Allotment Wives

Last updated
Allotment Wives
Allotment wives poster.jpg
Theatrical release poster
Directed by William Nigh
Written bySidney Sutherland (story and screenplay)
Harvey Gates (screenplay)
Produced byJeffrey Bernerd
Kay Francis (co-producer)
Starring Kay Francis
Paul Kelly
Cinematography Harry Neumann
Edited by William Austin
Music by Edward J. Kay
Production
company
Distributed byMonogram Pictures
Release date
  • November 8, 1945 (1945-11-08)
Running time
80 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

Allotment Wives is a 1945 American film noir directed by William Nigh and starring Kay Francis. Its plot is about an army investigator who tries to shut down a scam that preys on soldiers, and unknowingly falls in love with the woman behind it.

Contents

Plot

The Office of Dependency Benefits, O.D.B., is a U.S. government agency in charge of payment and financial support to women who have husbands serving in World War II. Even after the war, the office still handles all these issues.

Colonel Pete Martin from the Army Intelligence is assigned to investigate a series of incorrect claims for support that has been discovered at the O.D.B. Among other things, there is evidence that some women have married multiple times to get more money. Pete's job is to find these fraudulent women and bring them to justice. Pete goes undercover as a newspaper reporter, which used to be his job before the war. He begins his investigations on the West Coast, keeping an eye on the suspected women.

He observes a suspicious young woman named Helen Keefe give cash to an equally suspicious-looking man, George Shields, and after that, she is introduced to another young man. Pete immediately orders their arrest. At the restaurant, a businesswoman named Sheila Seymour introduces herself to Pete. She claims to be the owner of an upscale beauty salon and running a canteen for servicemen. Pete is unaware that she also is the head of the racketeering business and in charge of all the allotment frauds. To her aid, she has three men: Whitey Colton, Louis Moranto, and Deacon Sam.

Since Pete discovered a case of ongoing fraud in the restaurant, Sheila is furious with her associates, and fires Moranto for not doing his job properly. Whitey is sent to tail Pete and keep track of his investigation. Whitey follows Pete to the O.D.B. offices, and confirms that he is an investigator. Pete continues to pretend being a reporter, and goes to Sheila's canteen. He meets her, and they agree to meet the next day for an interview as background to one of the article he pretends to write. He is still unaware of Sheila's involvement in the racket.

Sheila sees her daughter, Connie, in a bar with two soldiers, and becomes upset with her behavior. Sheila tells Connie that she has to stay in school for two more months, after which they will go to South America together with Whitey. Sheila's plan is to quit the racketeering business by then.

But problem arises as Spike Malone, one of Moranto's former goons, and his girlfriend Gladys Smith try to get into the racketeering business. They follow Sheila to her home and see her daughter Connie. It turns out Gladys recognizes Sheila, because she used to go to reform school with her. Pete sees signs of the racketeering business when he visits the canteen, and the next time he meets Sheila, he warns her about the illegal business going on at her place of business. Gladys starts working Sheila by sending her blackmail letters. Sheila puts Whitey on catching the blackmailer and handing her over to the police. She succeeds, and Gladys ends up in jail, where she meets Helen and finds out that Sheila is, in fact, running the whole allotment racketeering business. After telling Gladys, Helen commits suicide in jail.

Gladys is soon released from jail, and decides to get her revenge in Sheila through her daughter. Gladys and Spike arrange a string of wild parties, and get Connie to attend them. Then, they sneak into Sheila's home and threaten her with a gun, asking for a large sum of money in exchange for Connie. Sheila manages to alert Whitey about her situation, and he and his men arrive to the rescue. A gunfight ensues, and Spike is shot and runs off, injured. Sheila manages to kill Gladys. After all the wild partying, Connie is taken into custody by Pete, and since he is not aware that Sheila is the girl's mother, he asks her to help him with Connie, as a role model the girl can look up to. Sheila again uses Whitey, and sends him off to break Connie out from captivity. He manages to do that, but is shot and wounded in doing so.

In the meantime, Pete has tracked Spike, and finds out that he is involved with Sheila somehow. Sheila and Connie pack to go to Mexico together, but Sheila goes to take care of Pete before they leave. Connie is sent ahead for Mexico with her other reliable associate Deacon, but they are stopped. Sheila attempts to kill Pete, but she is herself killed by one of his men. Pete decides to let Connie run, and turns in his report to the O.B.D, suggesting they forget about her background. [1]

Cast

Production

During the war, newspapers ran stories regarding the problem of infidelity among the spouses of absent military men and the women, sometimes called Allotment Annies, who married one or more men in order to obtain their allotment checks. In 1943 Senator Edwin C. Johnson and Representative John Sparkman spoke against these women, [2] and the film soon followed.

Monogram Pictures promoted the film as showcasing a social problem. [3] For free publicity, the film's pressbook recommended that theater operators obtain local welfare worker and judge testimonials regarding their experience with women who had married military men in order to obtain their allotments and those who attempted to obtain divorces while their husbands were overseas. [4]

Related Research Articles

<i>Libeled Lady</i> 1936 film by Jack Conway

Libeled Lady is a 1936 American screwball comedy film directed by Jack Conway and starring Jean Harlow, William Powell, Myrna Loy, and Spencer Tracy. The screenplay was written by Maurine Dallas Watkins, Howard Emmett Rogers, and George Oppenheimer, from a story by Wallace Sullivan. This was the fifth of fourteen films in which Powell and Loy were teamed, inspired by their success in the Thin Man series.

<i>The Manxman</i> (1929 film) 1929 film

The Manxman is a 1929 British silent romance film directed by Alfred Hitchcock and starring Anny Ondra, Carl Brisson and Malcolm Keen. The film is based on a popular 1894 romantic novel The Manxman by Hall Caine, which had previously been made into a film 13 years earlier. It was the last fully silent production that Hitchcock directed before he made the transition to sound film with his next film Blackmail (1929).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Whitey Bulger</span> American gangster and crime boss (1929–2018)

James Joseph "Whitey" Bulger Jr. was an American organized crime boss who led the Winter Hill Gang, an Irish Mob group in the Winter Hill neighborhood of Somerville, Massachusetts, a city directly northwest of Boston. On December 23, 1994, Bulger fled the Boston area and went into hiding after his former FBI handler, John Connolly, tipped him off about a pending RICO indictment against him. Bulger remained at large for sixteen years. After his 2011 arrest, federal prosecutors tried Bulger for nineteen murders based on grand jury testimony from Kevin Weeks and other former criminal associates.

<i>It Should Happen to You</i> 1954 film by George Cukor

It Should Happen to You is a 1954 American romantic comedy film starring Judy Holliday, Peter Lawford and Jack Lemmon; it was Lemmon's first major film appearance. The film was directed by George Cukor, and partly filmed on location in New York City. Screenwriter Garson Kanin originally intended the script as a vehicle for Danny Kaye, but Kanin's wife, Ruth Gordon, suggested casting Judy Holliday instead. The title was initially A Name for Herself.

<i>The Stepford Wives</i> (1975 film) 1975 film by Bryan Forbes

The Stepford Wives is a 1975 American satirical psychological thriller film directed by Bryan Forbes. It was written by William Goldman, who based his screenplay on Ira Levin's 1972 novel of the same name. The film stars Katharine Ross as a woman who relocates with her husband and children from New York City to the Connecticut community of Stepford, where she comes to find that the women live lives of unwavering subservience to their husbands.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cara Williams</span> American actress (1925–2021)

Cara Williams was an American film and television actress. She was best known for her role as Billy's Mother in The Defiant Ones (1958), for which she was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, and her role as Gladys Porter on the 1960–62 CBS television series Pete and Gladys, for which she was nominated for the Emmy Award for Best Lead Actress in a Comedy. At the time of her death, Williams was one of the last surviving actors from the Golden Age of Hollywood.

<i>Paradise</i> (Morrison novel) 1998 novel by Toni Morrison

Paradise is a 1998 novel by Toni Morrison, and her first since winning the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1993. Paradise completes a "trilogy" that begins with Beloved (1987) and includes Jazz (1992).

The Angiulo brothers, were the leading Italian-American crime group from Boston's North End, from the 1960s until the mid 1980s. Also, the street crew extended into East Boston, Roxbury, Waltham, Newton, Watertown, parts of Revere, and all other predominantly Italian American neighborhoods in Eastern Massachusetts. Their criminal organization was dubbed "In-Town", because one had to go in to town to visit the Angiulo Brothers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peggy Knudsen</span> American actress (1923–1980)

Margaret Ann "Peggy" Knudsen was an American character actress.

<i>Just Before Dawn</i> (1946 film) 1946 film by William Castle

Just Before Dawn (1946) is the sixth Crime Doctor film produced by Columbia Pictures. It was directed by William Castle and written by Eric Taylor and Aubrey Wisberg. The film stars Warner Baxter, Adele Roberts, Mona Barrie and Martin Kosleck. It is also known as Exposed by the Crime Doctor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sheila Bromley</span> American actress (1907–2003)

Sheila Bromley, also billed early in her career as Sheila LeGay, Sheila Manners, Sheila Mannors or Sheila Manors, was an American television and film actress. She is best known for her roles in B-movies, mostly Westerns of the era.

<i>Child Bride of Short Creek</i> 1981 television film

Child Bride of Short Creek is a 1981 American made-for-television drama film written by Joyce Eliason, starring Christopher Atkins, Diane Lane, Conrad Bain, Helen Hunt and Dee Wallace. The film is a dramatization loosely based upon the 1953 Short Creek raid that had occurred in Colorado City, Arizona, and Hildale, Utah, United States, collectively known as "Short Creek," a community of members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, a group that practices child marriage and polygamy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Connie Gilchrist</span> American actress (1895–1985)

Rose Constance Gilchrist was an American stage, film, and television actress. Among her screen credits are roles in the Hollywood productions Cry 'Havoc' (1943), A Letter to Three Wives (1949), Little Women (1949), Tripoli (1950), Houdini (1953), Some Came Running (1958), and Auntie Mame (1958).

<i>Why Did I Get Married Too?</i> 2010 American film

Why Did I Get Married Too? is a 2010 American comedy-drama film directed by Tyler Perry and starring Janet Jackson, Tyler Perry, Tasha Smith, Jill Scott, Louis Gossett Jr., Malik Yoba, Michael Jai White, Sharon Leal, Richard T. Jones, Lamman Rucker, and Cicely Tyson. Produced by Lionsgate and Tyler Perry Studios, it is the sequel to Why Did I Get Married? (2007). The film shares the interactions of four couples who undertake a week-long retreat to improve their relationships.

<i>Easy to Wed</i> 1946 film

Easy to Wed is a 1946 Technicolor American musical comedy film directed by Edward Buzzell, and starring Van Johnson, Esther Williams, Lucille Ball, and Keenan Wynn. The screenplay by Dorothy Kingsley is an adaptation of the screenplay of the 1936 film Libeled Lady by Maurine Dallas Watkins, Howard Emmett Rogers, and George Oppenheimer.

<i>Hard Boiled Mahoney</i> 1947 film by William Beaudine

Hard Boiled Mahoney is a 1947 American comedy film directed by William Beaudine and starring the comedy team of the Bowery Boys along with Teala Loring and Betty Compson. It is the sixth film in the series produced by Monogram Pictures.

<i>Dark Mountain</i> (film) 1944 film by William A. Berke

Dark Mountain is a 1944 American film noir crime film directed by William Berke. It is also known as Thunderbolt and Thunder Mountain.

<i>Queen for a Day</i> (film) 1951 film by Arthur Lubin

Queen for a Day is a 1951 American comedy film directed by Arthur Lubin and written by Seton I. Miller. The film stars Jack Bailey, Jim Morgan, Fort Pearson, Melanie York, Cynthia Corley, Kay Wiley and Helen Mowery. The film was released on July 7, 1951 by United Artists.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jan Wiley</span> American actress (1916–1993

Jan Wiley was an American film actress.

"Flight 1" is the second episode of the second season of the American television drama series Mad Men. It was written by series creator Matthew Weiner and Lisa Albert, and was directed by Andrew Bernstein. The episode originally aired on AMC in the United States on August 3, 2008.

References

  1. ↑ Film synopsis, tcm.com; accessed March 11, 2014.
  2. ↑ Donovan, Brian (2020). American Gold Digger: Marriage, Money, and the Law from the Ziegfeld Follies to Anna Nicole Smith. University of North Carolina Press. pp. 89–90. ISBN   978-1-4696-6029-5.
  3. ↑ Pfau, Ann (2010). "Allotment Annies and Other Wayward Wives: Wartime Concerns About Female Disloyalty". In Piehler, G. Kurt; Pash, Sidney (eds.). The United States and the Second World War: New Perspectives on Diplomacy, War, and the Home Front. Fordham University Press. pp. 101–102. ISBN   978-0-8232-3120-1.
  4. ↑ Pressbook for Allotment Wives, p. 5.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.