Women in Hiding (1940) User Reviews

One of the Best In This Series

[Handlinghandel · 7/10 · 21 July 2006]

MGM's "Crime Does Not Pay" shorts are all good. Some are superb. This is one of the very best.

It's directed by Joseph H. Newman, who went on to become one of the most prolific and consistent directors of film noir. Unlike most of the entries, it has a star: Marsha Hunt.

She was a fine actress. Here she is excellent.

She is pregnant and we see her looking in the newspaper for a place for unwed mothers. We see a classified ad being circled. Without giving too much away, the doctors are shady. And the other patients are touching.

Maybe it's just me but I had the sense that one of the girls might have been a victim of incest. The whole thing is very racy for 1940. And it's not at all dated.

One of the Best 'Crime Does Not Pay' Shorts

[utgard14 · 7/10 · 3 January 2014]

MGM's Crime Does Not Pay series of shorts was pretty good. This one stars a young and very pretty Marsha Hunt. Marsha plays Jane Taylor, a single woman who enters a clinic to give birth. The clinic preys on women who want to give birth discreetly. They trick them into signing away their rights, then sell the babies to couples looking to adopt. Hunt is terrific and is a prime example of why these MGM short films were so good. Quality actors played in these shorts. The two evil doctors were played by veteran actors C. Henry Gordon and Granville Bates. Both are excellent in their slimy parts. This is pretty realistic and gritty subject matter to see in a short from 1940. Especially from a studio known more for glamour than grit.

Baby racket

[bkoganbing · 5/10 · 28 September 2019]

This MGM short subject is from their 'Crime Does Not Pay series and it has C.Henry Gordon as the administrator and Granville Bates as the doctor at a home for unwed mothers. The story is told through the eyes of three young pregnant women who came to this home. One thing they were not told is that the contracts they signed gave the home the right to the infant. Gordon and Bates make a pretty penny off these girls.

Note that the option of abortion is not mentioned The Code would not permit it. Bates however is at the bottom rung of his profession and I have no doubt that he'd do it for the right fee.

Marsha Hunt, Mary Bovard, and Jane Drummond are the three women protagonists. Charles Middleton has a good role as Drummond's dad.

Good dramatic, but dated short subject.

Crime Does Not Pay

[Michael_Elliott · 27 February 2008]

Women in Hiding (1940)

*** 1/2 (out of 4)

29th film in MGM's "Crime Does Not Pay" series takes a look at illegal hospitals offering cheap service to expecting mothers who are afraid to go to a real hospital because of shame. These hospitals can lead to the death of the mother, death of the baby and often offer illegal adoptions. This is the third or four film I've seen in the series and all of them have been highly entertaining. The documentary style storyline gets the message across without being overly preachy and the direction is above average for this type of film.

The Baby Racket

[boblipton · 6/10 · 28 September 2019]

Marsha Hunt and Jane Drummond are law-breakers as well as victims in this episode of MGM's long-running CRIME DOES NOT PAY series. They are women having their babies without husbands, or anyone to help them in their times of need.

they're certainly not made up to be glamorous in this short subject from Hollywood's most glamorous movie factory. Miss Hunt is skinny and gawky. Miss Drummond looks like a fresh-faced farm girl. However, the doctors who help them out -- in return for all the money the girls can raise, plus working at the facilities -- are also in the business of selling those babies to couples who want to adopt for $500. It's a "contribution to our baby fund" they are told. Miss Hunt emotes up a storm when she finds out that her baby has been adopted from under her nose.

The characters fall into easily recognized types. There's C,. Henry Gordon as the slick-looking but larcenous senior doctor -- never trust a man with a scar. Charles Middleton is certainly cast against his recognized type. He's no Emperor Ming of Mongo in this one, but a homely and loving father.

I'm uncertain of how widespread a problem baby-farming was, but this movie will certainly pull the heartstrings of every parent in the audience.

Since one particular perfidious perverse American . . .

[oscaralbert · 7/10 · 17 September 2020]

. . . political party--that of the pusillanimous Pachyderms--has been obsessed with controlling, regulating, managing and monetizing women's reproductive tracts since its inception, it should come as no surprise that their official propaganda arm--the Millionaire Gangster Mob--would be equally fixated on such things deemed as private affairs by the Civilized World. With news breaking Sept. 16, 2020 of the current elephants in the war room systematically tricking the ladies being detained by ICE into non-voluntary sterilizations (usually in the form of total hysterectomies), the botched operations pictured during WOMEN IN HIDING may strike Today's viewers as Amateur Hour. However, it's important to keep in mind that this series of live-action shorts could be more accurately entitled "Crime Pays," as it's intended by its nefarious creators to teach future core supporters what NOT to do when aiming to literally get away with murder and mayhem.

THIS FILM SHOULD BE SHOWN FOR ALL GENERATIONS!

[whpratt1 · 10/10 · 15 April 2003]

Marsha Hunt, a famous supporting actress of the 1930's and 40's appeared in many films. In this film, "Women in Hiding" she portrays a young women who wants to save her baby but is afraid of telling her parents and has no money to even pay the hospital costs involved. She falls prey to a baby for sale racket with quack doctors performing their services. All the actors and actresses who made this film possible never realized it would have a lasting message to all young women who are having a child and need financial help, to seek assistance from the people who love them and to their professional State Social Services facilities.

Women in Hiding is a pretty compelling "Crime Does Not Pay" short subject

[tavm · 8/10 · 3 June 2008]

Before I begin, I'd like to note that the leading actress here, Marsha Hunt, was born in my hometown of Chicago, Ill. and is still alive at 90, and that Barbara Bedford, who plays the head nurse, Miss Townsend, died in Jacksonville, Fla., a city I once lived in, in 1981. Ms. Hunt is Jane Taylor, a young woman whose unexpected pregnancy leads her to go to an illegal clinic whose medical staff makes its patients sign contracts that allows the mothers to give up all rights to the child, no matter what. When one of the mothers dies in childbirth, one of the staff attempts arson but Jane secretly alerts the cops in time...A very compelling caution to any expectant mothers or anyone in her family on the dangerous consequences of going to any back alley clinic to "care" for the baby. Seeing one of the mothers express joy on seeing her child for the first time after initially saying she doesn't want to look at it is very touchingly handled here and becomes heartbreaking when her reactions change for the worse when she finds out how the doctors sold her baby to a middle-aged married couple behind her back. I found this short on the DVD "Film Noir: Bringing Darkness to Light" which has four other "Crime Does Not Pay" short subjects inside. Worth a look for anyone who's curious about these vintage two-reelers.

Wow...this was a lot grittier and more interesting than I'd anticipated

[planktonrules · 8/10 · 4 November 2010]

MGM made a series of shorts under the umbrella term "Crime Does Not Pay" and the ones I've seen are all pretty entertaining. However, "Women in Hiding" is a significant improvement over the usual film in the series. That's because the crime is so much more vivid and evil that it keeps you on the edge of your seat.

The film is an exposé about a crooked business. Women with unwanted pregnancies are lured to homes like the one here. It promises to provide a safe and secret place where the women can have their babies and not be stigmatized for the pregnancy--a noble idea if it were true. Howevrer, the place is a rip-off. First, they charge the women a lot to stay there. Second, when the babies are born they are sold--even if the mothers object! And, to make things worse, the place is staffed by quacks who butcher the women. After all, it's all done for the money and there's no regard for the women.

This is all explained in a dramatization that stars Marsha Hunt, among others. It's well acted, very compelling and certainly is not dull!

Unflinching story of shame and exploitation

[LuvSopr · 8/10 · 6 October 2016]

The MGM of the late '30s and early '40s was a well-oiled machine, cautious from top to bottom, and well-rewarded for that caution by moviegoers. This also applied to their short films, which could easily veer toward a canned message (as most of the Our Gang films in the MGM era show).

Women in Hiding is an unusually raw product underneath the gloss. We hear in unflinching terms about the injuries suffered by the babies treated as cattle by corrupt quacks. We see with our own eyes the physical and psychological toll that the mothers go through. And these mothers turn familiar tropes on their heads.

Mary Bovard (who seemed to go on to mostly small roles, sadly) is Mary, the toughest of the women, the one we may be primed by the narrative to feel the least sympathy for, compared to the everywoman lead Jane and sweet Bunny. Yet she is the one who first breaks our hearts as she has doubts over what she's gotten into, and pays the ultimate price for the cruel games of the baby sellers. The director does a wonderful job making us feel the horror and pain of what happens to her while only letting us see a brief glimpse. Less really is often more in these types of short cautionary tales.

Jane Drummond, who also seemed consigned to nonexistent roles after this short, plays sweet, lighthearted Bunny, too innocent for the world she's in. Her fate is no less heartbreaking, and equally subdued in just the right ways.

Marsha Hunt is Jane, our ingenue, our eyes. Hunt gives the character a believability that is perfect for the era and for the tone of the piece. We know that this is not a "happy" ending for Jane, and that she will likely never be the same again. Most impressive of all, Jane isn't saved by a man or waiting for a man to find her. She does everything she can to get out and manages to do it.

Many short subjects feel dated the minute they are released, much less 75 years later, but the basic message of this story - young, vulnerable women who lack support and are made to feel shame will be destroyed by the bottom feeders of society - is more important than ever.

The saga of the black market baby.

[mark.waltz · 8/10 · 3 December 2015]

Once upon a time, motherhood was the most important dream in the lives of the majority of women. Those who could and those who couldn't dreamt of being the caretaker of a new life. But unscrupulous doctors with criminal minds had other ideas, preying on single mothers-to-be and manipulated them into giving them up.

One such doctor is C. Henry Gordon as an amoral head of a baby clinic whose deceptions cause several women to take their lives. Suspicions of shady goings on brings on special investigators who are out to stop future tragedies and prove that crime does not pay. Starlet Marsha Hunt went onto a successful career as an actress and this was pretty much her screen test. Overall, an excellent entry in the series. A later Monogram film, "Black Market Babies", went more into detail and makes a perfect companion piece to this.