Vanity Street

Nifty and fast-paced pre-Code film has Helen Chandler homeless and starving, so she tosses a brick through a drugstore window so she can be arrest and get some food and sleep. But the tables are turned by big-hearted cop (Charles Bickford) takes her under his wing and into his apartment to look after her. He also gets her a job as a chorus girl where she attracts the attention of slimy Val (George Meeker) who preys upon women.

Seems he's also been robbing fading star Fern Cavan (Mayo Methot) blind, and when she quits her starring role in the show, he cleans out her safe and leaves to flat, using the money to lure Chandler into his "high life." Chandler takes the bait after she gives up waiting for Bickford to take a romantic interest in her. But when the faded star realizes her money is gone, she goes into action.

Helen Chandler is wonderful and remains one of the underrated stars of early talkies. Charles Bickford is good in a rare sympathetic role. George Meeker is appropriately oily, and Mayo Method, best remembered as one of Bogart's wives, has a solid role and is quite good as the troubled star. The print I have from Sony MOD is excellent.

The film begins with Jeanie (Helen Chandler) throwing a brick through a store window. No, she's not angry about anything...she's hungry and homeless and figures that at least in jail she'll have a place to sleep and a meal. The arresting officer, Brian Murphy (Charles Bickford), can see that she's no criminal and does something extraordinary...he gives her the key to his apartment and tells her to make herself at home. Then, he helps her get on her feed and get a job....no strings attached whatsoever. He's just a really nice guy. However, he's also a bit dim in that he doesn't realize that Jeanie is smitten with him and he rejects her advances. Eventually, she runs off with a real jerk...anyone to spite Murphy. What's next? Murder!!

This film is like many Pre-Code pictures in that its moral compass is NOT like it would be in the Post-Code era. No, it has unmarried folks cohabitating, it has them talk about sex (without actually coming right out and saying it) and there's a character who curses. Definitely NOT what many would expect from an older film...but still extremely well written and enjoyable.

Charles Bickford was all too often stuck with supporting roles, but he's got much more to do here in this gritty drama. He is police officer "Murphy" who encounters the vulnerable young "Jeanie" (Helen Chandler) who is homeless and helpless. She has some talent for the stage so he manages to get her a job on the "Follies" where she first meets it's star "Fern" (Mayo Methot). Now that woman is having a clandestine affair with the duplicitous "French" (George Meeker) who is systematically bleeding her dry. When she threatens to walk off unless she is paid more, her producer calls her bluff and appoints the young "Jeanie", but before she can start the job or, for that matter, before the now completely loved-up "Murphy" can walk her down the aisle, a murder is committed and though we, watching, know who did the deed, "Murphy" doesn't and a clue at the scene points to his gal. Is she guilty? How can he prove not? This is a solid crime thriller with two strong female roles, as well those from Bickford an the on-form Meeker and there's a steady stream of toxicity that doesn't exactly show the world of theatre in a great light either. Director Nick Grinde keeps the pace strong, the melodrama at bay and makes better use of his stars than many others at this early stage of the talkies.

This zippy little pre-code from Columbia is stark and primitive in many ways, but offers many pre-code pleasures; gruff cop Charles Bickford lives a lonely, spartan life and when he comes across a starving young woman in trouble offers her a chocolate milkshake (with two eggs!) and a place to sleep--the young woman, played sympathetically by winsome Helen Chandler, ultimately manages to find her way into a current Follies show, and has the opportunity to move up the dating ladder--but still yearns for the good natured police Daddy who fails to see what she has to offer. Meanwhile, various salacious relationships are hinted at, one a gigolo blackmail of an older woman, and another involving blonde sexpot Mayo Methot (later half of the "battling Bogarts"), who plays a hard-boiled fallen star form the Follies ( who dominates every scene she' s in by sheer force of will--this dame spells trouble with a capital "T"! ) Not really too much mystery here, but a fast-paced pre-code available in crisp new transfer and an entertaining way to spend a nostalgic afternoon at the movies

Helen Chandler needs a place to sleep, so she tosses a brick through a window, figuring they'll feed her in jail. Detective Charles Bickford realizes how desperate she is, so he puts her up at his apartment and gets her a job on the chorus line of a revue. When headliner Mayo Methot walks out, Miss Chandler becomes the star. But she's in love with Bickford, who's been playing Officer McGruff, so she falls for Miss Methot's hoodlum boyfriend, George Meeker, and gets caught with his corpse.

It's one of the surprisingly good Columbia movies that they turned out on a tiny budget when Harry Cohn wasn't occupied fighting with Capra. Director Nick Grinde, who managed to eke out a decent career for no reason I could ever fathom, does a good job, with some lovely camera work by Joseph August. The story feels cramped in its 67 minutes, but it certainly doesn't waste any time.