The Wrong Way Out

It's another episode of A Crime Does Not Pay Subject series. A young couple is struggling. With their $18, they run away to the big city to get married. With no training, they can't get a good job. The young couple is alone cleaning up when a drunken rich patron stumbles in. He passes out and the couple robs him of $200.

This would work better if the young couple is more desperate. This is more crimes of opportunity. Quite frankly, Windy would probably steal whether they run away or not. He's a criminal at heart. It has little to do with their lack of money.

In another episode of their "Crime Does Not Pay" series, MGM focuses on the "impatience" of the "under 21" crowd. Specifically, we meet handsome young Ken Howell (as "Windy" Brown) and pretty girlfriend Linda Perry (as Ann Stevens) on a boating date. They discuss marriage with their respective parents, but both sets think it's a bad idea. Denying their consent, the parents think Mr. Howell and Ms. Perry are too young, inexperienced and poor to marry. Howell says their folks "can go jump in a lake." Perry thinks they're stuck in the mud. Howell and Perry marry anyway, but life is hard...

This is less an episode warning about crime life and more a call for teenage couples to cool off their romantic feelings. Perry doesn't finish school and Howell has no way to support a wife, so getting serious is not recommended. When tempted to take advantage of a drunk with money, the couple robs the man. This is more of a slippery slope than you think, and the newlyweds seem to become "Bonnie and Clyde" overnight. It's amusing. Teen idol Howell did this while appearing in his own feature film series (as Jack Jones) and Perry was nearing the end of a hesitating career as an ingénue.

***** The Wrong Way Out (12/24/38) Gustav Machaty ~ Kenneth Howell, Linda Perry, Ray Mayer, George Meeker

Didn't realize what I was getting into when this started. It soon became apparent this was meant to be a cautionary tale about running away! Like Reefer Madness, it takes the extreme arguments (against) to a ridiculous extent, probably reducing its effectiveness.

... although Murphy has some help here as the two lead characters are far from wise.

Two youngsters - their exact age is never stated, but from what's said they are not out of high school yet - want to get married right now. Both sets of parents object and refuse to sign consent forms to let them get married. The parents note their lack of any money or skills and say they want them to wait until they are out of (high) school. The two youngsters show their maturity by throwing a tantrum like they are three.

So they decide to elope because, unfortunately, unlike three year olds, they have drivers licenses, a car, and just enough money to get married but not enough to support themselves. Things go from bad to worse with them moving to crime when a drunk lawyer passes out in the restaurant where they work after everybody else has gone home. And the lawyer's pockets are flush with cash.

It's interesting that the two kids, when they are looking for jobs, meet a hiring manager that could have given them good jobs if the girl had known shorthand and the boy had been a draftsman. Both of those skills are obsolete today, although shorthand is still used in a few professions. Today you have to be out of college or be in one of the trades to have a chance of finding a good job.

Wrong Way Out, The (1938)

*** (out of 4)

The twentieth episode in MGM's Crime Does Not Pay series is one of the weakest I've seen but there's still enough that works here for fans. In the film, young adults Wendy (Kenneth Howell) and Ann (Linda Perry) want to get married but their parents refuse so they decide to elope. Once out on their own they realize it's not easy to make a living and soon they are forced into a life of crime. A lot of reviewers call this series over dramatic but I've never agreed with that except for right here. The entire "warning" this film offers is against eloping and having too much of an ego to return home to your parents. The film takes that and turns out two teens into a Bonnie and Clyde type, which is a tad bit over the top as the film never gives them any real motivation in doing what eventually happens here. I also find it rather funny that both sets of parents are shown as good people yet they too are actually rather mean spirited when the kids first come to them for advice. The parents turn their backs and then they wonder why, later in the film, the kids don't come back to them for help. The over the top antics of the film would make me recommend newcomers to the series to start somewhere else but I think fans will still want to check it out. The performances are all rather mixed with Howell coming off rather lame as the good turned bad guy. The scene with the drunk singing "Happy Days Are Here Again" gets a mild laugh as does the ending that goes way too far.