Film Review: Paid

"Paid" *** 1\2 (out of ****)

Because a lot of people are talking about Michael Mann's new film "Public Enemies" (2009), the story of John Dillinger, I thought why not review one of the classic cop & robber pictures of the 1930s. For some reason "Paid" (1930) kept coming in my mind.

Now that I have rewatched "Paid" it is not the movie I remembered. It was based on a play entitled "Within the Law" written by Bayard Veiller. When I first saw it I was so impressed with the way the film turned the tables and showed intelligent crooks outsmarting the law. During the time period Hollywood was under a lot of pressure to show viewers "crime doesn't pay". But that's not what "Paid" is. It is the standard story of good (cops) overcoming evil (crooks).

I don't know why I remembered "Paid" to be a different picture. There are elements there but the film settles and conforms to the morals of the day. In the film Joan Crawford plays Mary Turner. A woman sent to three years prison for allegedly stealing merchandise at a department store which she worked at. Her employer, Edward Gilder (Purnell Pratt) takes no mercy, despite Mary's protest she was framed. He pushes forth the charges. Mary vows revenge on him after her serves her time.

After serving three years Mary did a lot of reading. She began to study the law. She meets up with some cons, headed by Joe Garson (Robert Armstrong) whom a fellow prisoner, Aggie (Marie Prevost) introduces her to. Mary's plan is to get married men to write love letters promising to marry Aggie and then sue the men for playing with a woman's affection. The married men settle out of court for large sums of money and according to Mary it is all legal. She plans to use the criminal system to her advantage. All the while secretly plotting a way to get her revenge.

Up until this point "Paid", which was written by Charles MacArthur, best known for the play "The Front Page" and writing the classic screwball comedy "His Girl Friday" (1940) and "Wuthering Heights" (1939) and Lucien Hubbard, who wrote the controversial "Three On A Match" (1932), seems to be a very smart film. It is one of the few films I can think of where the bad guys are not presented as dim witted. Mary Turner is an intelligent woman. She has all the legal angles figured out. In one scene when the police try to arrest her in connection to a robbery, Mary presents the police officer with a restraining order against the police. You usually don't find such intelligence in movie gangsters. Normally they are running away from the law, constantly hiding out. In "Paid" Mary is out in the open. She is not doing anything illegal. She is actually becoming wealthy.

For that you have to give "Paid" its due credit. But then the film takes a twist. Mary begins a romance with Bob Gilder (Douglass Montgomery), the son of Edward. Mary knows perfectly well who he is and plans on pulling the same scheme on him that they have on others. And this is when sadly "Paid" loses its nerve and intelligence. Mary's downfall is love. And she learns a life of crime is not the way to go. Because now it becomes a standard cop & robber film.

Before writing this review I realized all this time I have never written a review for a movie with Joan Crawford. I did write a review for "The Women" (1939) but that was an all-star cast which didn't focus on Crawford. "Paid" is a Joan Crawford vehicle, though the role was intended for Norma Shearer. Still, the film is typical of the kind of characters Crawford came to play. Women on the outside of society trying to make it. She played chorus girls, gangster moll's and in a few films prostitutes. She usually played a woman dreaming of making it big. Some of my favorite films with her are Clarence Brown's "Possessed" (1931) with Clark Gable, whom she frequently co-starred with, including "Love on the Run" (1937) and "Laughing Sinners" (1931).

She was nominated three times for an Academy Award and actually won once. She won for her performance in "Mildred Pierce" (1945). Her other nominations came for "Possessed" (1947), don't confuse this with the 1931 film, and "Sudden Fear" (1952). Though Crawford had been a round since the silent days of cinema I found it odd that her critical success came later in her career. Another great later performance was given in "Humoresque" (1946).

But here in films such as "Paid" we can see the seeds of greatness within Crawford. A lot of people may have mixed feelings about her aftering seeing things such as "Mommie Dearest" (1981) but Crawford shows us in "Paid" and in countless other films she was a talented actress.

"Paid" could have really been an important film in cinema if it would have challenged Hollywood's conventions. Imagine the impact of seeing a film where the crook gets away. But "Paid" isn't that movie. Still it is good entertainment. And film lovers should try tracking it down. It is no longer available on VHS or DVD. But one day it may turn up on TCM. That is where I first saw it.