Some things I liked some I did not.

Boring, long, and too preachy.

It's funny watching the elements come together in this complicated scam. On one hand, the set-up isn't quite as complex as it seems, but there's an easy sense of fun in every exchange.

The biggest problem with this movie is it’s a little better than you think it might be, which somehow makes it worse. As in, it takes itself a bit too seriously, which makes most of the movie feel kind of dull.

How amazing, a few months ago I came across a Kay Francis Monogram called "Allotment Wives" (1945). In it she played the head of a marriage racket whose daughter comes home from a fancy finishing school and decides she wants to be part of the racket as well. But good old Betty Compson was in the original (with a few variations). Compson seemed to have more come backs than Dame Nellie Melba (to use a colloquial phrase) but in reality she never stopped working. This movie was from exploitation producer J.D. Kendis who used a bit more daring in his movies about the sordid side of life.Compson is joined by Wheeler Oakman whose career went right back to Mabel Normand's "Mickey" where he was the male lead. By the early 1940s he was firmly ensconced in the exploitation grind. He may have been a nice guy but he had a sleazy look about him, ideally suited to this type of movie. This one deviates slightly from "Allotment Wives" - in this one Betty Compson plays Ruth Ashley, head of a big escort agency who has finally won a place in high society. The fly in the ointment is her daughter June (Margaret Maruis) who is coming home for a visit from her posh finishing school and doesn't know her mother's real occupation!!! As if Ruth doesn't have enough to worry about, June is also bringing her fiancée, Drake, who is coming to the city on an undercover assignment to expose - you guessed it, the head of the escort racket!!!The movie hovers between laughs and drama - the gals tell "hilarious" stories of their encounters with clients, there is even a pretty salacious striptease that doesn't leave much to the imagination. The main story is strictly dramatic and both Betty Compson and Wheeler Oakman with their professionalism make sure the movie is saved from being unintentionally funny. Drake, as part of his investigation, hires an escort and Stone (Oakman) to retaliate against June, who now wants to give up the agency and be really respectable, sends June along to be his date!!! There is the usual misunderstanding and June goes back to Stone's apartment to find out the truth. Stone obliges by telling her about her mother then June hits the bottle and cheesy lines fly thick and fast - "Hey, it looks like you're sobering up, have another drink" and the old standby "Sure I've been drinking - to try to forget my broken dreams" - I assure you it really is said!!!The film was pretty choppy - supposedly 68 minutes, my print was only 58 minutes. Even with 10 minutes out the story was pretty easy to follow.

**SPOILERS**Shocking expose of the sleazy escort business back in the 1940's and how it destroyed those who were involved in it without even knowing it! Having nothing but the best in life young June Ashley, Margaret Marquis, didn't know that her mom Ruth, Betty Compson, was running a string of escort services, using both men as well as women, in and around L.A and its suburbs. It was when June together with her fiancée Drake Hamilton, Robert Kellard, paid her mom a surprise visit that the awful truth was to come out. What Ruth and her partner in the escort business Greg Stone, Wheeler Oakman, were to soon find out is that Drake is working undercover for the the L.A district attorney, who just happens to be Drake's dad, to gets the goods on the escort racket and put it, together with sleaze-balls like Ruth & Greg, out of business! Getting the jump on Drake in him knowing what he's planing to do Greg sets up Ruth's unsuspecting daughter June in a sting that Drake, and the D.A's office, is setting for him. Posing as a male escort-A greasy gigolo-Drake is stunned to find out that his first woman costumer is non-other then his fiancée June Ashley herself! This all leads to June to walk out on Drake feeling that he's running around with other women and Drake, who didn't know that this whole scenario was set up by the sleazy and manipulative Greg Stone, feel that June, not himself who was undercover as a gigolo, was working for Greg as one of his escort girls!The biggest fireworks in the movie are left for last with June now dead drunk, courtesy of Greg providing her all the free booze, confronting her unsuspecting, who showed unexpectedly, mom Ruth Ashley at Grege's penthouse! Thinking that Grege is cheating on her behind her back, until she realized that the "other woman" was her own daughter June, Ruth has it out with Greg as Drake, also unexpectedly, shows up! What happens next is is just too shocking and mind numbing to put down on paper! You'll have to, by getting a hold of the DVD "Escort Girl", see it, if you can keep yourself from cracking up from laughing, for yourself!

Escort Girl (1941) ** (out of 4) Ruth (Betty Compson) and her partner Gregory (Wheeler Oakman) run an escort service in Hollywood but Ruth's life is turned upside down when her daughter (Margaret Marquis) comes to visit. The daughter doesn't know mommy's real profession and it doesn't help when her boyfriend turns out to be working with the D.A. to bring down escort services. Fans of campy or bad cinema will certainly want to check this thing out but others should stay far away even though the film does feature an Oscar nominated actress in Compson. The actress was a big player in the silent era and acted in some well remembered films in the 30's but I guess you can tell how far she had fallen when she was seen in something like this. The exploitation factor is off the charts as we get all sorts of "naughty" moments including some brief nudity with a striptease (although the nipples are covered). The storyline is rather dirty but this wasn't the only film to deal with escorts as I'm sure the original producer's tried to pass this off as a "warning" or "message" film. The film is pretty straight forward for the first forty-minutes but the final twenty is where things really go crazy. When the daughter finds out the truth behind mommy's business I couldn't help but laugh at her breakdown. Also hilarious is her scenes where she's drunk because this ranks as some of the worst acting I've seen. Compson turns in a pretty good performance as does Oakman who would go onto appear in several Bela Lugosi films including The Ape Man and Ghosts on the Loose. In the end this film isn't going to appeal to very many except for fans of camp and those wanting a few unintentional laughs would be wise to check out this quickie.

The only other reviewer at the time of my posting states that the quality of his VHS transfer was excellent, while my 'remastered' DVD print is about as second rate as they come. A lot of jump cuts and missed dialog however doesn't hurt the flow of the story all that much, but even so, what you're left with it are some of the most over the top melodramatic performances you'll find coming out of the era. All in service to the melodramatic nature of the story, as an undercover investigator attempts to expose the ring leaders of an escort bureau. Drake Hamilton's (Robert Kellard) mission becomes complicated when his fiancée is set up to make a call on him as a 'date' from the escort service, but the arrangement is so awkward you'll wonder why June (Margaret Marquis) just didn't explain the whole story when she got to his room.I'm always amazed at the way times have progressed when it comes to how expensive things are today. The fee for an escort back then - ten dollars plus expenses while on the date!!! That didn't include any business the gals did on the side, I guess that's where entrepreneurial ability came in.There are some genuinely laughable scenes here, not all of which were meant to be I'm sure. One which had a lush (Arthur Houseman) walking into a fern a couple of times, making this viewer wonder which of the two was more potted. And gee, I wonder how many drinks it would take to make a high roller like Snuggles (Isabel La Mal) look good. But the scene that will have you sit up and take notice is the dancing stripper, didn't she have a nice pair of ... legs?The grand finale really goes for the gusto, and I for one actually wondered how investigator Hamilton was going to explain the whole thing to the authorities. Now that would have made for a great sequel!