1952 was a sparse year for genre titles in the PNW with just a few more obscure exploitation films making the rounds. This is the first of two collections of media from other films that played the Pacific Northwest in 1952.
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Our first double-feature consists of two oldies which, despite their lurid premises and promotion, are generally harmless melodramas.
Missing Daughters (1939)
Josie Lamonte, upset by experiences at the "Club Naturelle", where she had hoped to acquire 'poise and personality for a stage career, fires a tirade at club owner ""Lucky" Rogers for his unprincipled ways of recruiting nightclub girls. The suicide of Josie prompts a broadcast by newscaster/columnist Wally Kingin which he blasts Police Captain McGraw of the Missing Persons Bureau. He mentions that this girl had been missing for months while her photograph was being seen posted by passersby at the police station.
Director: Charles C. Coleman
Writers: Michael L. Simmons (original screenplay), George Bricker(original screenplay)
Stars: Richard Arlen, Rochelle Hudson, Marian Marsh
Under Age (1941)
Jane Baird and her kid sister, Edie are released from the county detention home, where they had been jailed for vagrancy. They are approached by the Head Talent Scout/Pimp in a system of motels operated by Mrs. Burke, aka The Widow. She offers them a job in the tourist industry which they readily accept. They are given clothes and shipped out to a Middle West motel, a combination tourist camp, bar and restaurant.
Director: Edward Dmytryk
Writers: Robert Hardy Andrews (screenplay), Stanley Roberts (story)
Stars: Nan Grey, Alan Baxter, Mary Anderson
January 15, 1952 ad (Portland)
January 18, 1952 ad (Portland)
Our next double is a pretty good pairing rather than an exploitative re-release of some moldy old potboilers, with a remake of Fritz Lang's classic and possibly the first-ever post-nuke movie.
M (1951)
In this Americanization of the 1931 German thriller, both the police and the criminal underworld stalk a mysterious killer who preys on small children.
Director: Joseph Losey
Writers: Norman Reilly Raine (screenplay), Leo Katcher (screenplay) Waldo Salt (additional dialogue)
Stars: David Wayne, Howard Da Silva, Martin Gabel
Five (1951)
The world is destroyed in a nuclear holocaust. Only five Americans survive, including a pregnant woman, a neo-Nazi, a black man and a bank clerk.
Director: Arch Oboler
Writers: Arch Oboler, James Weldon Johnson (poem "Creation")
Stars: William Phipps, Susan Douglas Rubes, James Anderson
January 18, 1952 ad (Portland)
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Before TV some cities had theaters that would show nothing but newsreels so people could visually catch up on world events. As I can't find any information on either of the titles depicted in the following advertisement I have to assume that is the case here. Note the lurid and disturbing depictions of the things people could expect to see. Who knows what was actually in these films?
January 19, 1952 ad (Portland)
Another double-feature reissue of films made out to be more than they actually are.
Girls Under 21 (1940)
Frances Ryan, living high-and-free-wheeling life as the wife of gangster "Smiley" Ryan, spends some time behind bars as a result of her husband's activities, and, when she gets out, realizes she has been a bad example for her kid-sister, Jennie White, and five of her friends. With the aid of her old boyfriend, she manages to divert them from their juvenile-delinquent path leading to disaster for each.
Director: Max Nosseck
Writers: Jay Dratler (screenplay), Fanya Foss(original screenplay)
Stars: Bruce Cabot, Rochelle Hudson, Paul Kelly
Girls of the Road (1940)
A story of the great-depression era about women hobos, tramps, job-seekers, fugitives, and runaways running from or toward something as they hitch-hiked their way across the United States, dodging the police, do-gooders, lustful men, and pursuing husbands in a bad mood.
Director: Nick Grinde
Writer: Robert Hardy Andrews screenplay)
Stars: Ann Dvorak, Helen Mack, Lola Lane
The next one is a bizarre pairing. "Child Bride" is a legitimate exploitation flick that sensationalizes the marrying of underage girls in hillbilly country. It has nudity and violence and is likely the first entry in the hicksploitation genre. "The Beachcomber" is a fairly lighthearted comedy. I guess the pairing is good enough as both were originally made in 1938.
Child Bride (1938)
A schoolteacher in a rural community campaigns to stop the practice of older men marrying underage girls.
Director: Harry Revier
Writer: Harry Revier(story and screenplay)
Stars: Shirley Mills, Bob Bollinger, Warner Richmond
The Beachcomber (1938)
In the Dutch islands, the sister of a pious missionary attempts to reform a womanizing, drunken beach bum.
Director: Erich Pommer
Writers: W. Somerset Maugham (short story "Vessel of Wrath"), Bartlett Cormack(written for the screen by), B. Van Thal (scenario)
Stars: Charles Laughton, Elsa Lanchester, Robert Newton
February 29, 1952 ad (Seattle)
Child Bride (1938) trailer
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