Petticoat Larceny

This short film (at 61 minutes) is a typical "B" feature of the early 1940's. It stars contract players from RKO, featuring Joan Carroll as "Joan Mitchell," child radio star, who lives with her older relative, "Pat," played by Ruth Warrick, whose career languished from her debut as Emily Kane in 1941's "Citizen Kane" to her spectacular run on TV's "All My Children," 1970-2005. Between those two high points, Ruth's career consisted largely of female leads in films like this one and supporting cast roles from 1941 to 1970. Talk about patience! As for Joan Carroll, her role as "Agnes" in "Meet Me In St. Louis" was probably the high point of her work, and as "Patsy" in "The Bells of St. Mary's," where she does a tiny star turn with Ingrid Bergman, deliberately flunking her exams so that she can stay at the school because she wants, she thinks, to be a nun. Joan retired at 23, in 1956.

Joan is the real star here--she's a radio personality with her own continuing series that is supposed to be about the "underworld." Dissatisfied with the way the underworld characters are being played, she runs away to get some real experience and improve the show's dialogue. She finds refuge with three small-time grifters, "Pinky," "Stogie," and "Jitters," played by three of those wonderful "types" with which movies of the thirties and forties abound. The cast also features Paul Guilfoyle playing his typical small- time tough-guy "banty" character. Of course, there's a lot of running around and close brushes with the "real" bad guys, but in the end, everybody lives happily ever after: "Pinky," "Stogie," and "Jitters" become regulars on "Joan's" radio show.

When I was a kid in St. Louis, there was an after-school movie called "The Early Show" on a local TV station--that bridged the gap between the soaps and the kid show before the news. This is the type of fare that one would generally find on "The Early Show," and unfortunately today these "B's" are rarely seen today. I think they'd be a refreshing change of pace. They're unpretentious and kind of sweet: the bread and butter of the old studios.

The Kippy Korn Flakes hour on the radio could do better in a survey. 11 year old star Joan Mitchell is not happy with the scripts. Pat Mitchell is her protective aunt. Her boyfriend Bill Morgan has a story idea of Joan going missing but the boss J. C. Crandall does not allow it. Higgins the butler tells Joan about living on the sea for 3 years to better write his sea stories. From that, she gets the idea of how to write her own script. While sneaking around downstairs in the dead of night, she encounters a robber and convinces him that she's also a criminal. He brings her into his thieving gang. Meanwhile, her family reports her missing but the police sees it as a publicity stunt.

The premise is completely stupid but it's good ridiculous fun. Joan Carroll is perfectly adorable while being a Hollywood brat. It's a fun little B-comedy. Comedies don't often age well but this one is still plenty of good clean criminal fun. It's like a simple sitcom misunderstanding that gets bigger and bigger.

"Petticoat Larceny" is a film which is far better and charming than the average B-movie. My only reservation is that to truly enjoy it (particularly the very end) you really need to just turn off your brain and not question the plot...just go with it.

Young Joan Carroll plays Joan Mitchell, a radio star who is tiring of the terrible scripts she's being forced to read on her show. She feels the dialog is terribly unrealistic, so she concocts a foolish plan. She pals up to a gang of crooks and uses this as a chance to experience what real folks talk like. Fortunately, the three inept criminals are pretty nice guys (Tom Kennedy, Jimmy Conlon and Vince Barnett). In the meantime, folks assume the little girl was either kidnapped OR it's all a fake kidnapping in order to generate publicity. As for what happens next, you'll have to see that for yourself.

The reasons this film works well are the script and acting. It's better written than most Bs and the three crooks are terrific supporting actors. Plus, Joan Carroll was a wonderful and nature child star. Overall, a real treat from start to finish.

Lively little wartime comedy from RKO. Seems 11-year old radio star Joan Mitchell's (Carroll) crime program is slipping in ratings, (Catch how ratings are tabulated). So she decides more authentic dialog is needed and goes undercover among three inept Runyonesque characters to gather tips. Naturally misadventure follows, especially when serious crooks enter the picture.

The movie depends on fine little actress Carroll to carry the hour, and she delivers, in spades. Hers is a 30-year old brain in a 10-year old body. More importantly, Carroll's occasionally cute without being cloying. But her shtick is mainly coming across like an adult. Warrick may get top billing, but pretty much drops out about a-third of the way through. Likely she was added for marquee value. Anyway, likable oaf Pinky (Kennedy) adds a lot of character color as one of the "criminals", along with movie vets Barnett and Conlin. Looks to me like this was just the sort of escapism wartime audiences were looking for. Too bad Carroll retired soon after. Still, considering the pitfalls plaguing Hollywood's young performers, maybe it was the wise thing to do.

Good also to see an old radio studio with actors at the ready. Plus, there're the old cabinet radios, at a time when folks gathered around sound speakers and used imagination to provide visuals-- TV did come at a cost. Nonetheless, the programmer's still an amusing hour of Hollywood hokum.

Like Obliging Young Lady, this film was supposed to launch a Shirley Temple like career for Joan. The only trouble was that the script writers didn't give her more lines, better roles and the like. As seen in supporting roles like those in Meet Me in St. Louis, The Bells of St. Marys and Tomorrow the World-she was a talented young actress, who with more work and better care film career wise she could have done so much better work. Still, this film is worth watching to see Joan in her starring glory, for what it was.