Danger! Women at Work

This low-budget film runs less than an hour and isn't very good, but it's interesting to see a 1943 film about women taking men's job (the war).

Three women work at "men's jobs" and live together to make ends meet. One day Terry (Patsy Kelly) gets a telegram informing her she's inherited a bungalow and a 10-ton truck. A friend tells the girls they can make a killing hauling stuff cross country and give up their low-paying jobs. So off they go.

Of course their first job involves hauling illegal gambling stuff hidden in furniture. Besides the cops, some thugs are also after them because Kelly is lucky with dice and wins cash.

Not much of a plot, but the pleasure here is watching Patsy Kelly in a starring role. The other "girls" are played by Mary Brian and Isabel Jewell, both well-known actresses near the ends of their careers.

A series of hitchhikers also go along for the ride, including a ditzy fortune teller played by Betty Compson, another major star near the end of her film career. There's also a runaway heiress (Wanda McKay) and an amnesiac (Cobina Wright, Sr.) who doesn't even recognize her husband.

Others in the cast include Warren Hymer, Vince Barnett, Herb Vigran, and Forrest Taylor as a dapper panhandler. Like Compson's and Brian's, his career went back to silent films.

Patsy Kelly inherits a ten-ton truck from her uncle. She goes into the trucking business with friends Mary Brian and Isabel Jewell. On their way to Las Vegas with a load of furniture for a casino, they pick up a weird assortment of hitchhikers and are pursued by guys with a lien on the truck, criminals looking to hijack and some gamblers.

In between disquisitions on wartime road regulation and how to play craps, five subplots crowd each other. There's a runaway heiress, an amnesiac woman, three romances and Betty Compson along for the ride as a spiritualist with a crystal ball. PRC's main house director, Sam Newfield, runs things at a good clip from a script derived from an idea by Edgar Ulmer. Mostly it depends on Miss Kelly's bumptious energy, and she delivers.

Cinematographer Ira Morgan had come down in the world since his glory days of lighting Marion Davies and MGM's hottest stars in the 1920s, with a last hurrah shooting MODERN TIMES with Rollie Totheroh. He was stuck in Poverty Row now, and would stay there until the end of his career in 1957. He would die in 1959, a week after his 70th birthday.

PRC kelly and mary brian Terry inherits a 10 ton truck

In the early 1930s, Patsy Kelly was kept busy making comedy shorts for Hal Roach Studios. But once the studio stopped making shorts, Kelly and the other Hal Roach actors and actresses found themselves scrambling for work. Kelly occasionally made appearances in supporting roles and bit parts...she even did some Broadway. As far as starring vehicles go, they were few and far between. However, tiny PRC gave her a chance and starred her in "Danger! Women at Work". And, surprisingly, I liked it much more than Patsy's more famous shorts!

When the story begins, Terry (Kelly) has just inherited a 10-ton truck from a dead relative! She and her pal decide to quit their jobs and become professional truckers, even though neither had any idea what they were doing. Surprisingly, they soon get a job to make a delivery in Las Vegas...and off they go. What they don't know is that they'll soon pick up some VERY strange hitchhikers along the way...and all of them end up having folks chasing after them for one reason or another.

The film has few big laughs...and that didn't bother me. Instead, it stresses the story and characters...and it was very satisfying to watch. Clever and enjoyable...which is a shock since it was made by schlocky old PRC!