Simply A Masterpiece

Sadly Over-hyped

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

Reporter Dennis O'Keefe (Mark) decides to investigate the death of a woman's sister who had recently given birth. He does this because he fancies her. God knows why. The lady in question is Gale Storm (Paula) and she's a wet fish. She is definitely not leading lady material. Anyway, this film is about tracking down a gang who deal in illegal adoptions. It's quite topical given some high profile children who have been snatched subsequent to this film. It's interesting to note just how long this criminal activity has been going on for in such an organized manner. Interesting topic, boring film.

I had my doubts about bubbly ingénue Gale Storm (Paula) starring in a crime drama. But she's actually well cast and manages an appropriately restrained performance. Here she's the sister of a dead girl who's left a baby under mysterious circumstances. So Paula's investigating with help from brash newsman Sitko (O'Keefe). What they uncover is a ruthless ring that sells newborns and gets rid of mothers who complain.Like many others of its time, the movie makes good use of LA locations, along with some effective noirish touches. However, these touches are not developed into a prevailing atmosphere, despite the presence of noir icon Raymond Burr (Kerric). Actually, it's hard to recognize Burr since he's either lurking in the shadows or peeking around corners. In my book, the best scene is when Kerric tangles with that other movie heavyweight Mike Mazurki (Hoppe). It's like King Kong taking on Godzilla. Also, the unexpected plot wrinkle with Kerric is a good one.But my money's on Marjorie Rambeau (Donner). She's scarier than anyone else in a movie loaded with baddies. Too bad she doesn't have a face-off scene with that other formidable actress, Jeanette Nolan (Major Ross). Too bad also, that O'Keefe has drifted into obscurity. He was quite a good actor, at home in either comedy (Up in Mabel's Room {1945}) or drama. Here he's typically persuasive as an aggressive newshound.All in all, the movie's a better than average crime drama, with a good cast, a crisp narrative, and a suspenseful climax. It's second-tier Universal coming up with better results than usual.

Okay, Dennis Okeefe and Gale Storm deliver competent performances and Marjorie Rambeau is effective as the matronly but menacing madam baby broker, but this movie is surely most memorable as the sole instance in which a young Raymond Burr (merely stout here, but still not thin) gets the s$#@ kicked out of him, which alone makes it worth the price of admission. Painfully corny narrative framing sequence at the beginning and the end (where there is a big unintentional laugh), but by and large a straightforward and enjoyable minor noir. At times a bit preachy perhaps and hardly a masterpiece but worth a look when it pops up on TCM late night.

In Abandoned's opening shot, that iconic edifice, the Los Angeles City Hall, looms menacingly into the night sky. From then on, it's a fast, rough ride through a brutal baby-adoption racket. Gale Storm is best remembered (if at all) as TV's My Little Margie, but she co-starred in a few noirs like Underworld Story and Between Midnight and Dawn; Abandoned is the best of them. She's come to town hunting for her vanished sister, knowing only that there's an out-of-wedlock baby girl involved. Storm links up with Dennis O'Keefe, a newspaper man, and Raymond Burr, a private detective supposedly hired by the missing girl's father back east (an enigmatic specter hanging over the story: Storm confides that her sister left home because "he wouldn't leave us alone"). Turns out that Sis was murdered for developing maternal instincts after having giving the baby up. The web of baby-nappers includes grandmotherly but lethal Marjorie Rambeau, some even less savory characters behind her, and, of course, Burr. Abandoned, despite its Hollywood-"happy" finish, stands as one of the grittier offerings in the noir cycle (Burr's being tortured with matches is one especially painful speck of grit).