Night Waitress

The story itself is fine, concerning a waitress on probation and a seemingly shady guy. She suspects him as a gangster but he has a charm nonetheless.

From there the plot is fast paced (the running time is only 57 minutes)and fairly predictable. The acting is average overall, though the leads (Grahame and Jones) are a cut above.

Honestly though, for movie buffs, the background is just as interesting. Anthony Quinn runs around as a gangster. Some of the sets look familiar as well.

Worth a watch!

A not bad little programmer directed with flair by Lew Landers about a night waitress, Helen Roberts (Margot Grahame), on probation who is trying to get her life together working in a waterfront dive run by none other than Billy Gilbert, who is virtually wasted in a routine bit part. Seems Helen's new boyfriend, Martin Rhodes (Gordon Jones of "The Green Hornet" fame), is somehow mixed up with gangsters who are after a hidden cargo he has. The result is murder and hot pursuit by both mobsters and police of Helen and Martin. The approximately hour-long second feature moves at a fast pace, filled with excitement and adventure.

Keep your eyes open for Anthony Quinn as one of the hoods, Don "Red" Barry as a victim, and Frank Faylen as a policeman, each just beginning his screen career. Gifted comic Willie Best is also seen briefly as a passerby with only one line. The cinematography by Russell Metty captures all the griminess, desolation, and seediness of the San Francisco waterfront. It's fun to hear the seamen sing "The Monkeys Have No Tails in Zamboanga," later popularized by US soldiers in the Pacific in World War II. Many John Wayne fans will recall it being sung by Lee Marvin in John Ford's "Donovan's Reef."

Passable crime movie from RKO featuring two actors who didn't quite make the grade. At least in her home country Margot Grahame was known as Britain's answer to Jean Harlow and dubbed the "Aluminium Blonde" as well as being their highest paid star but Hollywood didn't really want to know, even after her sterling performance in "The Informer". Besides her looks had more in common with Lucille Ball or Barbara Pepper. And Gordon Jones, even though he worked solidly from 1932 until 1963 (the year he died), was destined to have a very familiar face even if you couldn't remember his name.

Helen Roberts (Grahame) is back at her waitressing job after a brush with the law and with the full support of Papa Torres (Billy Gilbert) who just wants to see her make good. How anyone could have cast Grahame as a probation girl is amazing - her posh tones seemed more at home in Buckingham Palace than Tony's Fish Palace!!! When not brushing off unwanted suitors she also has to put up with the whispered innuendos about her past which makes her particularly hardened to breezy sea Captain Marty Rhodes (Jones) who wants to get to know her better. He seems to be mixed up with some pretty shady characters who feel he can lead them to a gold shipment but, like Helen, he is really just an innocent bystander who doesn't know what the mysterious shipment he has been hired to deliver, is!!!

The most interesting thing about this movie is the number of familiar faces in smaller roles, forget about the two leads. Don "Red" Barry of later "Red Ryder" fame is Rigo who is organising the gold cargo, Marc Lawrence (here billed as Laurence) is Dorne, a thug (what else!!), another thug is played by Anthony Quinn who happened to get a couple of good close-ups. There was also Willie Best as a bystander and the always good Frank Faylen, he of the thousand bit parts and Dobie Gillis's always exasperated father, playing a policeman in the crowd.

Well done B-movie about a gal on probation who works as a waitress at the dockside "Torre's Fish Palace", run by Papa Torre (Billy Gilbert, unfortunately seen oh so briefly in this film) who makes sure his wait staff aren't over-perfumed or wearing too much makeup. Just trying to keep out of trouble, our waitress unfortunately is of the attractive blonde variety, and every jerk man in the restaurant keeps trying to hit on her. Soon she, for some reason (I guess it's the guy's big, dopey grin that got her), is mixed up with this really aggressive, but handsome lug who is a racketeer on the watch each night to meet some mug named Rigo, and waits in his regular booth at midnight for the guy to show. Meanwhile, a gang of detectives/gangsters are out to meet up with this Rigo as well.

A fast-paced little crime drama, this film is not too bad for a low budget movie. This is another one of those movies (and there sure are a lot of them) where the woman thinks a guy is a creep at first (or as she calls him "a gorilla") but he is just SO assertive, pressing her into going out with him, grabbing her aggressively to kiss her, etc., that she actually starts to like the guy. And, well, he does seem to have his charms, which are not visible in the earlier parts of the film - but I wonder at her easy change of mind. The acting by the two leads (Margot Grahame and Gordon Jones) is quite well done and there is a good deal of chemistry between them as well - and watch for a young Anthony Quinn in this as one of the "detectives". Worth seeing.

Minor effort with Edward Hopper-like waterfront setting. Margot Grahame and Gordon Jones (did I get the names right?) are interesting leads. Routine crime story has nice touches, its heroine is lower-class and depicted without condescension (quite a rarity for Hollywood). Low budget, interesting art direction, short and sharp action scenes, above average for its type. Anthony Quinn (unbilled) has a few scenes as a gangster.