Parole, Inc.

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.

Some shoddy editing prevents me from giving this noir film from that across the pond studio Eagle-Lion a better rating. Parole Inc. tells the story of the federal government's effort to smash a parole fixing racket and how FBI man Michael O'Shea working undercover as a recently paroled criminal himself makes a connection to get his partner free.

Heading this whole racket is a very smooth attorney played by Turhan Bey and his moll Evelyn Ankers. Bey is nobody's fool and he suspects O'Shea from the beginning.

What's best about Parole Inc. is O'Shea is out there without much of a lifeline and has to rely on his wits to survive. A lot like Marlon Brando in one of my favorite Brando films Morituri. We know he does survive because he narrates the film from his hospital bed using a Dictaphone. Does spoil the suspense somewhat.

Who else survives and how O'Shea breaks the racket. Watch Parole Inc.

There's nothing like a movie made in the 40s. There is a simplicity of perspective that is utterly refreshing when compared to the rubbish that passes for entertainment these days. The entire cast is excellent, the plot clean and easy to understand. Well before the half point of the film, I was rooting for the undercover agent to succeed. I like the fact that the crooks were't so smarmy as to be stereotypes. They were rotters but somehow still seemed human. The end of the film has a strong build up. I really enjoyed this forgotten movie. I wonder how many other B movies are so good. Working my way down IMDb list of available films online, I may soon know.

I love Michael O'Shea, Turhan Bey, and Lyle Talbot so I looked forward to this 1948 B noir, directed by Alfred Zeisler.

It was a bit of a chore. I ended up watching a colorized version because the black and white had no captions. Then there was a notice about the colorization and some project by IMDb.

After that, I sat through a long diatribe against the parole system and how vicious criminals are released. Finally the film started.

Michael O'Shea is in the hospital covered in bandages telling the story of how he got that way.

It seems that paroles are being bought. Who is buying them, and who is being paid? At the behest of the police commissioner (Talbot) Government agent Richard Hendricks (O'Shea) goes undercover to infiltrate the system and find out.

He meets a club owner, Jojo (Evelyn Ankers) who has crooks managing something called a punchboard scam, which has to do with gambling. Richard, using an assumed name, wants to do a job but needs a buddy out of prison. This leads him to Rodescu (Bey) who is filtering money to some of the parole board.

Sending fake telegrams, he sets up a rendezvous between the board and Rodescu. Unfortunately for Richard, a glitch in some paperwork puts him in danger.

Fair noir with some suspense and decent performances. Michael O' Shea had a wonderful, upbeat screen persona. The exotic Bey left Hollywood and pursued photography in Europe when his career faded after the war. However, he returned in the '90s with Babylon 5 and worked through the '90s.

After a Tyrone Power memorial service, I walked by casting director Marvin Paige on the phone. He put his hand over the receiver and said in a conspiratorial voice, "I'm on the phone with Turhan Bey. We're talking about Tyrone." Cracked me up.

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.