Very well executed

just watch it!

I gave it a 7.5 out of 10

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

This has to be one of the few Monogram releases I've reviewed and that's only because Kay Francis rounded out her career on Poverty Row. Francis is an actress I've heard described in glowing, nay, reverential terms all my life but seldom, if ever, seen on screen. I came close when I saw - and loved - the remake, with George Brent and Merle Oberon, of the Kay Francis/William Powell bittersweet One-Way Passage. From what I've read she was, during the thirties, Warners top actress but then they cut her loose and she struck a deal to produce and star in three movies at Monogram after which she rode into the sunset. Allotment Wives is the only one of the three I've seen and she is, apparently, cast against type as a heavy, the honcho of a ring of scammers who use a USO type club to set servicemen up with women prepared to marry them and then claim their allotment. Paul Kelly is tapped to break up the racket and it all ends in tears with Francis getting one of the all-time great last lines on celluloid; 'nice shooting' she says to the guy who has just placed a slug where it will do the most good. Class to the end.

Allotment Wives has Kay Francis toiling for Monogram Pictures and running a special kind of clip joint racket tailored to servicemen. The hostesses are to seduce and marry lonely GIs and get those allotment checks should the servicemen be killed. Quite a cute little racket and the Army has sent Paul Kelly in to investigate and he's going under the guise of a newspaper reporter covering a story about how we're seeing the comforts of our men in uniform.Her partner in crime is Otto Kruger and Kay has unfortunately one bitter enemy from when she was serving time in Gertrude Michael. Kay also has an Achilles heel and it's her daughter Teala Loring. Kay's sent her to an exclusive college and she's kept her business a secret from Loring. But the daughter has proved to be a wild child and I don't think I need go further.For a Monogram film it's not bad and Francis, Kelly, and Kruger do deliver good performances. And certainly the topic was a timely one. Many women got widow's windfalls as a result of a hurried romance during wartime. It's just that Kay is putting it on an organized basis.Still though the production values are typical Monogram, practically non-existent. The film is quite a come down from when Kay Francis was a big name at Paramount and later Warner Brothers.

Allotment Wives (1945)You might moan when you hear the official voice-over talking about the War Department's benefits program and such. But hang in there. The intro is brief, and it's kind interesting, and it sets up the main movie, which has a great hook: women marrying several absentee G.I. men at once so they can collect multiple benefits. Including big death benefits if the men never returned..This isn't a brilliant affair, but it's better than you'd expect. It has some mediocre acting and routine filming, but it also some some really good parts. The key is the story, and the way the investigator (one main man, a curious, underplayed part by an underused, quirky actor, Paul Kelly) does his job.The leading female is played by Kay Francis. Never heard of her? She was Warner Bros. number one actress for several years in the early 1930s. Yes, and yet has really no single film to point to that has held up as great (she did do an interesting George Cukor movie early in both of their careers). But she's terrific with this middling material, and feels like an undiscovered leading lady. There's a scene between her and her saucy daughter that ends in a slap that will remind you of a similar scene in "Mildred Pierce" a year later. But Francis is usually just likable, even as she runs a lucrative scheme right in front of the U.S. Gov't's nose.There are straight, great noir films with lesser plots, to tell the truth, but this one is filmed in a bright, flat way, with the camera often just sitting there as the actors go through their lines in the lights. Not that you need shadowy drama all the time, but drama, and a physical presence, and a higher sense of style and art. Director William Nigh has a whole slew of these B-movies to his name, and he is often too functional for his own good.

This is an unusual film for Monogram Pictures since it actually has a few relatively big-name actors--something you don't usually see from a 3rd rate studio like this one. Kay Francis, Otto Kruger and Paul Kelly actually bolster the film with their decent performances--otherwise, the film probably wouldn't be seen or noticed today.The plot is odd and I wonder if the problem discussed in the film was real. According to ALLOTMENT WIVES, there was a lot of fraud during WWII, as women would quickly marry G.I.s just so they can get their monthly allotment checks. Some of these women even married multiple times under a variety of names in order to make a huge killing by cheating the system!! Kelly is a Colonel in the army and is asked to go undercover to determine who is at the heart of this scam. In other words, these are not isolated cases but are part of an organized crime network. Now considering that Kay Francis is in the film, it's not hard to guess that she's the evil genius behind the scam and this is revealed rather early in the film--thus taking away much of the element of surprise. However, subplots involving a lady named Gloria and Francis' on-screen daughter are mildly interesting and keep the film moving--but don't expect much magic or excitement. It's a better than average Monogram film, but considering that this studio was known for creating crap, that isn't saying much. It's watchable and interesting but that's about all.