Girl Missing

Instead of the usual two guys as sleuth and sidekick, Girl Missing features two gals, blonde Kay (Farrell) and brunette June (Brian). I guess shaking a leg in a chorus line sharpened their Sherlock skills. Add mystery girl, Daisy (Shannon) and you've got lots of 1930's eye-candy along with the styles and fashions. Seems Daisy mysteriously disappears on her wedding night to a wealthy man, Gibson (Lyon). Her secret is she's a gold digger, but what good will disappearing do since how then can she collect. Thus the mystery begins.

This is pre-Code Warner Bros., so how can you lose. Even programmers like this 69-minutes are full of snap and sass. As a brassy dame Farrell belongs up there with Blondell and Rogers. Here she's full of ideas and push, but cutie Brian gets the guys. Together there're a good team, causing me to wonder if WB had series in mind. There's also an unusual wind-up since there're two plausible solutions to the mystery, one implicating apparently nice guy and male lead, Gibson. And catch those rickety old flivvers rolling down the road. I'm surprised they ever held together. Also in passing, check out actress Shannon's bio in IMDb—it's on the tragic side, especially since she had the screen talent.

Anyway, the movie's an entertaining way to pass on hour, without being anything special.

When Ben Lyon's bride is kidnapped from their Palm Beach hotel, stranded chorines Glenda Farrell and Mary Bryan find themselves mixed up as witnesses, suspects, and crime-crackers.

For a Warner Brothers quickie that clocks in at 69 minutes, this one has a surprisingly leisurely set-up, taking the first 25 minutes to paint the resort as populated by gold diggers, operators and rich marks. This is made possible by casting Miss Farrell, who could recite all of Hamlet in 27 minutes, but also the efficient story-telling at Warners in this period. It's not a topnotch script, but director Robert Florey keeps things humming along, with a few dutch angles and cheesecake shots to keep the intellectuals and lechers happy.

This film revolves around two chorus girls named Kay (Glenda Farrell) and June (Mary Brian), who are always looking for their next sugar daddy. Just as their latest benefactor leaves them high and dry, they hear about a former coworker who is marrying a well-to-do young man. When they run into the fortunate social climber, she gives them the high hat.

What begins as a comedy turns into a mystery when the new bride disappears and a corpse is found at the honeymoon hotel. The police are stymied, but the girls---motivated by a sizeable reward offer---set off to investigate.

Though Ms. Farrell has the more assertive role, I found Mary Brian to be a delight. The cast in general is strong. The fast-moving story never flags. A sequel featuring the detective work of the two women (and others from the cast) might have been a winner.

Motor-mouthed Glenda Farrell adds sass and vinegar to this better-than-most crime programmer dating from the early sound era. She and Mary Brian play a couple of New York gold-diggers stranded in Palm Beach when frustrated sugar daddy Guy Kibbee sticks them with an unpaid hotel bill. Spurred on by the prospect of a big reward, they get mixed up in the bridal-night disappearance of yet another gold-digger (Peggy Shannon), whom they know from her days in the kick line, but who managed to snag a millionaire (Ben Lyon).

In the course of their meddling, they encounter an old pal (Lyle Talbot) who seems anxious to get them out of town; a pair of overstuffed hams posing as a society couple (Helen Ware, Ferdinand Gottschalk); and a body in the hotel gardens, still smoking a cigar. Film buffs will catch brief appearances by Walter Brennan, Louise Beavers and Dennis O'Keefe.

Without ever really losing sight of its mystery plot or lapsing into the `comic,' Girl Missing brandishes a lot of racy, pre-Code wit, dished out mainly by Farrell. Most of the credit can no doubt go to scriptwriter Jules Furthman, whose credits include Shanghai Express, Bombshell, The Big Sleep and Nightmare Alley. The rest can go to Frenchman Robert Florey, whose directorial career may not be quite so distinguished but bears watching: Cocoanuts (the first Marx Brothers movie), the first `talking' Murders in the Rue Morgue, and a few noirs like Danger Signal and The Crooked Way. Girl Missing succeeds because of good teamwork, and it had a great team.

"Girl Missing" is a neat little B-movie which goes from being a comedy to a murder mystery about midway through the picture. It begins with Kay and June (Glenda Farrell and Mary Brian) at a hotel...and June is being pursued by a dirty old man (Guy Kibbee). While Kay and June are looking for a rich husband, this guy is just a creep who won't take no for an answer. Well, when June tells him no, he abandons them...sticking them with a hotel bill.

Now you probably will assume that the rest of the film will consists of the pair hooking husbands....and you'd be wrong! Instead, it becomes a murder mystery and the police are having a hard time putting the pieces together. So, like too many 1930s films, amateurs manage to piece it all together, as Kay and June want the reward money!

Overall, this is a fun and snappy B-movie...the type Warner Brothers did so very well during this era. The acting is very good and the writing, surprisingly, is very good as well. Well worth seeing and fun.

By the way, if you do watch note the opening titles....as they are very creatively done.