Alimony (1949)

A promising young composer is tempted away from his devoted wife by a fortune-seeking woman who cares more for his prospects than for him.

Director:

Alfred Zeisler

Writers:

George Bricker (story), Royal K. Cole (screenplay),

Stars:

Martha Vickers, John Beal, Hillary Brooke

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Martha Vickers	...	Kitty Travers aka Kate Klinger
John Beal	...	Dan Barker
Hillary Brooke	...	Linda Waring
Laurie Lind	...	Helen Drake
Douglass Dumbrille	...	Burton (Burt) Crail
James Guilfoyle	...	Paul Klinger
Marie Blake	...	Mrs. Nesbitt
Leonid Kinskey	...	Joe Wood
Ralph Graves	...	George Griswold / Curtis P. Carter
William Ruhl	...	Fred Richards
Harry Lauter	...	Doctor

Storyline

Small town girl Kitty Traves comes to New York with the idea of getting rich fast. Beginning as a 'model' she then becomes a divorce co-respondent in hotel room frame-ups. When her songwriting boyfriend, Dan Barker, runs out of songs and money, she send him back to his loyal, true-blue fiancée, Linda Waring. She moves on to marry a wealth industrialist, with divorce and alimony her only goal.

---

Plot Keywords:

co respondent | small town girl | industrialist | song | hotel | 

---

Taglines:

A pretty face, a shapely figure - she used them to get what she wanted!

---

Genres:

Crime | Drama | Music

---

Certificate:

Approved

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

11 June 1949 (USA)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Orbit Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

70 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Soundtracks

"That's How Dreams Are Made"
Words by L. Wolfe Gilbert
Music by Alexander Laszlo
Sung by Martha Vickers

User Reviews

mediocre, but slightly lurid, melodramatics

Produced by the obscure Equity Pictures, this tale of woe features a decidedly third-string cast, and a disjointed, unfocused and under-motivated script -- possibly the result of avoiding the wrath of the Breen office, or possibly plain incompetence. Zeisler was one of the more interesting directors working on Poverty Row, and manages to keep the story moving, instilling it with his usual arid fatalism. However, he fails to emphasize some of the key plot developments, and a clever last-minute twist is pretty much wasted. Many of the background details are patently ridiculous; e.g., Beal's overenthusiastic songwriter thumps on the piano all night in his boarding house's salon without eliciting complaint from his fellow boarders, and his girlfriend is absurdly forgiving of his two-timing indiscretions. Martha Vickers, dolled up like a waxworks, makes one of the least alluring femmes fatales in history, Beal must have been a desperation choice for a leading man, and the original songs are incredibly verbose. Despite its shortcomings, B-movie aficionados will be intrigued by the surprisingly overt depiction of unscrupulous women luring unsuspecting husbands into compromising positions to extract alimony. There's some good support from Laurie Lind as the cynical golddigger friend of the lead character, and from Hollywood's favourite stereotype East European eccentric, Leonid Kinskey, as a song plugger.