ESCORT GIRL(director: Edward E. Kaye; screenwriters: Ann and David Halperin; cinematographer: Jack Greenhalgh; editor: Holbrook N. Todd; cast: Betty Compson (Ruth Ashley), Margaret Marquis (June Ashley), Bob Kellard (Drake Hamilton), Wheeler Oakman (Gregory Stone), Guy Kingsford (Breeze Nolan), Isabel La Mal (Snuggles), Arthur Housman (Drunk), Ric Vallon (Jack), Mary Daily (Suzie), Kathryn Keyes (Rita), Isabel La Mal (Snuggles); Runtime: 68; MPAA Rating: NR; producer: J.D. Kendis; Continental Pictures; 1941)
“Just a dreadful exploitation B film.”
Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz
Just a dreadful exploitation B film about the escort business in Hollywood being investigated by a new DA, whose campaign promise was to clean-up the town. It’s flatly directed by Edward E. Kaye and flatly written by Ann and David Halperin.
The seemingly respectable middle-aged couple, Gregory Stone (Wheeler Oakman) and his business partner/girlfriend Ruth Ashley (Betty Compson), secretly run an escort service for both men and women in Hollywood, which fronts as a call-girl ring. The service is managed by ex-con Breeze Nolan (Guy Kingsford), who keeps silent on whose the big boss. Gangster Stone also owns the Café Martinique, where the escorts take their dates and order expensive champagne drinks.
Ruth is a former escort girl who has devoted her life to making sure her daughter June (Margaret Marquis) has a good, clean life. June is unaware of what her mom does and has been sent to fashionable boarding schools so she is not at home and thereby kept in the dark about mom’s criminal behavior. June is engaged to nice guy lawyer Drake Hamilton (Bob Kellard), who coincidentally is sent by the DA to be an undercover investigator of the escort ring. Ruth is threatened by the surprise visit of her daughter, and when Stone finds out about Drake’s assignment he tries to deal underhandedly with the situation but things blow up in his face in a predictable way.
REVIEWED ON 5/1/2009 GRADE: C-
Dennis Schwartz: “Ozus’ World Movie Reviews”
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