Second Chance

Dull, dull story of two people (Kent Taylor and Louise Currie) who meet at a jewelers' and silently conspire to steal a $30,000 diamond. She is actually an insurance investigator.

Talky and boring. I did enjoy Louise Currie's performance, however. She was a new find for me.

"Second Chance" is a low-budgeted B-movie about some jewel thieves as well as an informer who might be in their midst. However, some of the gang members are beginning to suspect and are determined to silence this person if they can identify them.

The movie is okay. It's moderately interesting but fails to be any better for two main reasons. First, the love affair between the two leads makes little sense and happens way too quickly. Second, the ending also doesn't make a lot of sense. Overall, it's about what you'd expect in a B...mild entertainment but a few plot holes here and there because the movie was made so quickly and efficiently.

I enjoyed this B crime mainly because of Louise Currie. She is an independently-minded jewel thief who targets a diamond at the same time as Kent Taylor. Thanks to her jewel thief bag they manage to steal it. But they have to deal with a gang of jewel thieves who the police are on to. They come under suspicion from this gang as someone is informing on them. After wearing down her resistance to his advances, Taylor convinces her that he wants her to be more than his partner in crime. Doubts come into their minds whether they are big-time enough to carry on with jewel theft. Paul Guilfoyle is good as the gang's go-between. I chuckled as he fingered the detective's clothing, to check for the quality of their manufacture I think, while being questioned. In this movie I think B actor, Louise Currie, has a facial resemblance to Jane Russell.

Kent Taylor is present when Louise Curry tells the jeweler that the diamond she's looking at isn't the million-dollar stone he thinks. The jeweler calls the cops, and detective sergeant Larry Blake has them strip-searched, and then let go. He then starts to sweat other members of the gang -- because Taylor is part of a jewel-stealing gang, and Miss Curry an independent thief. As they go on their ways, they realize they're in love. Is this a chance to get out and live a decent life?

After 20th Century-Fox shut down its B division, producer Sol Wurzel continued to produce more of the same for distribution by the company. Usually the quality suffered, but not here, with a good script, decent direction by James Tinling, and some fine character actors, including Ann Doran, Paul Guilfoyle, Betty Compson (in her next-to-last movie appearance), and Edwin Maxwell. Although I found the ending a bit off, this is mostly a nicely realized film about two people hoping for a better life.