They All Come Out

Apparently Louis Mayer liked the CRIME DOESN'T PAY short in progress so much that he had director Jacques Tourneur expand it into his first American feature -- he had directed a couple in France in the early 1930s. It's about how Rita Johnson picks up tramp Tom Neal and gets him a job .... as driver for the gang of bank robbers she is a member of. They are caught by the Feds and sent to prison, whereupon the story shifts to show how they fare in prison, some being rehabilitated, some sinking into permanent incarceration.

It's an early and well-directed piece by Tourneur, primary because of the clipped manner in which the dialogue is directed. It's an outgrowth of the shorts series, and Tourneur keeps the pace up, with people going about their work fast and eficiently, with some nice camerawork by Paul Vogel and Clyde de Vinna. Neal is shown being trained in a machine shop and I think that that dramatic lighting, including some shots that are illuminated largely by oxy-acetylene torch, are by de Vinna.