Paid in Full

Caught this film by accident some years ago in a hospital waiting room. It's a soap, for sure, but I was unexpectedly impressed by the acting and the direction, which made the teary script work far better than it had a right to. A thoroughly, impressively professional job all around!

PAID IN FULL boasts terrific work from two underrated actresses, Lizabeth Scott and Diana Lynn, here playing sisters. Scott is the older one, the sensible sister who has raised Lynn after their mother died in childbirth from something called placenta previa. Scott works in a department store as an illustrator while Lynn, a spoiled little witch, works as a model. Lynn is trying to hook a rich husband but when that fails she grabs upwardly mobile Robert Cummings, who works with Scott and is Scott's secret love. But it's no secret to Lynn.

Lynn has a baby, but she's psychotic with jealousy and hates sharing the child with Cummings or anyone. After a few plot twists which lead to divorce. Scott marries Cummings and has a baby even though she has the same disease her mother had.

Scott often played rotten ladies, sort of a queen of noir films in the 40s and 50s, but here plays the goody good girl, while perky Lynn, often cast in kid sister roles, seemingly exults in playing the witch. Cummings stands around. Eve Arden plays the man-hungry co-worker, Stanley Ridges the kindly doctor, and Carol Channing makes her film debut. A rather lurid women's picture but well worth catching.

We love Lizabeth Scott when she's bad. She isn't bad in this, the script and the rest of the cast is. Bob Cummings should stick to light comedy and the other leading lady is so bland I can't remember her.

The overwrought accident that causes all the guilt and melodrama is as ludicrous as the sacrifice made at the ending.

I liked this film until about halfway or two-thirds of the way through. It had great concepts, complicated relationships and psychology, and compelling storylines. The actors are wonderful and really pull off their roles well. They're well cast. However the second half or final third is marred by terrible psychology and loose ends. Things start not making sense and never stop. There are some Hail Marys in here that just don't work well. You really have to push the boundaries of realism to enjoy this one, which is a shame since it had such a strong start.

Boy what a potboiler.

Robert Cummings stars with Lizabeth Scott and Diana Lynn in "Paid in Full" from 1950.

Cummings plays Bill Prentice, who works side by side with Jane (Scott) in the advertising section of a department store. She's in love with him, but he is in love with her gold-digging sister, Nancy (Diana Lynn). He has bought an engagement ring for Nancy and wants to propose.

If you thought Veda Pierce was bad, Nancy has her beat. Right after a millionaire gives her the kiss-off, Bill proposes, and Nancy accepts. You can tell right away there are going to be problems - he wants a wedding with just Jane and a couple of other people present. She wants a $500 wedding gown (almost 6,000 in today's money) that her sister gets for her. The wedding turns into a packed church affair with bridesmaids.

Nancy is terribly unhappy - Bill doesn't pay enough attention to her. She makes him miserable. Jane, meanwhile, still in love with Bill, is dating. Since her mother died giving birth, there's apparently a genetic problem, and Jane won't be able to have children. It is her great sorrow.

Nancy has a baby but is jealous of the attention Bill gives her, is angry with Jane for decorating the nursery, and winds up cutting off Jane and doing what she can to keep her husband away from the baby.

I won't tell you the rest - it's the stuff of soap operas. Lizabeth Scott is lovely, but no one is that good a person. Diana Lynn plays her role beautifully, she's a terror. Cummings, as the man in the middle, doesn't have much to do, but he's always likeable. Eve Arden, as a coworker of Jane's and Bill's, is an outspoken riot.

This is a woman's picture, all right, the kind Kay Francis did in the early '30s.