Why Girls Leave Home

This originated as a remake of the 1921 Warner Bros silent but emerged as a more sophisticated take on the 'good-girl-gone-bad' theme. PRC's pictures can be a mixed bag to say the least, but this turns out to be one of their better efforts, easily up there with Detour (1945).

It's essentially a could-be murder mystery. An unconscious Diana (Pamela Blake) is fished from the river by newspaper reporter Chris (Sheldon Leonard). The police dismiss it as a suicide attempt, but Chris begins to suspect attempted murder. The story emerges in quasi-Rashomon style as he interviews various people who figured in her fall from homebody to hard-boiled nightclub hostess, all of whom are also suspects in the (possible) crime, including musician Jimmy (Elisha Cook Jr), who first lured her from her comfortable family life to the sleazy Kitten Klub to become a nightclub singer; club proprietress Irene (Lola Lane), her put-upon sidekick Raymond (Paul Guilfoyle), and Diana's sympathetic best friend, showgirl Flo (Constance Worth). The conclusion is not entirely surprising, but the journey there is certainly entertaining.

Director William Berke wrings a very decent film from unpromising material. A good deal of hot jazz helps - the best of the three songs, The Cat and the Canary, won PRC a nomination for Best Original Song in the following year's Oscars - as does a better-than-average cast. PRC were capable of some truly dreadful films, but this was definitely not one of them.

Why Girls Leave Home does, in fact, exist. It isn't shown much, but it is, assuredly, not lost. I know of (and have seen) a 16mm print of it, currently in the hands of a private collector in Pennsylvania. The print was made shortly after the film's theatrical release, probably for the rental market. Quite likely there are others around as well, and it may also have turned up on early television. As far as the quality of the film itself: It's a tough, pretty well-paced little movie, with above-average production values for this studio. Livingston and Evans's Oscar-nominated song is very entertaining and, not surprisingly, the cast is filled with pros. Pamela Blake is more than adequate (if a shade mature) as the innocent heroine, Virginia Brissac (who played mother roles in, seemingly, thousands of movies) gets one of her biggest parts here, and Sheldon Leonard, Elisha Cook and, especially, Lola Lane are better than good. (Lane has a great scenery-chewing moment in the homestretch.) Too bad that it's so little-seen today, because it's definitely one of the best PRC efforts.