Madres incautas

This excellent thriller deals with the sale of stolen babies by baby broker racketeers. It is thus more relevant to today, when this problem is much more widespread, than it was in 1949. The plot is sound, the script first rate, and the acting is extremely good. It is interesting to see an early Jeff Chandler performance, in a supporting role, before his hair went prematurely white, and when he was so thin he looked like he needed a good meal. There is some crackling dialogue: 'I couldn't sleep, so I took my gun for a walk,' and 'The idea of you going straight is like a vulture becoming a vegetarian.' Raymond Burr, to whom the latter remark is addressed, is a heavy of suitably sour disposition. Dennis O'Keefe is an excellent clean-cut B hero, and Gale Storm is a rather sombre and expressionless 'good girl' from a small town who has come to the wicked city in search of her murdered sister and her stolen baby; she is convincing, though unexciting. A sinister sub-plot about the father of the two sisters making his daughter get rid of her illegitimate baby seems to have been cut because it was too shocking, but enough of it survives to show that it was clearly once there. Maybe the producers thought they had enough of a social message without getting that grim and frightening their audiences further. The sale of stolen babies was an issue that needed raising, and it was thoroughly portrayed in this film well ahead of its time. The director, Joseph Newman, did an excellent job, and at one point showed off by cutting from a match being struck by one character to a lit match being used by another character. Every thriller director is entitled to at least one arty moment, especially if it hypes the pace of the action, though this was probably in the script by Irwin Gielgud. Probably the few good one-liners constituted the 'extra dialogue' by William Bowers.

A young woman comes to town searching for her sister, who has been lost for some time. They find her at the morgue. Cause of death seems to have been suicide by gassing herself to death in a car. The sister refuses to believe and accept that. Fortunately there is a reporter at hand (Dennis O'Keefe) and they start digging. It proves the deceased sister Mary had a child without a father, caused it to be adopted, then wanted the child back, and was killed for it. There the story starts.

It's a great film with brilliant cinematography and a dialogue for Hollywood to be proud of, there were many films of Hollywood produced like this with the same extremely poignant dialogue, and they are all enjoyable forever. This is one of them and a perfect example as good as Henry Hathaway's best, in the same kind of documentary style, telling a story directly out of reality, without defining the location, like a page out of the "naked city". Dennis O'Keefe was never better, and Jeff Chandler is always more than reliable. Raymond Burr as the ominous crook turning soft and paying for it adds to the brilliance, while perhaps the cinematography gets the first prize.

In Abandoned's opening shot, that iconic edifice, the Los Angeles City Hall, looms menacingly into the night sky. From then on, it's a fast, rough ride through a brutal baby-adoption racket. Gale Storm is best remembered (if at all) as TV's My Little Margie, but she co-starred in a few noirs like Underworld Story and Between Midnight and Dawn; Abandoned is the best of them. She's come to town hunting for her vanished sister, knowing only that there's an out-of-wedlock baby girl involved. Storm links up with Dennis O'Keefe, a newspaper man, and Raymond Burr, a private detective supposedly hired by the missing girl's father back east (an enigmatic specter hanging over the story: Storm confides that her sister left home because "he wouldn't leave us alone"). Turns out that Sis was murdered for developing maternal instincts after having giving the baby up. The web of baby-nappers includes grandmotherly but lethal Marjorie Rambeau, some even less savory characters behind her, and, of course, Burr. Abandoned, despite its Hollywood-"happy" finish, stands as one of the grittier offerings in the noir cycle (Burr's being tortured with matches is one especially painful speck of grit).

Director Joe Newman, about whom I know very little, does a fine job with ABANDONED, extracting excellent performances from male lead Dennis O'Keefe as a reporter who instantly falls in love with Gale Storm, who is looking for her missing sister; dirty gumshoe Raymond Burr, probably the pick of the bunch; and chief villainess Marjorie Rambeau. For a B, this picture boasts an above average cast that includes police boss Jeff Chandler, heavy Mike Mazurki and top male baddy Will Kuluva.

Solid script resting on generally credible and crisp dialogue, attention to detail, and well shot action sequences.

Superb cinematography from William Daniels. Definitely warrants watching.

A young woman arrives in an unnamed town in search of her missing sister, whom she discovers in the morgue registered as a "Jane Doe" and an evident suicide. An investigative reporter befriends her, and together, while they seek the sister's illegitimate child, the pair uncover an illegal baby brokering ring. A taut, well-paced mystery, "Abandoned" features a voice-over reminiscent of television's "Dragnet" and superb black-and-white cinematography by William H. Daniels. Daniels wraps characters in deep shadows, creates striped abstracts from starkly-lit stairways, and cubic patterns that penetrate deep inky corridors. While Irwin Gielgud's screenplay holds attention and builds in suspense, Daniels's captivating images often compete with the plot for attention.

Gale Storm, better known for her comedic talents on early television shows, plays Paula Considine, the sister in search; unfortunately, the role is generic and undemanding, and Storm makes little impression. However, Dennis O'Keefe as Mark Sitko, the aggressive reporter, hits the right notes as a tough relentless investigator. Often enshrouded in William H. Daniel's shadows, burly Raymond Burr is memorable as Kerric, a corrupt private eye, whose only loyalty is to himself. A third-billed Jeff Chandler is effective as the district attorney, and Marjorie Rambeau is appropriately sinister as the two-faced ringleader.

Despite an obviously low budget, "Abandoned" benefits from location filming, which adds a documentary touch, enhanced by narration that implies some truth to the story. A fine cast of "B" players, memorable photography, and steady direction by Joe Newman, a veteran of modestly budgeted second features, together produced an entertaining, engaging film noir that is well worth catching.