Parole Girl

Sylvia Day (Mae Clarke) is caught pickpocketing in a department store. The accuser, Tony Grattan (Hale Hamilton), finds his wallet after all and Sylvia threatens to sue the store. The manager pays her $500. It's all a scam. She wants to quit, but Tony pushes her to do it one more time. The scam is going as planned until the insurance company calls. Store manager Joe Smith (Ralph Bellamy) insists on getting the cops involved due to their insurance policy. She's sentenced to one year in prison and vows revenge on Smith.

This is an interesting premise from the start. I like the scam although it would never work in the modern world. It's more plausible back then although $500 is a lot. Grapefruit-face Mae Clarke is able to straddle the divide between innocence and criminal. She's a bit of both. I am looking for a dark tragedy. It is pre-Code after all. Nobody should have a happy ending in this movie.

Mae Clarke, she of the grapefruit in the face, and Ralph Bellamy star in "Parole Girl," a 1933 film.

Clarke plays Sylvia, who works a department store con with a male partner. He accuses her of stealing his wallet and yells "stop, thief," they both go to the manager's office, he finds his wallet, she sobs, and the store pays her off.

Unfortunately the police alert the store to the con artists as she's sitting in the office. Terrified of going to prison, she begs the manager to let her go. He wants to, but when he checks with the man above him, Joe Smith (Bellamy) he says he has no power to do that. She begs and sobs, but it's no go.

Sylvia winds up in prison, serving for a year, but she manages to not only start a fire, but work to put it out, and then faint - all part of her plan. She is released due to her heroics. She's not interested in returning to con work. She wants to destroy the life of Joe Smith.

Sylvia approaches Joe while he's smashed and stages a fake marriage, knowing full well he has a wife from whom he's separated. She then blackmails him with his bigamy. They have to act as a married couple until Sylvia's parole is over. Guess what happens.

This could have been an ordinary movie but it isn't, thanks to the nice work of the two stars. Clarke is an underrated actress - she was excellent in the 1930 Waterloo Bridge, which is much grittier than the Taylor-Leigh version. She was a very honest actress, not at all over the top, even though it was the style of the day.

Bellamy, of course, is super. This film was just after the beginning of his awesome 60-year career.

Entertaining.

Mae Clarke is in the title role of Parole Girl who while out on parole plots some revenge against store manager Ralph Bellamy who insisted on her arrest. I won't go into the racket as it was quite a pip. But as Mae and her accomplice who didn't get caught Hale Hamilton learned these department do pool intelligence.

After a short stint in prison cut short by her heroic action during a prison fire Clarke is put on parole and she plans some revenge against Bellamy. Using his taste for booze she gets him drunk and marries him. Now there's vengeance for you.

And then the film takes an abrupt and sappy turn as Clarke and Bellamy start falling for each other. I mean, Ralph Bellamy? C'mon.

Giving good performances are Hamilton whose a devil may care con man and really doesn't care about anything and Marie Prevost as Clarke's prison running girl buddy.

But the premise to the whole film is bizarre.

PAROLE GIRL (1933) is a variation of the Girl who seeks retribution for a alleged wrong done to her. The original play WITHIN THE LAW (1912) no doubt was the source material for this screenplay. Just changed enough, to avoid being sued for plagiarism.

THE NUTS; Sylvia Day (Mae Clarke) gets picked up for shop-lifting. Joe Smith (Ralph Bellamy) is not sympathetic to her problems. In fact never sees her but has flunky turn her over to the law. After serving time and out on 'Parole' she tricks Smith into marrying her to exact her revenge. Eventually pair fall in love and at the fade out REALLY get married. At 67" it is just long enough to be entertaining without taxing the audience.

WITHIN THE LAW would be filmed in 1916, 1917, 1923. In 1930 it would be filmed under the title of PAID M.G.M. and star Joan Crawford. The version we are most familiar with is WITHIN THE LAW (1939) M.G.M. and would feature contract player Ruth Hussey, running 65". Last version was INTAQUAM (1969) a Shaktiman Enterprises, production of India. Though this plot-line had been used from T.V. movies too soap operas.

One final note, the attractive Mae Clarke though looking very chic had the most unflattering 'butch' hairstyle to grace the 'silver screen'.

Parole Girl (1933)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Silly but extremely entertaining drama from Columbia has Mae Clarke once again taking "C" level material and raising it a notch. This time out she plays a troubled but smart woman in a con game with a man (Hale Hamilton) who pretty much owns her. She ends up in jail after getting caught ripping off shopping stores and once behind bars she swears vengeance on the insurance man (Ralph Bellamy) who refused to give her a break and demand that she go to jail. This is an extremely bizarre and strange little gem that will certainly keep fans of "B" movies entertained because you'll never quite know where the thing is going. For starters, the story itself is downright stupid as we're never really given a good reason as to why this woman would be so angry with this man. Why not the judge, store owner or the con man who got her into the racket? You also have to consider the fact that she's never seen this man so how she actually manages to do her thing is never quite clear. Another funny thing with the story is that it of course has to have a few twists and turns, which includes the woman eventually falling for the man but soon her scam backfires once again with a twist that I won't ruin here. Clarke turns in a very good performance and it certainly ranks as one of the best I've seen from her. She's very believable in the early scenes of fear as she begs not to be sent to jail. She's also believable as the hell bent femme fatale out for revenge. She plays both sides of the coin perfectly and her chemistry with Bellamy is very realistic and makes for an interesting 65-minutes. Bellamy, one of my favorite character actors from this period, manages to have all the charm and dignity that we've come to expect from him. Marie Prevost is quite annoying but that's the way her character was meant to be. This film has certainly been forgotten throughout the decades and I'm sure not too many were overly interested in it back when it was released. I'm sure most people, like myself, will be drawn to it because they're fans of FRANKENSTEIN and want to see Clarke in another role. Those people will certainly want to check this film out but fans of "B" movies will as well as the movie goes fast enough to not have any dull moments and in the end it's the perfect filler if you're up late at night and need something quick to watch.