GIRL MISSING (1933) with Glenda Farrell

 

“WE DIDN’T SAY WE WEREN’T MIXED UP IN ANY RACKET. WE SAID WE WEREN’T MIXED UP WITH THIS RACKET”

Ex-chorus girls, Kay Curtis (Glenda Farrell) and June Dale (Mary Brian), are gold digging their way through a Palm Beach holiday when their frustrated sugar daddy (Guy Kibbee) walks out on them leaving them stuck with a big hotel bill. Seeing that their former chorine colleague Daisy Bradford (red-headed firecracker, Peggy Shannon) is about to marry a rich playboy, Henry Gibson (bland Ben Lyon), they put the touch on her, only to be rebuffed when she doesn’t want to give away her true background.

When Daisy goes missing on her wedding night and mafia bookie, Jim Hendricks (Harold Huber), turns up dead outside her window, Kay smells a rat (“There's something haywire about this. Looks like a fake to me!”). Kay then hatches a plan to figure out the mystery of Daisy’s disappearance and snag the $25,000 reward offered by Henry.

There several possible scenarios. Has Daisy really disappeared or, now that she’s slept her way into a rich lifestyle, is she up to something more sinister? What’s up with Daisy’s gigolo ex-boyfriend, Raymond Fox (Lyle Talbot), who’s suspiciously drinking highballs in the background and is very anxious to settle Kay’s hotel tab and pack her off out of town? Or, could it be that since Henry only received his inheritance upon getting married that Daisy is now just a liability to be disposed of?

For such a short film (69 min.), not a lot happens in the first half of Girl Missing, with Daisy not even disappearing until the halfway point. We get to know the characters and their dynamics, and any time spent with the quick-tongued Farrell is time well spent, but the film would have benefited from engaging with the actual plot from the start. But, Girl Missing is more pasta salad than gourmet meal. It’s not so much about solving the mystery, but rather enjoying an uncomplicated and pleasant story when your brain needs a rest. The question foremost in my mind while watching this film was how two down on their luck chorines could afford all those gorgeous Orry-Kelly dresses that they wear in every scene?

The film can be faulted for rushing supporting actor, Guy Kibbee, off the screen too fast. Not only is he fun to watch, but he’s instrumental in establishing our heroines as gold diggers trying to string along rich saps without giving anything in return (“I spent a lot of money on you. What do I get? Nothing but promises”). Mary is the shy, pretty bait while Glenda is her expert handler (“Don't bother Mother when she's making business”) who always steps in when things get too steamy. Kibbee specialized in playing characters whose stallion-sized libido didn’t realize that it was stuck in the body of a fat, red-faced, old man. Once he walks out on the girls leaving them with a $700 hotel tab that they can’t pay, the plot of the film starts rolling, but it’s also loses a red herring in a film that’s already too short on them.

Girl Missing was Glenda Farrell's first top-billed role, coming after she had made her mark in supporting roles in Little Caesar (1931) and I Was a Fugitive from a Chain Gang (1932). Farrell showed a natural comedic ability at playing fast-talking, no-nonsense women who would get to the bottom of a mystery faster than anyone else – especially her male counterparts who were always two steps behind her.

Farrell stole the show in The Mystery of the Wax Museum (1933) with this persona that Warner Bros formalized in her later run as the investigative reporter, Torchy Blane, in seven films between 1937 and 1939. The Torchy’s are all terrific fun thanks to Farrell, but also notably sexless, especially in comparison to the Pre-Code Girl Missing that doesn’t sugar coat the naughtiness happening off screen (“Burn my clothes, here I come!”). Another sign that Girl Missing is a pre-code film is that Kay ends up with the reward money AND gets to walk off to enjoy it without having to get married or sacrifice her power to any man.

The 1930’s hosted a full slate of ‘gold diggers trying to score a sugar daddy’ films that were all kicked off by the massive success of Warner Bros The Gold Diggers of Broadway (1929), followed by Gold Diggers of 1933, 1935, 1937, and finally ‘in Paris’ (1938). Teamed here with Mary Brian though, the Farrell-Brian duo lacks the chemistry that Farrell would soon have with Joan Blondell in their string of successful gold digger-buddy films like Havana Widows (1933), Kansas City Princess (1934) and Miss Pacific Fleet (1935). Brian is fine, but her subservient role to Farrell makes her almost unnoticeable except for the necessity of giving Farrell someone to talk to as she explains what’s going on in her mind. Mary was dubbed "the sweetest girl in pictures", starting her career in silents as Wendy in Peter Pan (1924) and may be best remembered as Pat O’Brien’s jilted fiancé in The Front Page (1931).

In most films of this sort, the heroine (our Kay) would have her own male sparring partner. Here that role is taken by Edward Ellis’ police inspector who gives Kay enough rope to either hang herself or solve the mystery (no spoiler - it’s the latter). Comedic murder mystery fans will recognize Ellis as the ill-fated ‘thin man’ in The Thin Man (1934). And, keep an eye open for the befuddled garage operator played by Walter Brennan who also performed uncredited roles in 24 other movies in 1933.

I have a soft spot for “That Red Headed Girl”, the doomed-to-die-too-young Peggy Shannon. She’s now faded into the oblivion that holds thousands of other early actors, but if I survive the coming apocalypse, I hope that I end up with someone as tough as Peggy's end of the world survivor, Claire Arlington, in Deluge (1933).

Girl Missing is efficiently directed by Robert Florey who is best remembered as the man who didn’t direct Frankenstein (1931) with Bela Lugosi as the Monster. Florey had a promising early career working with King Vidor and Josef von Sternberg, and notably co-directed the first Marx Bros film, The Cocoanuts (1929). But, Murders in The Rue Morgue (1932; starring Lugosi), his consolation prize from Carle Laemmle for losing Frankenstein, was a flop, and the remainder of Florey's career saw him studio hopping to work mostly on B-pictures and later in television.

Is Girl Missing Worth My Time? Yes. Whether you’re a fan of light, comedic murder mysteries or just love the acerbic motor mouth of Glenda Farrell that cuts everyone off at the knees, this is the movie for you. The film was scripted by Carl Erickson and Don Mullaly, who also wrote Mystery in the Wax Museum (1933) that introduced us to Farrell’s soon to be classic mystery-solving powerhouse. I think that Torchy and her precursors, like this film's Kay Curtis, would have given Sherlock Holmes a run for his money. 

A special nod to credited dialogue writer, Ben Markson, for filling the film with memorable lines (“S as in sardines. P as in peanuts. I as in indigestion. E as in elephant. G as in gosh. A as in adenoids. L as in lumbago. H as in hotcha. Another E. Oh, yes, that makes two elephants...”).

Availability: It was available as a Warners On Demand DVD paired with Illicit (1931). It turns up on TCM and intermittently on the interweb.

Credits: Producer, Jack Warner. Director, Robert Florey. Script, Carl Erickson & Don Mullaly. Starring Glenda Farrell, Mary Brian, Ben Lyon, Lyle Talbot, Peggy Shannon, Edward Ellis, and Guy Kibbee. Cinematographer, Arthur L. Todd. Music, Bernhard Kaun. Produced by The Vitaphone Corporation & distributed by Warner Bros. 69 min.