The Woman Condemned

Plot-- A popular radio performer mysteriously departs her program, only to turn up murdered, while an innocent female detective is held for the crime. Will her reporter boyfriend be enough to prove her innocence.

Thanks reviewer asinyne for filling in a few crucial plot holes. I think a lot of folks, including myself, were flummoxed by the holes because the script is sloppily constructed, while director (Wallace) appears either unaware or unconcerned. Given the programmer's bottom-of-the- barrel provenance (Kent Productions), that's not surprising-- who knows what the production schedule was like. Anyway, the concept of a female detective and a corpse returning to life is an interesting one. And I suspect that a non-penurious Warner Bros., with a better cast and a rewrite, could have turned the material into a satisfying B-movie instead of the head- scratcher it unfortunately is.

Radio singer Lola Lane goes on vacation, leaving ardent admirer and station manager Jason Robards Jr. In the dark as to her plans. A few days later, reporter Richard Hemingway spots Claudia Dell in night. She was trying to break into an apartment. He tells the judge she's his fiancee and it was her apartment...... she's a terrible practical joker. So the judge marries them. Soon enough, Miss Dell breaks into the apartment, spots Miss Lane dead, shrieks, and is apprehended and found guilty of murder.

Dorothy Davenport's last movie as director has some nice touches -- I was taken by the other defendants in night court, and cameraman James Diamond had worked her before -- but she struggles in vain with a lurid and stupid screenplay written by the always lurid and stupid Willis Kent. The entire series of events in the film, the set of disasters that overwhelm both women, is actuated and worsened by their unwillingness to tell anyone why they are doing what they do, despite their innocent intentions.

Editor Roy Luby does a fine job of keeping the pace up, despite the slow pace of dialogue, but the script sinks everyone. As William Wyler once noted, "It's 90% you get a good script, and 10% the actors. There's nothing else in it." I think that's because Wyler provided everything else; nonetheless.....

The Woman Condemned (1934)

** (out of 4)

Newspaper reporter Jerry Beall (Richard Hemingway) gets caught up with the beauty of Barbara (Claudia Dell) that he pretty much forces himself into her life. It happens at a perfect time because Barbara is accused of murdering a woman but she claims that she is innocent so it's up to the reporter to prove it.

THE WOMAN CONDEMNED is pretty much the standard "B" mystery that you'd expect from Poverty Row. The only thing really notable about it is the fact that it would turn out to be the final directorial job for Dorothy Davenport, better known and credited here as Mrs. Wallace Reid. Davenport had a number of acting credits in her career but she did direct seven movies as well.

As far as this film goes, in all honesty it's a decent time-killer for fans of the genre but it's doubtful too many people will be having a good time with it. The plot is extremely thick for this type of film as it seems something new is being added every few minutes but I'm going to guess that this was done to try and make the film seem smarter than it actually was. The murder doesn't happen until the 35-minute mark, which leaves about half a hour to get it solved.

Hemingway was pretty bland in the role of the reporter so he didn't add anything to the picture. You can spot Jason Robards, Sr. in a small role. Then you've got Dell who doesn't get much to do other than to constantly looked concerned over this or that. Lola Lane appears in a very brief role but she's certainly a highlight to the picture.

THE WOMAN CONDEMNED really doesn't have too much going for it. The biggest bonus is that it's just 65-minutes long so if you have that to kill and enjoy the genre then you might want to check it out.

This picture held my interest from beginning to end. The more I watched, the more absorbing it became. I felt betrayed by the ending, but by that time it was too late as the picture was nearly over. This was an excellent effort by a Poverty Row company and an excellent Directorial effort by Mrs. Wallace Reid, which almost overcomes some gigantic plot holes.

It was a fascinating story which contains several plot turns and twists and I couldn't turn it off. I thought Richard Hemingway was an attractive lead and would like to know more about him. IMDb notes his career was very short and his birth/death dates are unknown. I was amazed to discover how much Jason Robards Sr. resembles his son - or perhaps the other way around.

I gave this film a rating of 7, and our current IMDb rating does not do it justice. Now, about that ending...

A radio singing star suddenly takes a "vacation" without explanation, and cuts herself off from everybody. Her radio station hires a detective agency to find out what's going on, and the agency sends a female detective to work the case, but when the "star" is killed, the detective winds up being charged with her murder.

This is a very low-buck effort put out by very low-buck producer Willis Kent. Production values are chintzy in the extreme, with poor photography, tinny and unsteady sound and extremely choppy editing. The plot is overly complicated, the dialog is lame and the acting is just awful, although attractive Claudia Dell as the detective gives it her best shot and does have her moments. Director Dorothy Davenport didn't have much to work with in front of and behind the camera, and she didn't do much with them. Very poor effort all around. Don't bother with it.