User Reviews

Having seen H. B. Warner as a character player in dozens of films, i was pleasantly surprised to see him starring in this crime-exploitation film about the white slave trade. I was also deeply impressed with his ability to carry the complex role of a poetic, philosophical police captain on the verge of retirement with such presence during the course of what otherwise would seem to have been destined to be a routine crime drama.

Alas, being a post-code movie, the white slave trade aspect of the plot is only understandable as a subtext, but there are plenty of other intriguing moments in the movie that will make B-film enthusiasts sit up and say, "Wow." For me, the gymnastic dance featuring a pair of uncredited twin teen girls was one such moment. Where did they FIND such unusual talent? Who were those young, incredibly athletic, giggling twins? We'll probably never know.

And then there was the scene in which H. B. Warner, previously seeming to be frail, distracted, and ready for the scrap heap of life, suddenly LEAPED INTO THE AIR and jumped into his bed feet first! What the heck!? That was truly replay-worthy.

This is not a great film, of course, but since it is available at bargain prices, old film buffs will certainly get their money's worth if they take the time to seek it out and watch it.

Girls are going missing and a DA and veteran cop team up to expose the rackets that are set up to lure young girls in to a life of shame.

This film is more a curiosity than anything. My guess it was cheaply made and ran on the exploitation circuit for years. The music isn't even stock music, but is supplied by an organ that pumps out bridges between scenes.

How best to describe this movie? Its the type of movie that insomniacs prayed not to find on the Late Late Show because it was just interesting enough to keep them awake while it un-spooled. It wasn't good enough to actually wake them up, but it wasn't bad enough to put them out, rather its a film of the twilight between asleep and awake.

I'm of a similar mind, its not bad, but its not good. Its the sort of thing that just is. If you should run across it on TV you might want to try it, but I can't suggest searching it out.

5 out of 10

****SPOILERS**** A number of young women have disappeared or have been found murdered in and around town. The one connection being that they all have in common with each other is that they attended or are attending the Crescent School for the Fine Arts.

The local police department as well as the up and coming assistant DA James Horton,John Archer,as well as John's good friend and mentor police Captain McVeigh,H.B. Warner, have been trying with interest to find out who's behind these missing and dead young women. D.A Horton starts to put the heat on the schools owner Joseph Thompson, Boyd Irwin,who's a front-man for the cities top mobster King Peterson, Philip Van Zandt. Thompson has no idea of what the school that he's running is all about, Peterson's prostitution and call-girl racket.

Peterson tries to pay off assistant DA Horton with $10,000.00 to stop his investigation but the incorruptible Horton tells Peterson to take a walk with Capt. McVeigh listening in on the office inter-con. Peterson later comes up with the idea to frame and blackmail Horton in order to get him off his back. Later Tompson panics when it turns up in the newspaper that a student Pauline Randolph in the Crescent School was connected with with one of the murdered girls Thaila Arnold. Thompson wants out of the whole dirty business but Peterson won't let him in fear that Thompson would go to and tell the police in order to save his hide.

Pauleine is later also found murdered and the police now have enough evidence to make a case against the Crescent School and it's owner and administrators, the Peterson mob. Peterson then sets up assistant DA Horton by having one of his girls Kate Nelson,Patrkia Knox, to call him over to her hotel room with information on the Randolph murder.

Having Horton secretly photographed with her in a somewhat intimate pose Kate later gets into a fight with Peterson who kills her. Horton having himself photographed with Kate in her hotel room and later Kate being found murdered in that same room is now in no position to handle the case. He may very well be indited for murdering Kate! Two things then unexpectedly happen that saves the day for Horton and the forces of law and order.

The photographer who took the photo gets scared when he finds Kate's body and is later kidnapped by the Peterson mob only to be rescued by the police and then spills the beans on him, Peterson. Later Thompson's daughter Nora, Astrid Allwyn,who's a newspaper reporter goes undercover in the Crescent School as a student. Nora is recognized by Peterson and in a fit of disgust and outrage goes to call the police on him. the police and assistant DA break into his office and catch him red handed. Peterson is later convicted of murder and sentenced to the electric chair and at last the mystery of the missing and murdered girls is finally solved.

"City of Missing Girls" is a mostly typical crime drama with the exception of touching on a very taboo subject back in those days, the 1940's, in Hollywood: prostitution. It's interesting to see how the film makers avoided to even mention that word even though the movie plot was all about it, prostitution and call-girls, as if that subject and those very words were off-limits by the moral majority of that day which they were.

"A string of mysterious deaths and disappearances of young women have all been traced to a drama school, where all the girls were students. The district attorney suspects the school may be a front for a prostitution ring and sets out to investigate it. After the D.A. is blackmailed into dropping the investigation, a female reporter decides to go undercover to learn the truth," according to the DVD sleeve's synopsis.

Writer/director Elmer Clifton manages to squeeze a few drops of blood from this stone. A scene between villain Philip Van Zandt (as King Peterson) asking "Do you mind if I smoke?" and hero John Archer (as Jimmy Horton) replying "I don't care if you burn" piques interest. Mr. Clifton and H.B. Warner (as "Mac" McVeigh) were bigger names during the silent film era (look for Walter Long, also).

Mr. Archer was a fine actor, who did not get the parts he deserved; and it shows, in this film. Teenage Gale Storm (as Mary Phillips), who unexpectedly became a 1950s TV and rock 'n' roll era recording star, is irresistibly cute; she, and brief pair of vivacious dancing girls, give the film some much-needed oomph. In spite of some strengths, "City of Missing Girls" remains oblique and recumbent.

**** City of Missing Girls (3/27/41) Elmer Clifton ~ John Archer, H.B. Warner, Gale Storm

City of Missing Girls is an interesting post-Hays Code mystery film. It verges on exploitation subject matter but seeing as it was made after the stringent Code censorship rules you could be forgiven for not even noticing. The story is basically about an unscrupulous club-owner who sends show-girls off to lives of prostitution. Pretty racy stuff for the times but the vice material is only ever really alluded to. This was seriously taboo material in the 40's hence this enforced approach.

The film itself is an efficient enough, if unremarkable, example of genre film-making of the time. The focus is strictly on the mystery side of the story, with thrills and suspense almost completely absent. Still it's worth checking out as something of a curiosity piece, seeing as it was quite unusual in the 40's for such a standard mystery film to incorporate any exploitation material at all. So at the very least this movie has this one unusual angle to differentiate it from most of its peers.

This is a very low budget B picture which is saved from being a waste of time by surprisingly good acting. The film is 98% shot in a studio with the most basic possible sets. The film did provide an opportunity for Gale Storm, aged 19, to appear in her third feature film (she started in movies only the year before). She would later become famous in America and become something of a 'national treasure' in the hit television series MY LITTLE MARGIE (1952-1955), in which she played Little Margie. Since the series ran to 126 episodes, there was no one in America who had not seen her and taken her to their hearts by the time that was over. And from 1956 to 1960 she continued to ride on her wave of national popularity with her own series, THE GALE STORM SHOW. This film featured H. B. Warner, a well-known and solid performer of the old school, as a police captain, and an extremely lively and cheerful Astrid Allwyn, who does a very good job at holding the film together and keeping us interested. She plays very well against John Archer, as there is chemistry in their jokey romance. The film is a mystery, in that several young girls from the city have disappeared, and no one can trace them. Two have been found dead, so that there is obviously something sinister going on. Whodunnit and who is doing it? That's what everyone wants to know. But it is not easy to find out. A rainy afternoon film.

This is the story of a crime boss who has a front for either white slavery or prostitution. The words are never spoken. This would have been pretty hot stuff for the time. It involves an assistant district attorney, a female reporter, and a cop who just can't retire. All in all, the chemistry is pretty good. The reporter isn't as tiresome as they usually are. She seems to have some soul and some merit. The bad guy is also pretty well conceived and presents a formidable presence. It is pretty formulaic but keeps our attention throughout. The blackmail thing is believable for the most part and the elements of the crime story are nicely balanced. The one thing that troubles me is the aftermath, dealing with the reporter's father. I won't give anything away, so see what you think of the ending scene.

A cadaverous H.B. Warner hovers on the fringes of this crime thriller which boasts better-than-average production values for a Poverty Row production but plods along at a dreary pace.

An assistant DA tries to track the whereabouts of missing girls, leading into a tangled web of corruption.

With that suggestive title and sleaze director Elmer Clifton, I was expecting maximum titillation. Well, there is some peek-a-boo at The Crescent School of Fine Art, where the half-clad dancers somehow manage to all be female. No doubt, if it weren't for the censors, the "school" would be called Gateway to Hookerland, but then this is a commercial product.

Not surprisingly, it is a cheap undertaking by quick-buck producers. Still, the cast is much better than the material, especially the sparkly Allwyn and the smoothly slick Van Zandt, who's especially impressive as an egotistical gangster. His sarcastic exchanges with DA Horton (Archer) may well be the film's dramatic highlight. These main players may not be exactly household names but they do lend edge to what could have been merely a listless payday. Impressive too is old-timer HB Warner who's about as relaxed before the camera as anyone I've seen. Still, it's a long way from Jesus in King of Kings (1927), a silent screen classic. I imagine he was added for marquee value. Then too, catch malt-shop Gale Storm in a small but appealing part.

Anyway, it's a rather complex plot so you may need to keep notes. Still, the large cast does about as well with the tacky material as can be expected, and is not without points of interest.

What a load of rubbish. Girls are not missing from this non-thriller, but everything else is. No real action until two thirds and more of the way through, and then only if you use a liberal definition of action.

Leading lady Astrid Allwyn is no ingénue but you kind of wish she was, even women reporters were never meant to be this brazen. There is no real plot to this either, there is no scenery, it could have been made in one building, and probably was. Did people really shell out good money to watch celluloid trash like this even in the 1940s?

Another reviewer has suggested it has hidden depths, that the missing girls were involved in a white slavery racket or some such. It does give that impression towards the end, but if ever subtlety was not needed, it was not needed here.

Saccharine Story of Sex-Trafficking behind a "Training" School for Show Business Female Wannabes.

Veiled with Double-Talk and Innuendo to Keep the Code-Police at Bay.

There's a Reference to even High-School Girls as Victims.

The Scantily-Clad "Girly" Scenes are Vapid, Hardly Titillating Dance Numbers with the Performers so Heavily Dressed as to be Ridiculous.

The Mystery Part isn't much of a Mystery.

It's a "Go-Through-The-Motions" Motion Picture.

With a Lead Female Reporter, Named "Page", (Astrid Allwyn) so Bright-Eyed and Giddy as to be Distracting.

Silent-Movie Star H. B. Warner Milks His Age as a Police Inspector that is the Butt of Many Barbs about Retiring.

Phillip Van Zandt is a Slimy King-Pin Named "King" and Steals His Scenes with His Dark Good Looks and Evil Persona.

Not a Bad Movie but it Lands with a Thud, sorta Like the Leading Man John Archer.

No Spark, the Film just Begs for Something, Anything to Light a Fire Under the Damp Dramatics.

Dull but well acted story of young women that have turned up missing that have one thing in common - they have been attending the Crescent School of the Arts in pursuit of getting into show biz. I enjoyed watching a young John Archer, pretty Astrid Allwyn, crusty HB Warner, and devious Phil Van Zandt give their all in what had to be a pretty inexpensively made film. Also look for Herb Vigran, who amazingly was unaccredited, as one of Phil Van Zandt's henchmen. This an okay time waster but don't seek it out.

H.B Warner a police captain and young Assistant District Attorney John Archer are working on what back in those days would be a white slavery racket. Young women theatrical hopefuls sign up for some kind of training school and then disappear.

But when a body of a young woman shows up known to have gone to this 'school' it becomes a solid case of homicide and law enforcement redoubles its efforts.

Astrid Allwyn a Lois Lane type reporter is covering the story, but she has a discomforting surprise awaiting here which I will not reveal. It could compromise a budding romance with Archer.

This had some possibilities, but in the end it's a shoddily made independent feature.