Persons in Hiding

Patricia Morison is working when two-bit stick-up man J. Carrol Naish comes in to grab $30. Miss Morison thinks she can make something of him, so they go off together, get married, and begin a string of bank robberies. Soon, thanks to her calling up the papers and making sure people spell his name right, he's got a reputation. But the crooks know she's the brains behind the operation, so Dennis Morgan offers her half the take if she will take charge of a kidnapping he has in mind. She does, which brings in the FBI in the person of Lynne Overman.

It's based on a book by the same title by J. Edgar Hoover. I suppose that's why the crooks are dull, slovenly, and are pushed around easily by Miss Morison, who hardly seems to be trying. Unfortunately, the movie is likewise dull and inert for its length; Overman nods off in a car while tracking the bad guys. Fortunately, the FBI has lots of energetic, smart men and a big machine that can sort through a very large number of fingerprints, so what chance does a gang of half a dozen dullards have? Other performers wasted here are William Frawley, Helen Twelvetrees, and William Collier Sr.