Should a Girl Marry?

Anne Neagle was born in prison, where her mother was hanged for murder. She was adopted by Sarah Padden and Gordon Hart. They never told her she was adopted. Now she is engaged to Doctor Warren Hull, who has just returned from studying abroad. He is a brilliant surgeon (as are all leading men/surgeons in the movies), and with the retirement of his mentor, he is up for Chief of Surgeons at the local hospital. So is Doctor Lester Matthews, a good surgeon who keeps his record perfect by refusing to operate if there is any risk. When Mayo Methot, Anne's mother's friend from prison, is in town with husband Weldon Heyburn, he, without her knowledge, blackmails everyone with the news of Miss Neagle's birth. When Miss Neagle refuses to let her parents pay him, he goes to Matthews.

It's a fairly good story and proceeds at a good clip under the direction of long-term director Lambert Hillyer. Unfortunately, Miss Neagle and Miss Methot are a bit mechanical in their line readings.

Anne Neagle was quite the beauty. She was born in 1915 to deeply religious parents, who wanted her to become a nun. She preferred the stage, and on her mother's remarriage to a Technicolor technician, they moved out to California, where the opportunities were greater. A contract with Warner Brothers followed, as did a marriage, but it was a "for show" one to Warners' contract player Ross Alexander. After Alexander's suicide in 1937, her career slid, and she found herself in Poverty Row movies like this, and Universal serials. After her last movie in 1950 -- the fine crime drama, ARMORED CAR ROBBERY -- she retired from the movies. She died in poverty in 1966.

Almost the moment the movie starts, you could guess at least next half an hour, and when the hero is top brain surgeon, you could guess the end too. But that's not something by which I would rank a movie bad. There are delightful movies with hackneyed stories, which had been more than enjoyable. Some did have minor twist in the tale, especially at the end, but nothing much to make them distinguishable. Here of course even that doesn't exist, and wherever there is minor variations, that is absurd, to say the least. Unfortunately none of the actors too could bring up something superlative to tide over the situation. Too many absurd situations had to happen to create the story, and of course absurdities couldn't be explained. Why Mary Winters had to keep all those incriminating evidences with her, even to deathbed? Why she didn't destroy it earlier, or even at deathbed, she had enough strength to destroy it even then, and rather decided to give it to Betty, without any purpose to be served, rather an promise from her that none should know of it. Of course the big graduation photographs, multiple ones that too, in newspaper, by which she could be identified, itself is something which is strange, considering that was a different town. Moving to the town of Wilson's- Betty, an ex- con-woman herself, didn't guess? The double black-mail itself was something strange, as well as break-down of it. Nothing I could find that could make me advocate it for even a single viewing.

Anne Nagel and Warren Hull are two forgotten and underrated actors who have a chance to shine in this surprisingly engaging and well-acted melodrama. The plot has several twists and turns which make the proceedings play like that old soap opera The Doctors and the coincidences are a bit too preposterous to be very likely but nonetheless the storyline is played in earnest by the cast even though the budget is virtually non-existent and a major auto accident is barely glimpsed or even staged. Warren Hull became famous not as an actor but rather as a host of a maudlin television program of the early 1950s called Strike It Rich in which contestants answered quiz questions to make money to get themselves out of horrible real-life situations. It was a combination reality and quiz show, unique to television and when things seemed most dire a "Heartline" appeared to throw money to the truly destitute and save the day. Few people who watched that show knew of Warren Hull's career in z movies and it really is a wonder why this handsome and intelligent, broad-shouldered competent actor never got further than he did. The same might be said of Anne Nagel who gives a rock solid performance here. All in all it is a very good night-time time-filler for those who like old z films that solidly filled the second feature slots of long ago. Most surprising here is that the secondary characters are also well played and gripping. Definitely worth a look.