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Jail Bait
The Hidden Face
USA 1954
produced by
Ed Wood for Howco
directed by Ed Wood
starring Lyle Talbot, Dolores Fuller, Steve Reeves, Timothy Farrell, Herbert Rawlinson, Theodora Thurman, Clancy Malone (= Scott McCloud), John Robert Martin, Bud Osborne, Mona McKinnon, La Vada Simmons, Regina Claire, John Avery, Conrad Brooks
written by Ed Wood, Alex Gordon, music by Hoyt Curtin
review by
Mike Haberfelner
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Even though his father Boris (Herbert Rawlinson) is a rich & noted plastic
surgeon, Don Gregor (Clancy Malone) is just a no-good little crook who loves to
carry a gun (jailbait, as his sister Marilyn [Dolores Fuller] tends to call it
- hence the title), even though he is repeatedly arrested by the cops for
carrying a firearm, & inspector Johns (Lyle Talbot) & detective
Lawrence (Steve Reeves - yup, Mr Universe 1950 & later Hercules-actor
in his first film role) keep an eye on him.
However, Don is involved with gangster Vic Brady (Timothy Farrell), & soon the two of them rob a theater, but something goes wrong & Don shoots a
watchman (Bud Osborne) while Vic wounds a theatre employee (Mona
McKinnon) ... & that woman soon identifies both of them by their photos.
Soon they are wanted all over, especially Don, who since shooting the
watchman is branded a copkiller, & he goes to his father for help, who has
him promise to give himself up ... but before he can do so, he meets Vic again,
& Vic shoots him in cold blood ... & Vic also makes up an ingenious
plan of how to escape poice investigations for good ... he pretends to hold Don
hostage & thus forces his father to give him a new face ... & father
plays along & prepares an operation - with a gun of Vic's girlfriend
Loretta (Theodora Thurman) poitned at him at all times. But then he stumbles
over the corpse of his son in the kitchen - when he's out of Loretta's sight
for a minute - & quickly makes up a plan to have his revenge on Vic ...
Vic's operation goes fine, & when he visits doctor Gregor after two
weeks n bandages to hve his face unveiled, he is so self-ssured he doesn't even
care inspector Johns & detective Lawrence sitting in on the unveiling ...
until he has to realize he now has not his face but the face of Don Gregor -
the copkiler ...
Very cheaply made crime drama with a rather pedestrian script, that seems to
be a bit too straightforward - in fact not at all unlike the then popular
strairght-forward, no-nonsense crime-series Dragnet - for Ed Wood
to apply much of a personal (off-beat) touch. Only the original surprise ending - with
some of the typical Woodian dialogue - shows a bit of the director's typical
handwriting.
The film shares music with Mesa of Lost Women, another great Howco-cheapo
of its time.
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