Alex da Silva Reporter Dennis O'Keefe (Mark) decides to investigate the death of a woman's sister who had recently given birth. He does this because he fancies her. God knows why. The lady in question is Gale Storm (Paula) and she's a wet fish. She is definitely not leading lady material. Anyway, this film is about tracking down a gang who deal in illegal adoptions. It's quite topical given some high profile children who have been snatched subsequent to this film. It's interesting to note just how long this criminal activity has been going on for in such an organized manner. Interesting topic, boring film.

secragt Okay, Dennis Okeefe and Gale Storm deliver competent performances and Marjorie Rambeau is effective as the matronly but menacing madam baby broker, but this movie is surely most memorable as the sole instance in which a young Raymond Burr (merely stout here, but still not thin) gets the s$#@ kicked out of him, which alone makes it worth the price of admission. Painfully corny narrative framing sequence at the beginning and the end (where there is a big unintentional laugh), but by and large a straightforward and enjoyable minor noir. At times a bit preachy perhaps and hardly a masterpiece but worth a look when it pops up on TCM late night.

jim riecken (youroldpaljim) Note: This review may contain a SPOILER!!! Decent, worth viewing melodrama about a reporter who helps a girl from a small town search for her missing sister in the big city. The search leads to them uncovering a black market baby racket. Stand out performance from Raymond Burr as a seedy private eye involved in the racket. He was always quite good at playing heavies in these kind of films and he is excellent here. Also look for a very young looking Will Kuluva as a mobster. The film gets a little a far fetched though towards the end; Why would such clever crooks try to bump off a girl and make it look an suicide the exact same way they bumped off her sister. Certainly any good police force would suspect foul play rather than suicide. The ads for this film show headline reading "GANGSTER FOUND SHOT." No gangster is found shot in the film. Perhaps this is an example of "ads first, movie later"?

bmacv In Abandoned's opening shot, that iconic edifice, the Los Angeles City Hall, looms menacingly into the night sky. From then on, it's a fast, rough ride through a brutal baby-adoption racket. Gale Storm is best remembered (if at all) as TV's My Little Margie, but she co-starred in a few noirs like Underworld Story and Between Midnight and Dawn; Abandoned is the best of them. She's come to town hunting for her vanished sister, knowing only that there's an out-of-wedlock baby girl involved. Storm links up with Dennis O'Keefe, a newspaper man, and Raymond Burr, a private detective supposedly hired by the missing girl's father back east (an enigmatic specter hanging over the story: Storm confides that her sister left home because "he wouldn't leave us alone"). Turns out that Sis was murdered for developing maternal instincts after having giving the baby up. The web of baby-nappers includes grandmotherly but lethal Marjorie Rambeau, some even less savory characters behind her, and, of course, Burr. Abandoned, despite its Hollywood-"happy" finish, stands as one of the grittier offerings in the noir cycle (Burr's being tortured with matches is one especially painful speck of grit).