Jail Bait (1954)

User Rating:

2.5/10   

Director:

Edward D. Wood Jr.

Writers:

Alex Gordon (story) and
Edward D. Wood Jr. (story) ...

Genre:

Crime | Thriller

Tagline:

She's A Good Girl... To Leave Alone!

Plot:

Vic Brady draws young Don Gregor into a life of crime. He then blackmails Gregor's plastic surgeon father...

Plot Keywords:

Plastic Surgeon | Detective | False Identity | Plastic Surgery | Police Officer Killed

Cast

Lyle Talbot	...	Inspector Johns
Dolores Fuller	...	Marilyn Gregor
Herbert Rawlinson	...	Doctor Gregor
Steve Reeves	...	Lieutenant Bob Lawrence
Clancy Malone	...	Don Gregor
Timothy Farrell	...	Vic Brady
Theodora Thurman	...	Loretta
Bud Osborne	...	Night Watchman
Mona McKinnon	...	Miss Willis
Don Nagel	...	Detective Davis
John Robert Martin	...	Detective McCall
La Vada Simmons	...	Miss Lytell
Regina Claire	...	Newspaper Woman
John Avery	...	Police Doctor

Also Known As:

Hidden Face

Runtime:

72 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

USA:Approved (PCA #16988) | Spain:T | Australia:PG | Italy:T

Filming Locations:

Alhambra, California, USA

Company:

Howco Productions Inc.

Trivia:

Herbert Rawlinson died the morning after his last scene was shot.

Goofs:

Continuity: After the operation to change Vic Brady's face, the first time the bandages come off, the scar on his forehead runs diagonal from the top of his nose to well above the eye. However when he's shot by the pool, the scar runs laterally across the middle of his forehead.

Quotes:

Dr.Gregor: Plastic surgery, at times, seems to me to be very, VERY complicated

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Sleazemania Strikes Back (1985) (V)

An Ed Wood-Style Crime Drama

In "Jail Bait", Ed Wood applies his boundless enthusiasm and limited talent to the crime movie genre. From a technical viewpoint, it's actually one of his less unsound features, although that cuts down somewhat on the unintentional laughs that it provides. The story is actually pretty solid, and could have served as the basis for a pretty good film-noir. Most of its weaknesses are in the acting, pacing, and dialogue, plus the occasional zany out-of-place detail.

The story uses a basically familiar setup, but adds a couple of extra components to it. Lyle Talbot and Steve Reeves play a pair of policemen investigating the misdeeds of a young man whose father is a highly respected doctor. The doctor and his daughter, meanwhile, try to protect the son both from the police and from the career criminal who has led him astray. For the most part, the story is conventional but believable, with a rather clever ending.

Most of the rest of the production does not come up to the level of the story. The ever-loyal Talbot gives his typically earnest performance, trying to make the dialogue sound as good as possible, while enduring some amusingly awkward interactions with the stilted Reeves. The rest of the cast is generally nondescript, and sometimes noticeably out of their depth.

The dialogue contains some of the expected unintentional laughs, and the characters often overexert themselves on unnecessary exposition or on pointing out details that were already completely obvious. The pacing, likewise, is inconsistent from scene to scene, although with fewer of the kinds of direction and editing slip-ups that generally characterize Wood's features.

No one could ever deny that Wood loved making movies, and he made sincere efforts to make them as well as he could, which is what has kept his movies so watchable despite their shortcomings. "Jail Bait" attempts to emulate the classics of its genre, but it is severely limited by the lack of talent and other resources.