The great thing about watching old be movies is finding actors you've never heard of, and in the case of this Republic programmer, that somebody is Twinkle Watts. She's not as cute as pie as Shirley Temple or is precocious as Margaret O'Brien, but there is something special about her which is perhaps the fact that she is as much of an adult, or even more so, then her on-screen father, here play by Western Star Allen Lane. Widowed on the day that twinkle was born, Lane is an embittered widower, working hard in his career as a reporter and apparently seen around town with every single blonde that he can get to go out with him. Lane's sister, Mary Treen, and her lazy husband Wallace Ford, have taken in Watts to raise her but any effort to get Lane to even spend any time with her has fallen on deaf ears. It takes a good woman to open Lane up to starting to try to have a relationship with his daughter, and in this case it is troubled drive-in waitress Jane Frazee, hiding a past that suddenly comes back to haunt her.
Republic Studios made many Straight Talk indie films throughout the 1930s through the 1950s, and in seeing these films 60 years after they were made it is amazing how fresh their scripts seem. They do not talk like characters made from a normal movie script. They talk like regular people do, having conversations like any grown-ups would with their children and each other, and not at all sounding like actors reading lines off of a script. The comic relief goes naturally to train and Ford, playing on antagonistic married couple who insult each other believably yet obviously are meant to be together. They are a forerunner to the 1950s TV couple the bickersons, and provide plenty of amusement. Adele Mara, one of Republic's rising young starlets, is quite striking as one of Frazee's co-workers. The only issue I had with this film is the sudden involvement of Frazee's ex-husband, an imprisoned bank robber who chooses the moment of her finding happiness to escape from prison, a plot twist that seems too convenient to happen just out of the blue. But other than that, this is a entertaining B film that features a child actor whom I would like to see more of.
Republic Studios made many Straight Talk indie films throughout the 1930s through the 1950s, and in seeing these films 60 years after they were made it is amazing how fresh their scripts seem. They do not talk like characters made from a normal movie script. They talk like regular people do, having conversations like any grown-ups would with their children and each other, and not at all sounding like actors reading lines off of a script. The comic relief goes naturally to train and Ford, playing on antagonistic married couple who insult each other believably yet obviously are meant to be together. They are a forerunner to the 1950s TV couple the bickersons, and provide plenty of amusement. Adele Mara, one of Republic's rising young starlets, is quite striking as one of Frazee's co-workers. The only issue I had with this film is the sudden involvement of Frazee's ex-husband, an imprisoned bank robber who chooses the moment of her finding happiness to escape from prison, a plot twist that seems too convenient to happen just out of the blue. But other than that, this is a entertaining B film that features a child actor whom I would like to see more of.
