User reviews

Nick (John Darrow) is shocked that his 17 year-old sister (Betty Grable) is dating a man who looks to be about 30! Naturally, Nick is worried about her and considers the guy as deserving a good beatdown....and delivers it to the jerk. However, Nick is soon arrested for assault. The judge, in a weird and highly irregular move, places Nick on probation--stipulating that his niece keep him on as her chauffeur! The arrangement might help both of them, as Nick needs to learn to control his temper and the niece (Sally Blane) is a bit wild. What neither know is that the man Nick beat turns out to be the niece's boyfriend!!

This is a low budgeted film and it's obvious when you notice that there's no incidental music in the movie! This isn't that unusual for earlier American talkies but by 1932, this was highly unusual. Despite the budget, is the film any good? Well, the acting is awfully good for such a film and the story, though impossible to believe, is enjoyable. Overall, a decent B-movie...worth seeing if you have the time.

Sally Blane complains to her uncle, J. Farrell MacDonald, that she has problems. MacDonald scoffs and takes her to a session of night court he is running. There he finds John Darrow, who's up for beating a man who assaulted his sister, Betty Grable (in her first role under that name). MacDonald puts him on probation under the supervision of Miss Blane as her chauffeur. She tries to knock off some of his rough edges, but he resists, and offends her by hustling a drunken date of hers who tries to get handsy. Matters come to a head when she gets engaged to the man who assaulted his sister.

It's a Chesterfield movie, like most of them a little too solemn and monotonous to be really good, but ambitious in its intentions. Under the direction of Richard Thorpe it moves at a good clip, but only MacDonald is really good. Darrow and Miss Blane are too tentative in their performances.

Chesterfield would disappear into the merger that created Republic Pictures. Miss Blane would continue on at the B level for the rest of the decade. Darrow would eventually give up acting and become an agent. With Clara Kimball Young and Matty Kemp.

"Probation" is a pre-Code B movie put out by the apparently Poverty Row Chesterfield Motion Picture Company. Its barely over an hour long and its only real claim to any attention nowadays is that it offers supporting roles to former silent-movie queen Clara Kimball Young and future pin-up girl and box-office queen Betty Grable.

Grable is hardly recognizable here as her future glammed-up persona. She plays the barely 17-year-old jailbait sister of John Darrow, who is out of work but doing his best to look after her. He comes home one day, hoping to surprise her on her birthday with a cake, but is told by Clara Kimball Young, his landlady, that she has had the little tramp sent to juvenile detention after watching her make a date with wealthy playboy Eddie Phillips. (By the way, even though she was only 42 and this only a decade after her biggest success, "Eyes of Youth", Kimball Young is middle-aged and positively matronly here). Darrow then stumbles on Wells, who has come by to pick up Grable for their date, and gives him a thrashing, for which he is arrested. It so happens that J. Farrell MacDonald is his judge and Sally Blane (Loretta Young's sister) is the judge's niece. The judge takes pity on Darrow and in lieu of jail, puts him on probation for three months, serving as Blane's chauffeur.

Its best not to even think about the plot: its all very silly and unrealistic and dated. Unless you are an admirer of Kimball Young's silents and curious what happened to her or wondering what the very young Betty Grable looked like or if Loretta Young's sister was as talented or pretty as she was (no), then there's really no reason to watch this programmer. Richard Thorpe, the director, went on to become one of MGM's house directors and later did such big budget hits as "Ivanhoe" and the Stewart Granger "Prisoner of Zenda", but he certainly brought no distinction to this dud. And just because this was pre-Code, don't think there's any real naughtiness on display, other than Grable being an overactive 17 year-old who is quickly and unrealistically reformed by film's end.

Probation (1932)

** (out of 4)

Janet (Sally Blane) is a spoiled society girl whose uncle (J. Farrell MacDonald) decides to show her how rough life can be. The Judge takes her to a night court where she sees first hand that there are many people out there with real problems.

PROBATION clocks in at just 67-minutes but it's a pretty uneventful movie with a screenplay that is all over the place. Well, it's all over the place except when it comes to entertainment and on that level it certainly underachieves. The film might appeal to film buffs today for a couple reasons. One, it's a Pre-code picture so there's a little bit more sexuality than you'd normally see. Also, Clara Kimball Young, the silent superstar, appears here briefly in a throw away role as a landlady. Fans of her might be interested in seeing how she was used well after her star had fallen.

Back to the film, it's pretty much what you'd expect out of an ultra low-budget movie from the early sound days. As I said the plot itself is pretty silly and whatever message the producers were wanting to make really gets lost with the rather bad dialogue and situations. I'd also argue that the performances aren't all that memorable, which in turn means that the characters just aren't all that interesting.

Ruth (Betty Grable) is a wayward, extremely bored girl who takes the wrong path in life, and sinks into an abyss of despair.

Or, something like that.

Alas, poor Ruth's descent just isn't all that interesting or eventful. She's a "juvenile delinquent" turned over to the court by a well-meaning adult. Ruth's brother tries to save her from herself.

PROBATION is another morality tale from the 1930's. Much of the "action" involves the judge and his preachy conversations with his niece (Sally Blane). Nick ends up being the niece's chauffeur and many life lessons are learned.

If intensely histrionic melodrama doesn't terrify you, then this movie might be agreeable. At a little over an hour in length it still seems a bit long...