Baby Face Morgan is one frustrating film. Producers Releasing Corporation a true poverty row outfit assembled a good cast of players and had a really original idea for a story. If this had been done by a major studio with a top director this could have been one of the great comedy gems of the era.
Richard Cromwell is in the title role and he plays a hayseed young man who happens to be the son of a notorious gangster. Dad split from Mom and Cromwell never had any contact with him.
Cromwell has a Mr. Deeds like quality to him as Robert Armstrong plucks him from obscurity to use him as a front man for their protection racket. Things go well for Armstrong until Cromwell falls for Mary Carlisle who heads a trucking company that was a victim of the protection racket. It all unravels for Armstrong after that.
Any film with such colorful movie faces like Warren Hymer, Chick Chandler, Charles Judel and Ralf Harolde is going to be enjoyable on some level. But there was real potential here that was sadly wasted.
What Preston Sturges could have done with Baby Face Morgan.
Richard Cromwell is in the title role and he plays a hayseed young man who happens to be the son of a notorious gangster. Dad split from Mom and Cromwell never had any contact with him.
Cromwell has a Mr. Deeds like quality to him as Robert Armstrong plucks him from obscurity to use him as a front man for their protection racket. Things go well for Armstrong until Cromwell falls for Mary Carlisle who heads a trucking company that was a victim of the protection racket. It all unravels for Armstrong after that.
Any film with such colorful movie faces like Warren Hymer, Chick Chandler, Charles Judel and Ralf Harolde is going to be enjoyable on some level. But there was real potential here that was sadly wasted.
What Preston Sturges could have done with Baby Face Morgan.