Girls on Probation

With a slippery friend like Hilda, a dad like a steaming pot, plus a Cinderella dress that could send her to jail, what's poor sweet Connie to do. Well, we find out over a rather mild 60-minutes. It's a 1930's crime programmer from WB, with the usual WB elements-- a brassy blonde (Hilda), gunplay action, and a righteous hand of the law. Here, however, the sweetness of actress Bryan's Connie overshadows these gritty parts. The likable girl's caught up in a vortex of connivance and plain bad luck, that lands her in jail. At the same time, Connie's radiant close-ups, even at the worst moments, amount to a personal showcase that focuses away from the storyline. Anyway, my favorite part is the women's jail. There's real spark in those scenes, and note how similar the girls look, all slim, young, and attractive, like the result of a casting call.

Frankly, the storyline's a big stretch, particularly Hilda and Connie's enduring relationship, and that's despite Hilda's frequent betrayals. In fact, the relationship even overshadows Connie's clichéd romance with amiable attorney Neil (Reagan). (Catch Reagan's 1938 film credits-I'm surprised he ever slept.) All in all, the flick's pretty loosely put together, the elements too wobbly to achieve real impact. Nonetheless, probation comes off looking like a pretty humane idea, which I guess is the movie's main purpose.

An interesting example of the fast-paced low-budget melodramas the Warner Bros. "B" picture unit run by producer Bryan Foy churned out by the dozens back in the thirties, this film features the pre-presidential Ronny Reagan as a do-good handsome DA who falls for and protects the very likable Jane Bryan. (In later years Bryan's millionaire husband was to become one of the future president's kitchen cabinet.) Reagan played many dreamboat roles like this one in his Warner Bros. contract days and rarely got a chance to show that he possessed real dramatic talent. At the beginning of the film, the 21 one year old Susan Hayward, at the start of her long career, has a small but very noticeable role. Not only was she remarkably beautiful but she could act! Fans of the great German comic actor, Sig Rumann, ("To Be or Not to Be") will enjoy his transformation from Jane's stern Teutonic father to the proud future father-in-law of Reagan.

Despite the title, like something for National Enquirer Studios, "Girls on Probation" is quite good.

Being from Warner Brothers, naturally the cast is first rate. As was so common, there were great actors such as John Hamilton in small uncredited roles.

Jane Bryan, as Connie Heath, is the star, and what a lovely young woman she is here. And what a shame she retired from motion picture making so early. She died almost two months before this writing, 8 April 2009, and as actress and as human being and as American citizen her death is a great loss.

Sheila Bromley plays the ... uh, "friend" who gets Connie into trouble, not on purpose but just by being irresponsible.

She is perhaps familiar to Western fans as Sheila Mannors, the last name being spelled at least three different ways.

She got the last line here in a moving scene.

Reagan's character was one of his most sympathetic and likable, probably much like him in real life, according to friends.

It's easy enough to be cynical about Warner "B" movies, but for those of us who understand the context, and those of us who can see the sense of life, this is a good movie.

"Girls on Probation" is a B-movie whose biggest claim to fame are a couple very early performances by supporting actors Ronald Reagan and Susan Hayward. Otherwise, it's full of plot holes and often irritating to watch....especially as the film progresses.

Connie (Jane Bryan) is a working lady who doesn't know that she's got a friend who is a bad egg. Hilda is very larcenous...and ends up getting Connie into trouble twice. First, when they go out dancing, Hilda lends Connie a dress...a dress that turns out to be stolen. Naturally, Hilda lies about it and Connie is left holding the bag. Second, Connie moves to another town following this and, surprise, suprise, she finds Hilda in her car....and demands Hilda tell the truth. But Hilda is in the middle of a robbery...and she's waiting in the getaway car....and soon Connie is forced at gunpoint to get in the getaway car! Soon they are chased by cops and Hilda begins shooting at them. Connie strips the gun away from her and forces the accomplice to pull over and the police arrest them.

The cops believe Connie was part of the robbery and Hilda insists she was as well...though WHY and why Connie is so vicious makes little sense. And, it makes no sense that the women are tried TOGETHER (which is odd since Connie is testifying against Hilda) and they are locked up in jail together!

Can the probation department straighten all this out and get to the truth of the matter? Or, is Connie destined to be her girl-toy in the big house?

The plot to this film strains credibility well past the breaking point. So often, Connie behaves stupidly and Hilda's strange actions just don't make much sense either. It's especially confusing and stupid when Hilda re-appears much later...trying to blackmail Connie! So, despite being made by Warner Brothers, it's a B-movie with a script with more holes than a pound of Swiss cheese!! Watchable but pretty dumb.

Just another one of those Warner Bros. B-films from the '30s where, if the truth were told from the beginning, the whole sorry story could have been cleared up without all the melodramatic fuss rendered here by the fast talking and very dated screenplay.

But then we'd have no excuse to see RONALD REAGAN in one of his apprentice roles as an insurance inspector, JANE BRYAN as an "innocent" girl who just happens to get mixed up with bank robbers, and a whole cast of stereotyped actors from the Warner stock company going through the usual paces.

Aside from Reagan and Bryan, SUSAN HAYWARD has a small role as a girl who reports a stolen dress to the authorities and starts the whole story about a girl (Bryan) who's unfortunate enough to be caught up in a chain of circumstances involving friendship with a "bad" girlfriend. Both of them end up serving time for a bank robbery, but it's only a matter of time before even more bad breaks put Bryan into the kind of situations that only Ronald Reagan can rescue her from.

Done in the brisk Warner style with some tough dialog. After the final shootout, the fatally wounded bad girl says, "I'm on my way to see the boss." Although the plot is silly, JANE BRYAN gives a sensitive performance as the unfortunate girl while Reagan has so little to do he might as well have stayed home. Susan Hayward looks pretty but has only a bit part. Bad girl SHEILA BROMLEY is a nasty piece of goods in a very overwritten role as a spiteful young woman who makes life hell for Bryan.

Okay for a vehicle that played the lower half of double bills in 1938.