On Probation

Crooked politico Monte Blue takes on a ward to improve his image. After sending her to finishing school, she returns as Lucile Browne. Blue asks her to marry him, but she's in love with William Bakewell. As the movie continues and thevarious threads of their lives start to unravel, Blue, Bakewell and Miss Browne grow increasingly desperate.

So do te film makers, who decide to kill on Blue, then change their minds. Despite the themes of redemption that are written into the script by Crane Wilbur & Sherman Lowe, director Charles Hutchinson seems quite happy to direct this for sheer melodramatic effect. With Barbara Bedford, Edward LeSaint, Lloyd Ingraham, and Gino Corrado.

"On Probation" is not a particularly good film but it is worth seeing just because it's so very creepy. When the movie begins, a young girl about to be sent away to reform school. However, a 'nice guy', Al Murray (Monte Blue) volunteers to take the girl in and care for her. However, this isn't due to altruism--Al is a scum-bag politician and he's doing this to make himself look like a nice guy. It's all just a public relations stunt.

Years pass. Jane (Lucile Browne) has been off at boarding school for many years and she really doesn't know her benefactor. She thinks he's a nice guy and is excited to see him after all this time. However, when Al sees her, his libido is inflamed and he plans on having her for himself! But, she naturally doesn't think of her benefactor this way. In fact, she's fallen in love with another fellow. So, Al decides to ruin this other fellow or even kill him if necessary--his passions for Jane are that intense! What's next? See this weird little film and find out.

"On Probation" was made by tiny little Peerless Studios. Despite its name, the studio was a super-cheap outfit and the film shows it. Much of the acting is stiff and should have been re-shot. But, the cheapo so-called 'poverty row studios' usually didn't care a lot about quality. Getting the movie completed fast and on budget were the only concerns and production values were pretty stark (such as the film lacking much in the way of incidental music as well as an absolutely terrible use of model trains near the end when they supposedly had a big accident!). It's a shame, as although the film is crappy, the weird psycho-sexual angle is pretty lurid and fascinating at the same time! In other words, if the film hadn't had so many deficiencies, the plot was pretty good...or at least exciting! As it is, it's a poor film that manages to entertain.

By the way, as the other review indicates, this film has been chopped up a bit. I don't think this is the reason the film is bad--it was pretty bad in its original form, I am sure. Also, the Alpha Video copy (available on DVD) is pretty poor--and typical of many of their 1930s releases. I don't think they ever do any restoration work on their videos.

The movie is a re release from2009 by Alpha video. It is not is good shape noisy is only a part of the problem. The film was chopped up and put back together with out much concern over the years, so what is left had some sizable gaps plus it appears to have been cut for television as well. It was work to watch this one but i am glad it was saved and worth the effort for Monty Blue fans. This was never any 9star movie even when first released but is a b movie or 2nd feature which would be better if cleaned up. I got this movie commercially and not sure if there are better copies available , however, i am not able to provide any review here unless i submit at least ten lines of copy. The movie is about a crooked lawyer, which is not really addressed at first, who somehow or other is able to become a guardian for a cute young blonde girl who got picked up for some pickpocketing arrest , as a minor and orphan. The crooked lawyer(Monte Blue) is not married and had some reputation issues at the time of the court hearing. If you can swallow this, the rest of the movie should flow along. next scent is the girl coming back from finishing school 6yrs later. There are large unexplained jumps in the story, as it was probably released, Other jumps may be cut, not sure. As i mentioned, it may be worth the time, particularly if a good copy exists.