Crime Does Not Pay is an MGM anthology crime film series of shorts that ran from 1935 to 1947.
Each film runs approximately 20 minutes in length and begins with an actor appearing as "your MGM crime reporter" introducing a law-enforcement official who would inform the audience of a criminal trend such as drunk driving, juvenile delinquency and fraud that would form the basis of the episode. The dramatic episodes resolved with sobering, ironic or bleak outcomes for the perpetrators.
MGM used the series as a training ground for its young contract players and cast each film primarily with character actors, although several stars appeared, including Van Johnson, J. Carrol Naish, Leon Ames, Laraine Day, Darryl Hickman, Bela Lugosi and Ed Begley. Some of the unknown actors in the series' episodes would later find feature-film success, such as Audrey Totter, Irene Hervey, Tom Neal, Marsha Hunt, Stephen McNally and Barry Nelson. The most famous of these was Robert Taylor, who appeared in the first film in the series, Buried Loot (1935), under his real name of Spangler Brugh as an emergency replacement for an actor who had fallen ill just before filming. Taylor had been an MGM "test boy" whose job was to be filmed opposite various young ingenues for screen tests.[ citation needed ]
Crime Does Not Pay later spawned a radio series of the same name, recorded and broadcast at MGM's New York station WMGM. Written by Ira Marion and directed by Marx B. Loeb, it aired for two years (October 10, 1949—October 10, 1951), including repeats. It moved to the Mutual Broadcasting System for its final run (January 7—December 22, 1952). [1]
A 1944 Crime Does Not Pay short with studio newcomers Audrey Totter and Tom Trout was expanded into a 57-minute feature film, Main Street After Dark (released 1945), with new footage of Edward Arnold as a police detective.
The Warner Archive Collection has released the entire series of 50 shorts on DVD-R as Crime Does Not Pay: The Complete Shorts Collection. Some episodes can also be found as extras on DVDs and Blu-rays of classic MGM films of the period: