Rent Abandoned (1949)
3.4 of 5 from 49 ratings
1h 19min
- General info
- Available formats
- Synopsis:
- Paula Considine (Gale Storm) arrives in Los Angeles trying to find the whereabouts of her missing sister. The girl had recently had a baby before her disappearance. Asking for information at City Hall a local crime reporter called Mark Sitko (Dennis O'keefe) overhears the young ladies distraught conversation. He offers his services and connections to help with tracking down the story. Leading these two amateur sleuths to cross paths with a private detective and thrown into a shadowy world of black market baby racketeering!!!
- Actors:
- Dennis O'Keefe, Gale Storm, Jeff Chandler, Meg Randall, Raymond Burr, Marjorie Rambeau, Jeanette Nolan, Mike Mazurki, Will Kuluva, David Clarke, William Frambes, Sid Tomack, Perc Launders, Steve Darrell, Clifton Young, Ruth Sanderson, Frank Cady, Marcella Cisney, Edward Clark, Bert Conway
- Directors:
- Joseph M. Newman
- Producers:
- Jerry Bresler
- Writers:
- Irwin Gielgud, William Bowers
- Aka:
- Abandoned Woman / Not Wanted
- Genres:
- Classics, Drama
- BBFC:
- Release Date:
- 14/11/2022
- Run Time:
- 79 minutes
- Languages:
- English Mono
- Subtitles:
- English Hard of Hearing
- Formats:
- Pal
- Aspect Ratio:
- Full Screen 1.37:1
- Colour:
- B & W
- BLU-RAY Regions:
- B
- Bonus:
- Audio commentaries with Barry Forshaw and Kim Newman on 'Abandoned'
- The John Player Lecture with Joan Fontaine (1978): archival audio recording of the much-loved star in conversation
- The Heel with Sex Appeal: Nick Pinkerton on Dan Duryea
- Return to Europe: Christina Newland on Robert Siodmak
- Absolute Magnetism: Lucy Bolton on Gloria Grahame
- Film Noir Festival Q&A with Victoria Price (2018): archival video recording of Vincent Price's daughter in conversation
- United Action Means Victory (1939): documentary short written by Ben Maddow
- Skirmish on the Home Front (1944): short film starring William Bendix
- A Salute to France (1944): short film starring Claude Dauphin
- Easy to Get (1947): short campaign film directed by Joseph M Newman
- The Cinematographer (1951): documentary short directed by Jerry Hopper
- Image galleries
- UK premieres on Blu-ray
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Reviews (1) of Abandoned
Documentary Noir. - Abandoned review by Steve
Curious exposé of postwar 'baby rackets' in which single mothers were coerced into giving up their newborn by unlicensed operators. The offbeat theme is perhaps an indication that the documentary noir cycle of the late 1940s was beginning to run out of scandal and the studios seeking to refresh the formula. We don't get G-men staking out the crooks, but a droll newsman (Dennis O'Keefe).
And the predatory female (Marjorie Rambeau) is the leader of a criminal gang rather than a femme fatale, which must have troubled the production code. O'Keefe picks up a small town damsel in distress (Gale Storm) at the missing persons office while he's looking for a story. She's tracing her sister who turns up dead after giving birth, and her baby is missing.
Well, the mother was murdered and the baby was sold and the duo investigate. There's a feeling of a Val Lewton horror as the innocent visitor gets an education in the big city, except this is crime rather than the supernatural. But it's a ruthless gang and the scene where one of the heavies (Raymond Burr) gets tortured for going solo is still quite shocking.
The most satisfying performances are from the support cast, with Burr a typically insidious villain. O'Keefe is a bit creepy for a hero. The plot is flaky and the script a bit flat, but, as usual with postwar docu-noirs, the interior photography is stylish and the locations full of atmosphere. This may be ripped from long ago headlines, but it's an unusual, well crafted thriller.
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