MartinHafer deal for implied sex coincidence is ridiculous sleaze is implied"Panama Flo" is a film clearly rooted in the Pre-Code Era--a film filled with lots of sleazy subtext and characters who are ALL rotten! When the film was remade seven years later as "Panama Lady", it was scrubbed clean of all its sexual tension...and was, as a result, an incredibly dull film!When the story begins, Flo (Helen Twelvetrees) is working at a sleazy dive of a bar. She's dead broke and her only chance of getting away from this dump is her boyfriend, Babe (Robert Armstrong)...a guy who's promised to marry her as soon as he returns from his trip to South America. The problem is that after two weeks, Babe still hasn't returned and weeks turn into months. Into the hellish dive comes Dan (Charles Bickford)--an oil man with a huge wad of cash practically burning a hole in his pocket. The 'lady' who runs the dump convinces Flo to help rob the guy and he's not as dumb as he looks...but he's on to the scam too late...and another woman working in the bar runs off with the money. Now here's where the sleazy Pre-Code stuff comes into it. He could easily have Flo tossed into prison but instead gets her to agree to be his 'housekeeper' down in the South American jungle. It's very clear that this is a job with plenty of fringe benefits...though Flo does her best to keep the lecherous Dan at bay. Into this sexual tension arrives Babe...and considering how huge South America is, this is ridiculous! Flo thinks Babe is there to rescue her...but he is, at heart, a complete pig. So what happens next? See the film.Is this a very good film? Nah. The plot is pretty dumb and the whole coincidence angle is just too dumb to be real. The very end, by the way, is even dumber!! But, in a salacious way it IS worth seeing because it is so exciting and scummy!

ksf-2 Gotta love the precode films! In New York City, Helen Twelvetrees is Flo, working at "Sadie's", and we flash back to her days in Panama. (they even say "swell" which was a big no-no in those days, for some reason. ) Bob Armstrong is the boyfriend "Babe", and "Sadie" is Maude Eburne, a character for sure! When Flo and another girl try to snitch dough off a drunk "McTeague", played by Charles Bickford she is forced to keep house for him to keep him from going to the cops. This one is one of the extra-exotic early talkies, since it supposedly takes place in Panama. Flo is bored, and wants to get out. Then things start to really happen, and she might have a chance to get out. Robert Armstrong looked pretty creepy, with his slicked hair and heavy greasy make-up. He had been in a couple silent films, so maybe he was still doing the make-up ? the other actors didn't have such weird, heavy make-up. A good twist towards the end! ... didn't see that one coming! Directed by Ralph Murphy and Tay Garnett, although only Garnett is credited at the beginning. Written by Garrett Fort... didn't end well for him; he offed himself at 45. He had started in the silents. This film was actually pretty good - they put more thought into this one than most of the ones from the time.

John Seal Helen Twelvetrees is excellent as Flo, a burlesque dancer who gets fired by her harridan of a boss (the amazing Maude Eburne) and ends up virtually enslaved by a brutal oil explorer (Charles Bickford) in the heart of the South American jungle. Panama Flo is a top notch melodrama which also features Robert Armstrong in the rather thankless and not terribly interesting role of Flo's true love, Babe the aerial photographer. What really sets this film apart, however, is the exemplary cinematography of Arthur Miller, which shows just how far film had recovered from the static and stagebound early days of talking pictures. In Panama Flo, the camera moves fluidly--at times its almost hyperactive--swooping in and out of the action with long dolly shots and outstanding use of deep focus. Miller went on to win Academy Awards for his work on How Green Was My Valley, The Song of Bernadette, and Anna and the King of Siam, and he also shot the atmospheric western The Ox-Bow Incident, which deserved a nomination but didn't get one. Panama Flo benefits further from second-unit work by a 24-year old Stanley Cortez, who clearly learned a lesson or two from Miller. An excellent little film that can be enjoyed as much for its technical superiority as for its very enjoyable and appropriately spicy pre-Code plot.

wuxmup "Panama Flo" is a hardboiled soap opera of a kind they don't make anymore but that was popular back in the twenties and thirties. It's the sort of story that pulp magazines used to publish month after month, with a resourceful but temporarily helpless blonde (in this case the nearly forgotten but topnotch Helen Twelvetrees)trapped in a jungle at the mercy of a tough guy (the really rough tough Charles Bickford) who's almost, but not quite, a dangerous sociopath. This picture is melodramatic fun all the way through, with some snappy dialog ("A Mickey Finn--and make it stick!"), a sleazy saloon, a big biplane, good acting and camera work, and a twisty ending.Fans of Harlow and Gable in "Red Dust" won't be disappointed in "Panama Flo." Turner Classic Movies deserves credit for bringing it back.