Women Won't Tell

Walter V. Mong has a factory and he hates the dump that he sees out of his office window. He wrangles a lot with Sarah Padden, who lives in the dump and raises her daughter, Gloria Shea there. When Mong dies without a will, she puts in a claim for Miss Shea, who she says is Mong's natural daughter. Eight years later...

Richard Thorpe directs this script by Lela Rogers (Ginger Rogers' mother) pretty well, although the line readings are of mixed quality. Miss Padden is very good in the first half, then, in the middle, when she is running the factory efficiently and compassionately, her line readings sound unnatural. Dewey Robinson, usually a fine bit player of seedy toughs, is also pretty bad. On the other hand, Isabel Withers as a newspaperwoman had me checking to make sure I wasn't looking at Una Merkel, and John Hyams and Jane Darwell, in small roles as the parents of juvenile Larry Kent, are excellent.

I imagine it was the sort of budgeting that Poverty Row production company Chesterfield could afford that caused this unevenness. Some actors were cast who were good and inexpensive, like Otis Harlan and Mae Busch; others had to be coached along and Thorpe lacked either the time or expertise to do so. He would develop a workaround of starting scenes in a longer shot, cranking until a line was flubbed, then moving the camera in closer. Either he hadn't developed it yet, or it wasn't enough.

It's an interesting story, though, with a couple of nice performances. For a Poverty Row movie intended for States Rights Release, that's all right.