The Woman Condemned

This isn't the clearest story ever plotted. I know what happens, but tying to explain it with out giving away too much is going to be rather difficult. Basically a woman takes a "vacation" from the radio program on which she is the star. Its not explained why, though her overly emoted good bye to her would be boyfriend suggests that there is an ominous reason. At some point she is killed and an innocent woman is blamed. Will the real killer ever be caught? What was the secret that forced the dead woman from the radio? Will we remain awake long enough to find out? Simple this is not. This is a complicated tale of murder thats interesting despite the fact its very talky, over emoted and just a tad loopy. Its the type of movie that keeps your interest simply because you want to know whats going on not because its very good. Actually it was so dull and talky that it was putting me to sleep, however I had to fight it because I had to know what was going on. If you want to see a movie that makes you stay with it to the end because you have to see whats going on give it a try. If you want to see a film that actually good try something else.

Plot-- A popular radio performer mysteriously departs her program, only to turn up murdered, while an innocent female detective is held for the crime. Will her reporter boyfriend be enough to prove her innocence.

Thanks reviewer asinyne for filling in a few crucial plot holes. I think a lot of folks, including myself, were flummoxed by the holes because the script is sloppily constructed, while director (Wallace) appears either unaware or unconcerned. Given the programmer's bottom-of-the- barrel provenance (Kent Productions), that's not surprising-- who knows what the production schedule was like. Anyway, the concept of a female detective and a corpse returning to life is an interesting one. And I suspect that a non-penurious Warner Bros., with a better cast and a rewrite, could have turned the material into a satisfying B-movie instead of the head- scratcher it unfortunately is.

The Woman Condemned (1934)

** (out of 4)

Newspaper reporter Jerry Beall (Richard Hemingway) gets caught up with the beauty of Barbara (Claudia Dell) that he pretty much forces himself into her life. It happens at a perfect time because Barbara is accused of murdering a woman but she claims that she is innocent so it's up to the reporter to prove it.

THE WOMAN CONDEMNED is pretty much the standard "B" mystery that you'd expect from Poverty Row. The only thing really notable about it is the fact that it would turn out to be the final directorial job for Dorothy Davenport, better known and credited here as Mrs. Wallace Reid. Davenport had a number of acting credits in her career but she did direct seven movies as well.

As far as this film goes, in all honesty it's a decent time-killer for fans of the genre but it's doubtful too many people will be having a good time with it. The plot is extremely thick for this type of film as it seems something new is being added every few minutes but I'm going to guess that this was done to try and make the film seem smarter than it actually was. The murder doesn't happen until the 35-minute mark, which leaves about half a hour to get it solved.

Hemingway was pretty bland in the role of the reporter so he didn't add anything to the picture. You can spot Jason Robards, Sr. in a small role. Then you've got Dell who doesn't get much to do other than to constantly looked concerned over this or that. Lola Lane appears in a very brief role but she's certainly a highlight to the picture.

THE WOMAN CONDEMNED really doesn't have too much going for it. The biggest bonus is that it's just 65-minutes long so if you have that to kill and enjoy the genre then you might want to check it out.

This picture held my interest from beginning to end. The more I watched, the more absorbing it became. I felt betrayed by the ending, but by that time it was too late as the picture was nearly over. This was an excellent effort by a Poverty Row company and an excellent Directorial effort by Mrs. Wallace Reid, which almost overcomes some gigantic plot holes.

It was a fascinating story which contains several plot turns and twists and I couldn't turn it off. I thought Richard Hemingway was an attractive lead and would like to know more about him. IMDb notes his career was very short and his birth/death dates are unknown. I was amazed to discover how much Jason Robards Sr. resembles his son - or perhaps the other way around.

I gave this film a rating of 7, and our current IMDb rating does not do it justice. Now, about that ending...

I won't even try to provide a synopsis of the story. This is one of those mystery thrillers in which everything is thrown into the pot to make the story as intriguingly attention-grabbing as possible. And then having propounded a successfully unusual and highly suspenseful set of situations, the writers throw creativity to the wind in the last five minutes by solving the mystery in some clichéd manner that leaves the most purblind audience breathless with anger and disappointment. At least the elaborately constructed plot doesn't all turn out to be a dream, but the device used here is almost as hackneyed and almost equally a letdown.

Nonetheless, by the extremely humble standard of Willis Kent bottom-of-the-rung-even-for-Poverty-Row productions, this movie is certainly a cut above the average "Z"-grader. It was the last film directed by Mrs Wallace Reid who has tried very hard (and very successfully) to create atmosphere and production values on an extremely meager budget. Given the sort of studio support and largess that Dorothy Arzner worked with, Mrs Reid would undoubtedly have done equally well, if not better. Yet feminists give all their attention to Arzner and none at all to Mrs Reid. Even the Arzner biography in IMDb claims that Arzner "was the only woman director during the Golden Age of Hollywood's studio system during the 1920s and 1930s." (Other Davenport films presently available are The Road to Ruin and Sucker Money).

A major virtue of The Woman Condemned must be the fine performances provided by every member of the cast from charmingly charismatic hero Richard C. Hemingway (who never got anywhere), poorly photographed Claudia Dell (who had the shortest career as a major star on record — less than a year) and one-song Lola Lane, through to Neal Pratt's nice cameo as a sarcastic judge