dougdoepke A budding actress helps a crew of bankrobbers, after which she's sent to prison, where she uses her wits to get a pardon.The 60-minutes comes across more like a Monogram production instead of the gangster experts at Warner Bros. The main problem lies with the flick's lack of grit. There's really no one to menace the audience as would be expected. As the lead player, Emerson lacks even a hint of fire, which leaves an affable blank where an igniting spark should be. The supporting players too-- with one notable exception-- are pretty bland, along with a sloppy script, as other reviewers point out. Then too, the hulking guy in drag is a hoot that should fool no one, especially canny prison guards. On the other hand, the prison's dayroom scenes are colorful and lively, and compensate somewhat. Director Florey also shows some flair with the staircase brawl, and especially with Dorothy Adams' lip-reading angles. However, to me, Ruth Ford (Lucy) absolutely steals the film. She injects real life and personality into her prison snitch role that provides a lift to the proceedings (and with a pony-tail, no less). I can see why she was an Orson Welles favorite. I'll look for her from now on.All in all, the movie's rather limp for Warner Bros. and its gangster theme specialty. Wisely, Emerson transitioned from movies to early TV where her low-cut gowns suddenly got men interested in panel shows. Too bad wardrobe missed the opportunity here. It would have been big compensation.

MartinHafer This film, starring Faye Emerson, has inexplicably fallen into the public domain. I say inexplicably because it was made by Warner Brothers—a company that almost always was certain to renew copyrights on its work. Somehow this one slipped by and as a result it's available for viewing through a link on IMDb. This film is worth seeing if only to get a look at Jackie Gleason in one of his earliest screen roles—albeit a bit part.The film begins with Emerson working with a gang to rob a bank. She's the inside person whose job it is to get the guard to open the door after she gives him a sob story. The police suspect her but cannot prove she was with the gang—so they hold her for the time being in jail. An annoying radio personality takes on this case in order to discredit the District Attorney—and begins to whine on the air that she is being railroaded by an overzealous system. However, when she confesses to the radio man (who turns out to be an old friend of hers), he tells the D.A. and she is sent to prison. Inexplicably, he then continues talking about how this bad lady was mistreated by the system—yet HE was the one who was responsible for her going to state prison!! This is a MAJOR weakness in the film…it just didn't make much sense and you wonder how anyone smart enough to have a job as a broadcaster could be that much of an idiot. Nor does what happens next concerning her and the old friend—who is just too big a sap to be true! While this is not a terrible film, perhaps its being in the public domain may in part be because this is a weakly written film. Despite good acting, you just can't get past the dopey aspects of the plot that make this an obvious B-movie from Warner Brothers. It's entertaining and slickly produced but pretty silly…and is one of the few misfires the studio made during this otherwise golden era.By the way, if you do watch this film there are a couple things you may want to look out for in the movie. First, in a funny scene, one of the male gang members dresses in drag and visits Emerson in prison! Second, although most would not know this, the lip reading portion of the film is based on a myth. You CANNOT have a deaf person watch others at a distance and perfectly read the lips of both parties. It's truly a hit or miss proposition reading lips (also called 'speech reading' by the deaf)—and wild exaggerations like this film are common but just not possible. If only my deaf daughter could read lips this well!

Neil Doyle FAYE EMERSON was a competent actress who never became a major star during her short career at Warner Bros., but she was usually among the prominent supporting players in A-films. Here she's given the leading femme role as a LADY GANGSTER in what is a remake of an old Barbara Stanwyck film.FRANK WILCOX gets the male lead and is rather bland in the role of a radio commentator who wants to help Emerson beat the rap when the police arrest her in connection with a bank robbery gone wrong. Emerson has to serve a prison sentence--and there we get a supporting cast of female prisoners including JULIE BISHOP, RUTH FORD and DOROTHY ADAMS.VIRGINIA BRISSAC (Miss Seiffert with the hearing aid in THE SNAKE PIT) is a prison supervisor and DOROTHY VAUGHAN is a kindly matron, among the supporting role players.Moves swiftly but is a routine B-film with a gangster element. JACKIE GLEASON has a bit role as one of the bank robbers but it's ROLAND DREW who is the chief villain among the robbers, ludicrous when he's in drag disguised as a woman to visit Emerson in jail.Forgettable little item interesting only for Emerson's performance.

classicsoncall All the elements were here for an intriguing and gritty gangster/prison drama, but once Dot Burton (Faye Emerson) wound up at the penitentiary, the film started a lot to resemble a high school sorority league. All smiles and chatty, Dot and her new jailbird friend Myrtle (Julie Bishop) wind up scheming about how she can make the best of her sentence, until the time comes to claim the forty thousand dollars she scammed from her bumbling partners. I have to give the film makers credit for dressing up mobster Carey Wells (Roland Drew) in drag, that was both clever and corny at the same time. I'd love to know how many takes were necessary to film the visitation scene when Dot's 'sister' comes to see her in prison.The relationship between Dot Burton and Ken Phillips (Frank Wilcox) didn't quite work for me either, especially from her side. I mean seriously, what did she see in this guy to spark a romantic angle? Especially since she knew him as an adult when she was still a kid. The plot would have worked without going for this stretch.The surprise for me in the story was one of Jackie Gleason's very early screen appearances when he was still using the middle initial 'C'. Unfortunately he didn't have a whole lot to do as the gang's getaway driver. If you get the chance, try to catch him in the Bogart film "All Through The Night" where in a similar role he gets to weigh in on World War II military strategy and how the Allies could win.As I sit here writing this, the thought occurred to me that as a Warner Brothers film, this could just as easily have been an East Side Kids story, with all the female leads replaced by Billy Halop, Bobby Jordan, Leo Gorcey, Huntz Hall, et al. Throw in Ann Sheridan for the Ken Phillips character and you would have had a much livelier story. Still, at just a couple of minutes over an hour, "Lady Gangster" is an interesting little diversion, but don't go in expecting to see a real lady gangster.