Parole, Inc.

I really didn't expect much from this film, I thought it would be a cute film since Turhan Bey and Evelyn Ankers was in it but I never thought it would be as serious and good of a film as it turned out to be.

Lyle Talbot is FBI agent Richard Hendricks- one of the Feds. He out to bust a parole ring. It's up to Hendricks alone to keep from getting caught as he is surrounded by a gang of criminals while trying to find out how they are doing it, which gang members are involved and which parole board members are involved.

The film actually engrossed me from the very start - there are a couple of cute moments as the film is in it's conclusion but it is a drama - a good crime drama.

8/10

I have never heard of the director, nor the actors and I don't think I will remind them more after watching this movie. It is a smooth and a bit lousy crime film noir from the late forties. I have nearly forgotten what it is about, because there is really nothing exceptional here. Lots of talk, a bit of action, and that's all. But I admit that the basic plot is rather unusual. Unfortunately that doesn't save the whole. I was bored and I resumed the viewing because the copy was a good quality one. There were hundreds of movies like this and, believe me, it is really difficult to find something worth which emerge from this mass. PAROLE INC did not make it, for me.

Lively actor O'Shea manages to give a lift to this otherwise routine programmer. For some reason these 'undercover' crime films were popular at the time, maybe because of the built-in suspense of being found out by the gangsters. Anyhow, Hendricks (O'Shea) manages to infiltrate a gang that sells paroles to imprisoned convicts. Heading up the gang, in a twist, is the lovely Evelyn Ankers, otherwise known as the queen of scream for her many horror movie roles. Making a belated appearance as the gang's attorney is the sleekly swarthy Turhan Bey (Rodescu).

I'm not sure why the narrative is told in flashback from Hendricks' hospital bed. Maybe to assure audiences that whatever the dangers, he survives. I wish there were something especially noteworthy about this exercise. There may not be, but the movie's smoothly done, surprisingly so for tightly budgeted independent production (Orbit Productions). Okay as a harmless time passer.

There have been a lot of paroles. The board is corrupt. O'Shea is sent to infiltrate those suspected of being on the take. He is able to sweet talk his way into the confidences of the ring, but eventually, he must face the real leader, played by Turhan Bay (What a name). Anyway, the plot thickens and one of his confidantes gets killed. It bothers me a bit that even though the guy was a criminal, he had a nice human quality to him. There is some slipshod police work and O'Shea, who looks a little like the mummy in a hospital room, narrates into a giant microphone, telling what happened. I guess a movie in the forties isn't going to have anyone think that the good guys are vulnerable, though he does take quite a beating. This is one of those little films that one barely pays any attention to.

Filmed by a Poverty Row studio with a largely unknown cast, augmented by former Universal stalwarts Evelyn Ankers and Turhan Bey, PAROLE INC., is a good example of a so-called "problem picture" designed to draw attention to one of the iniquities blighting late Forties American society.

In this case it is the corrupt parole system whereby habitual criminals are let out of jail on the promise of reform and promptly resume their nefarious habits. This is chiefly due to a corrupt system headed by lawyer Barney Rodescu (Turhan Bey), who bribes two of the five- person Parole Board to vote in the prisoners' favor while trusting in the Board's ability to return positive verdicts.

Intrepid federal agent Hendricks (Michael O'Shea) volunteers to expose this racket by posing as a master criminal, infiltrating the racket at its lowest level and discovering how it works. He frequents The Pastime Club, a seedy joint run by Barney's fiancée Jojo (Ankers), and peopled by a clutch of hoodlums all in baggy suits and snap-brimmed hats. The rest of the story is predictable.

For an action thriller PAROLE INC. is remarkably static with too much time devoted to lengthy voice-overs from Hendricks as he tells what happened to a tape recorder from his hospital bed. The two nominal stars do what they can with the material: Bey looks immaculate in his tailored suits, but shows a tendency towards sadism, even though he assaults no one. He has a good line in dialogue delivery, describing one of his unfortunate minions as "a jackass," and vowing to get rid of any double-dealers daring to cross him.

On the whole, however, Alfred Zeisler's B-Movie is rather too moral for its own good, even though it dramatizes a scenario common to late Forties movies, suggesting that corruption is so rife in American institutions that no one knows how to separate friends from enemies.