Under Age (1941)

Terrible acting, screenplay and direction.

Memorable, crazy movie

Highly Overrated But Still Good

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

The story by Stanley Roberts and screen play by Robert D. Andrews, as seen on the film credits,finds Jane Baird (Nan Grey) and her kid sister, Edie (Mary Anderson)being released from the county detention home, where they had been jailed for vagrancy. What's two homeless, starving and friendless girls to do? Well, here, they are approached by the Head Pimp, Tap Mason (Alan Baxter), in a system of motels operated by Mrs. Burke, aka The Widow (Leona Maricle.) Pimp Mason offers them a job in the tourist industry which they, as aspiring 1941 career girls, readily accept. They are given clothes consisting mostly of attribute-exposing sweaters---but not the slit skirts favored by J. D. Kendis over in the Poverty Row non-PCA-approved films he made on the subject--and shipped out to a Middle West motel, a combination tourist camp, bar and restaurant. Their job description, as outlined by Mason, is to flag expensive cars in which men are driving, and persuade said men to spend the night at one of the Widow's motels.Jane's first pick-up is Rocky Stone (Tom Neal), out touring around while learning his father's jewelry business. Rocky, not on his first trip out of town, agrees to stop at the motel, but Jane leaves him when he gets the impression that her job description covers more ground than just flagging cars. Meanwhile, Tap adds thief to his pimping resume and steals $60,000 in jewels from Rocky's car. Rocky, suspecting poor Jane of the theft, telephones the Widow, who informs him that she can ruin him and his father's business if he pursues the issue further.The angry Rocky searches for Jane, and finally finds her at another flag-waving station. Mason sees them together; the Widow sends for the girl and orders Jane beaten by her strong-arm squad. Sister Edie is more than a bit miffed and vows to "get' Mason. What she gets instead is killed by Mason, who adds murder to his thieving pimp resume.The heart-broken Jane turns to Rocky for help. Rocky lures Mason to a lonely house where the mobster is turned over to the other girls in the Widow's employ. There is no love lost between the girls and Mason, and they work him over (using hacked-off 1941 career girl methods) and Mason confesses to the murder and also reveals the inside story of the Widow's racket.The Widow gets life, Mason gets the chair and Jane moves up the career-girl ladder by marrying Rocky.Lots of snappy-brim fedoras worn by the usual Columbia mugs, and a hair-pulling cat-fight between two of the hookers posing as flag-wavers. A Must-film for the Dmytryk completists. And a Must for those choosing to see just how much a studio, that really tried, could get away with...and still get Joe Breen's PCA seal of approval. The Legion of Decency had problems with it, needless to add. The Legion of Decency had problems with everything.