Escort Girl

Movie about a sweet young girl named June (Margaret Marquis) who doesn't realize her mom helps run an escort agency with sleazy Gregory Stone (Wheeler Oakman). The problem is she's madly in love with tall handsome Drake (Bob Kellard) who's investigating the escort agencies and Stone will do anything to stop him...

The acting is pretty bad all around (although Isabel La Mal as Snuggles is amusing), the story pretty unbelievable and the print I saw on TCM was in VERY poor shape (there were so many jumps in it I almost gave up watching a few times). Still even a pristine print can't really make this a good film. It's not bad but it's hardly good. For what it is (an exploitation film) it's not bad. There's a few scenes of the escort girls lounging around in their underwear and there's a quick and (for 1941) pretty explicit striptease. Only her top comes off but that was pretty risqué back then. It's watchable and somewhat amusingly dated--the rate for an escort girl back then was only $10.00! They don't have sex though unless you pay $20.00!!! An OK exploitation film for its day.

While this film is not as sleazy as SLAVES IN BONDAGE or GAMBLING WITH SOULS, two earlier films that featured star Wheeler Oakman as a pimp, ESCORT GIRL is slickly made and well-acted by a wonderful cast, and while it doesn't "show anything", it does have a seedy, dirty feel to it, even though it's not unlike a studio-bound, low-budget Grand National crime drama. Oakman, great as the heavy in so many westerns, gets a meaty role as the co-owner of a sleazy escort service, co-run with Oscar nominee and major star of the silent era Betty Compson. Compson's daughter, who has been attending fancy boarding schools in other states, does not know what business her Mom is REALLY in, and suddenly appears out of nowhere. When Compson and Oakman learn that the daughter's boyfriend (Robert Kellard, featured in some classic serials, and playing the title character in the 1947 Columbia serial TEX GRANGER) works for the District Attorney's office, things start to get complicated. It's a joy to watch two pros like Compson and Oakman work--Compson's monologues about motherhood and the dirtiness of the escort business are delivered as if they were great literature. Also, this film LOOKS great. The VHS transfer looks as if it were shot yesterday. There's an incredible plot complication about two-thirds of the way through the movie that I won't mention, but is amazing, and the drunken "confession" after it is classic. In addition, the great screen drunk Arthur Housman stumbles through one scene, and Rick Vallin is priceless as a gigolo who is stuck with an elderly but rich lady as his date, night after night. It's a running gag throughout the film, and Vallin plays it to the hilt. I've probably watched this film a dozen times over the years. It's not as sleazy as other exploitation films, nor is it weird like a Dwain Esper film--it's VERY competently made. It just has a strange appeal to me. Perhaps it will have a similar effect on you? Fans of Wheeler Oakman or Betty Compson will not want to miss it.

This film is hilariously bad, with silent star Betty Compson, in her mid-40s (but looking like mid-60s) as an "escort," even though we never get to see her do her thing. Her daughter eventually finds out about her mother, leading to the riveting climax. I won't give away the ending, but let's just say somebody gets shot and someone gets tossed out a window. Ms. Compson isn't in the film enough to make this interesting, even as a curio. The film is made even worse by the condition of the print. The skips cause the dialogue to be chopped to smithereens, characters jump from one position to another, and a gun magically appears in Ms. Compson's hand. At one point, the sound was so bad that Ms. Compson sounded like Porky Pig. The sound disappeared completely for a minute due to the required monthly test by our cable company (I just love when that happens). Arthur Housman has a bit as a drunk, which was an acting stretch for him.

I just stumbled into this grindhouse-type feature from the early '40s on the Internet Archive. This is a short melodramatic story of a female head of an escort service who has a big worry on her mind when her daughter-who's never known about her mother's profession since she's been to out-of-town schools growing up-visits her with her fiancée who's investigating to close down these adult places. It's just as well the print I saw had several splices and was just under an hour since the whole thing was mostly laughably cheesy especially whenever that daughter gets angry or sad and gets saddled with the worst lines to boot! There are some intentionally amusing moments though like when Arthur Housman does his usual drunk routine (I remember him from some Laurel & Hardy shorts) or when that receptionist talks and does some facial reactions. I think she's played by Gay Seabrook who's best known as Spanky's mother in a couple of Our Gang shorts. And, yes, there's a somewhat sexy striptease dance of one lady who shows her breasts though her nipples are covered by pasties. So on that note, Escort Girl is worth a look for what I just sighted and no more.

This is a thoroughly dreadful film and the fact that the print is so incredibly choppy doesn't help matters! In fact, it's one of the choppiest prints I have ever seen--and it must have lopped at least five minutes off the film! The movie is about an escort service--in other words, a prostitution ring. A lady is the madame of this agency and has managed to hide this from her daughter--who she has sent away to exclusive schools in order to hide the mother's dirty life. But, when the now grown daughter unexpectedly shows up with her boyfriend (who just happens to be the son of the District Attorney who is investigating this racket!!), things get interesting...or so it should have been had the film been written better. Instead, the film limps along--punctuated with a very risqué striptease scene that really has nothing to do with the film--it's just a chance to see a nearly nude woman. In fact, because of this, the film would not have been allowed to have been shown in many, if not most, municipalities. But, considering how dumb and boring the whole things is, this is no great loss. While it's bad all around, perhaps Margaret Marquis' acting (as the daughter) is the worst in the film---it was THAT bad! Dumb from start to finish.