Lady Gangster (1942)

Save your money for something good and enjoyable

Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

How wonderful it is to see this fine actress carry a film and carry it so beautifully.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

Lady Gangster was based on a play written by Dorothy Mackaye who did some time in prison for covering up a homicide of her husband Ray Raymond by actor Paul Kelly who also served in prison before resuming his career. All the principals in that affair are gone now and their lives and story would certainly be far more interesting than this film which had a previous incarnation by Warner Brothers in 1933. That film was Ladies They Talk About and starred Barbara Stanwyck. As it was before the Code, I'm betting that was a better version. It certainly sounded more interesting in the Stanwyck biography I read.Faye Emerson is no Stanwyck, but she's all right in the role of an actress fallen on bad times and now hooking up with bank robbers Roland Drew, Bill Phillips and Jackie Gleason. Yes the great one is in the cast as wheel man of the bank robbery that Emerson acts as a shill/decoy for and gets caught.In prison for her crime Faye makes friends with Julie Bishop and as she knows where the money is hid, she has that as a bargaining chip for her release. But the plot takes some strange turns and she's forced to escape.The male roles in this film are weak, Frank Wilcox is a bit of a doofus as your crusading crime busting radio commentator. Why Emerson falls for him is beyond me. The script is weak and meandering for Lady Gangster as well. For instance an element is introduced of a rivalry between District Attorney Herbert Rawlinson and Wilcox, with Wilcox intimating the DA is corrupt. But that doesn't go anywhere. Certainly the talents of Jackie Gleason are not used at all, but Warners never realized what they had under contract.On the plus side, the best supporting performance is clearly that of prison snitch Ruth Ford who really doesn't do it for material gain, she just likes the attention. Ford did quite a lot with a small role.A product of Warner Brothers B picture unit, Lady Gangster just doesn't make it.

This film, starring Faye Emerson, has inexplicably fallen into the public domain. I say inexplicably because it was made by Warner Brothers—a company that almost always was certain to renew copyrights on its work. Somehow this one slipped by and as a result it's available for viewing through a link on IMDb. This film is worth seeing if only to get a look at Jackie Gleason in one of his earliest screen roles—albeit a bit part.The film begins with Emerson working with a gang to rob a bank. She's the inside person whose job it is to get the guard to open the door after she gives him a sob story. The police suspect her but cannot prove she was with the gang—so they hold her for the time being in jail. An annoying radio personality takes on this case in order to discredit the District Attorney—and begins to whine on the air that she is being railroaded by an overzealous system. However, when she confesses to the radio man (who turns out to be an old friend of hers), he tells the D.A. and she is sent to prison. Inexplicably, he then continues talking about how this bad lady was mistreated by the system—yet HE was the one who was responsible for her going to state prison!! This is a MAJOR weakness in the film…it just didn't make much sense and you wonder how anyone smart enough to have a job as a broadcaster could be that much of an idiot. Nor does what happens next concerning her and the old friend—who is just too big a sap to be true! While this is not a terrible film, perhaps its being in the public domain may in part be because this is a weakly written film. Despite good acting, you just can't get past the dopey aspects of the plot that make this an obvious B-movie from Warner Brothers. It's entertaining and slickly produced but pretty silly…and is one of the few misfires the studio made during this otherwise golden era.By the way, if you do watch this film there are a couple things you may want to look out for in the movie. First, in a funny scene, one of the male gang members dresses in drag and visits Emerson in prison! Second, although most would not know this, the lip reading portion of the film is based on a myth. You CANNOT have a deaf person watch others at a distance and perfectly read the lips of both parties. It's truly a hit or miss proposition reading lips (also called 'speech reading' by the deaf)—and wild exaggerations like this film are common but just not possible. If only my deaf daughter could read lips this well!

The "B" films from major studios usually look far more glossy and professional than those turned out from Poverty Row, even when the subject matter is virtually identical. This is not to say that they are necessarily more entertaining. A fair case in point is this cleaned-up version of a gritty Barbara Stanwyck melodrama. It looks slick and it runs smooth, but although competently acted, it doesn't hold a candle to the more earthy original. Mind you, there are compensations. It's always good to see Faye Emerson in a lead role, and she receives great support from Julie Bishop, Dorothy Vaughan, Virginia Brissac and Vera Lewis. But it's Dorothy Adams, in a meaty role for once, who actually steals the acting honors. By contrast, the male players contribute considerably less to the movie's fair-enough success. Roland Drew makes an attempt at the chief villain, while Frank Wilcox takes aim at the hero. Both fall short. Jackie Gleason in a straight role here as one of the gangsters might have had a chance had his role not been so disappointingly small. Ever reliable Charles Wilson gets the nod instead.

I had a lot of fun watching this crime quickie from Warner Brothers studios. Lasting a rapidly paced 62 minutes, the film definitely entertains if your into the genre. Faye Emerson plays a would be actress who gets caught up with a gang of bank robbers and takes the rap for a $40,000 heist the gang pulled off. She ends up in jail and what follows is as many double crosses, prison spats, car chases and shootouts as you can possibly cram into 62 minutes. The film is directed with a nice flair for action by Robert Florey under the pseudonym of Florian Roberts. Good support for Emerson from a cast that includes Julie Bishop, Frank Wilcox, Ruth Ford(cute as a damn button) and a young Jackie Gleason. I must have really enjoyed this one as I couldn't believe how fast it flew by.