The Company She Keeps (1951)

User Rating:

6.1/10   

Director:

John Cromwell

Writer:

Ketti Frings (writer)

Release Date:

25 February 1952 (Sweden)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

An ex-convict meets a handsome man and they begin seeing one another. Jeopardizing their relationship...

Plot Keywords:

Ex Convict | Parole

Cast

Lizabeth Scott	...	Joan Wilburn
Jane Greer	...	Diane Stuart aka Mildred Lynch
Dennis O'Keefe	...	Larry Collins
Fay Baker	...	Tilly Thompson
John Hoyt	...	Judge Kendall
James Bell	...	Mr. Neeley
Don Beddoe	...	Detective Jamieson
Bert Freed	...	Smitty (plainclothesman)
Irene Tedrow	...	Mrs. Seeley
Marjorie Wood	...	Mrs. Haley
Marjorie Crossland	...	Mrs. Griggs
Virginia Farmer	...	Mrs. Harris

Runtime:

82 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound System)

Certification:

Finland:S | Sweden:15 | USA:Approved (PCA #14448) | Australia:G

Filming Locations:

Union Station - 800 N. Alameda Street, Downtown, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

RKO Radio Pictures

Trivia:

When this film was made, Howard Hughes owned both RKO, which produced it, and TWA, whose logo is featured prominently on the airplane in the airport sequence.

Jane Greer best thing about soft-hearted "sequel" to Caged

The Company She Keeps might be viewed as John Cromwell's soft-hearted "sequel" to his great Caged of the same year (some of the same cast members reappear in small parts in both). Taking over the Eleanor Parker role -- the embittered parolee with a chip-on-the-shoulder attitude -- Jane Greer finally goes "freeside." Lizabeth Scott meets her at the train, not as a mentor into the world of vice but wasted as Greer's saintly parole officer. Greer makes it plain that she's none too happy with the constraints (a night-shift job, frumpy clothes, no drinking) imposed upon her, and promptly sets her hat for Scott's fiance Dennis O'Keefe, who tumbles right into it.

And this is where Ketti Frings' script loses whatever edge it had. The hard, manipulative Greer goes soft around the edges, conflicted and vacillating. Scott, meanwhile, magnanimously cedes O'Keefe to her rival and continues to advocate on her behalf with redoubled passion (an opposite change of heart would have furnished welcome friction).

Luckily, a few goblins still hover in the shadows, and, in a brief scene set in Los Angeles' municipal lockup, Cromwell manages to reprise some of the black magic of Caged. But the syrupy social messages and Frings' earnest kind-heartedness almost sink the movie, which nonetheless preserves one of Greer's rare appearances in the noir cycle, particularly savory at the movie's start and near its end. Just don't expect another Kathie Moffat from Out of the Past.