things start to get complicated. It's a joy to watch two pros like Compson and Oakman work--Compson's monologues about motherhood and the dirtiness of the escort business are delivered as if they were great literature. Also, this film LOOKS great. The VHS transfer looks as if it were shot yesterday. There's an incredible plot complication about two-thirds of the way through the movie that I won't mention, but is amazing, and the drunken "confession" after it is classic. In addition, the great screen drunk Arthur Housman stumbles through one scene, and Rick Vallin is priceless as a gigolo who is stuck with an elderly but rich lady as his date, night after night. It's a running gag throughout the film, and Vallin plays it to the hilt. I've probably watched this film a dozen times over the years. It's not as sleazy as other exploitation films, nor is it weird like a Dwain Esper film--it's VERY competently made. It just has a strange appeal to me. Perhaps it will have a similar effect on you? Fans of Wheeler Oakman or Betty Compson will not want to miss it.