This excellent thriller deals with the sale of stolen babies by baby broker racketeers. It is thus more relevant to today, when this problem is much more widespread, than it was in 1949. The plot is sound, the script first rate, and the acting is extremely good. It is interesting to see an early Jeff Chandler performance, in a supporting role, before his hair went prematurely white, and when he was so thin he looked like he needed a good meal. There is some crackling dialogue: 'I couldn't sleep, so I took my gun for a walk,' and 'The idea of you going straight is like a vulture becoming a vegetarian.' Raymond Burr, to whom the latter remark is addressed, is a heavy of suitably sour disposition. Dennis O'Keefe is an excellent clean-cut B hero, and Gale Storm is a rather sombre and expressionless 'good girl' from a small town who has come to the wicked city in search of her murdered sister and her stolen baby; she is convincing, though unexciting. A sinister sub-plot about the father of the two sisters making his daughter get rid of her illegitimate baby seems to have been cut because it was too shocking, but enough of it survives to show that it was clearly once there. Maybe the producers thought they had enough of a social message without getting that grim and frightening their audiences further. The sale of stolen babies was an issue that needed raising, and it was thoroughly portrayed in this film well ahead of its time. The director, Joseph Newman, did an excellent job, and at one point showed off by cutting from a match being struck by one character to a lit match being used by another character. Every thriller director is entitled to at least one arty moment, especially if it hypes the pace of the action, though this was probably in the script by Irwin Gielgud. Probably the few good one-liners constituted the 'extra dialogue' by William Bowers.
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dglink12 October 2020A young woman arrives in an unnamed town in search of her missing sister, whom she discovers in the morgue registered as a "Jane Doe" and an evident suicide. An investigative reporter befriends her, and together, while they seek the sister's illegitimate child, the pair uncover an illegal baby brokering ring. A taut, well-paced mystery, "Abandoned" features a voice-over reminiscent of television's "Dragnet" and superb black-and-white cinematography by William H. Daniels. Daniels wraps characters in deep shadows, creates striped abstracts from starkly-lit stairways, and cubic patterns that penetrate deep inky corridors. While Irwin Gielgud's screenplay holds attention and builds in suspense, Daniels's captivating images often compete with the plot for attention.
Gale Storm, better known for her comedic talents on early television shows, plays Paula Considine, the sister in search; unfortunately, the role is generic and undemanding, and Storm makes little impression. However, Dennis O'Keefe as Mark Sitko, the aggressive reporter, hits the right notes as a tough relentless investigator. Often enshrouded in William H. Daniel's shadows, burly Raymond Burr is memorable as Kerric, a corrupt private eye, whose only loyalty is to himself. A third-billed Jeff Chandler is effective as the district attorney, and Marjorie Rambeau is appropriately sinister as the two-faced ringleader.
Despite an obviously low budget, "Abandoned" benefits from location filming, which adds a documentary touch, enhanced by narration that implies some truth to the story. A fine cast of "B" players, memorable photography, and steady direction by Joe Newman, a veteran of modestly budgeted second features, together produced an entertaining, engaging film noir that is well worth catching. -
adrianovasconcelos26 December 2021Director Joe Newman, about whom I know very little, does a fine job with ABANDONED, extracting excellent performances from male lead Dennis O'Keefe as a reporter who instantly falls in love with Gale Storm, who is looking for her missing sister; dirty gumshoe Raymond Burr, probably the pick of the bunch; and chief villainess Marjorie Rambeau. For a B, this picture boasts an above average cast that includes police boss Jeff Chandler, heavy Mike Mazurki and top male baddy Will Kuluva.
Solid script resting on generally credible and crisp dialogue, attention to detail, and well shot action sequences.
Superb cinematography from William Daniels. Definitely warrants watching. -
dougdoepke17 December 2011I had my doubts about bubbly ingénue Gale Storm (Paula) starring in a crime drama. But she's actually well cast and manages an appropriately restrained performance. Here she's the sister of a dead girl who's left a baby under mysterious circumstances. So Paula's investigating with help from brash newsman Sitko (O'Keefe). What they uncover is a ruthless ring that sells newborns and gets rid of mothers who complain.
Like many others of its time, the movie makes good use of LA locations, along with some effective noirish touches. However, these touches are not developed into a prevailing atmosphere, despite the presence of noir icon Raymond Burr (Kerric). Actually, it's hard to recognize Burr since he's either lurking in the shadows or peeking around corners. In my book, the best scene is when Kerric tangles with that other movie heavyweight Mike Mazurki (Hoppe). It's like King Kong taking on Godzilla. Also, the unexpected plot wrinkle with Kerric is a good one.
But my money's on Marjorie Rambeau (Donner). She's scarier than anyone else in a movie loaded with baddies. Too bad she doesn't have a face-off scene with that other formidable actress, Jeanette Nolan (Major Ross). Too bad also, that O'Keefe has drifted into obscurity. He was quite a good actor, at home in either comedy (Up in Mabel's Room {1945}) or drama. Here he's typically persuasive as an aggressive newshound.
All in all, the movie's a better than average crime drama, with a good cast, a crisp narrative, and a suspenseful climax. It's second-tier Universal coming up with better results than usual. -
bkoganbing17 September 2020By sheer luck reporter Dennis O'Keefe runs into Gale Storm in town looking for her sister and a baby she gave birth to. Sadly they find her in the morgue, but no trace of the infant. What O'Keefe does notice is a sleazy private eye played by Raymond Burr shadowing Storm.
That's the start of Abandoned a good noir film about a baby adoption racket where the queenpin is society matron Marjorie Rambeau. In a cast of some excellent character players she tops the list. Had this been an A and not a B film Rambeau might have been in Oscar contention, she's that good and that scary.
As for Burr he's really rather stupid and out of his league with Rambeau and her gang. It costs him big time.
Up and coming Jeff Chandler is 3rd billed playing the police chief and friend of O'Keefe. As he did in a few films for Universal Chandler also narrates. Will Kulava and Mike Mazurki play a pair of Rambeau's goons , Meg Randall plays a pregnant border at Rambeau's house and Jeanette Nolan is a socially conscious Salvation Army major.
A good B film from Universal which should be better known. -
secragt15 April 2003Okay, Dennis Okeefe and Gale Storm deliver competent performances and Marjorie Rambeau is effective as the matronly but menacing madam baby broker, but this movie is surely most memorable as the sole instance in which a young Raymond Burr (merely stout here, but still not thin) gets the s$#@ kicked out of him, which alone makes it worth the price of admission. Painfully corny narrative framing sequence at the beginning and the end (where there is a big unintentional laugh), but by and large a straightforward and enjoyable minor noir. At times a bit preachy perhaps and hardly a masterpiece but worth a look when it pops up on TCM late night.
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boblipton5 July 2020Gale Storm's sister was due to have a baby out of wedlock. Now she has disappeared, and there's no sign of the baby. She enlists reporter Dennis O'Keefe, and together they investigate what happened, and the baby-farming racket at the center of the mystery.
Here's a Universal noir directed by B specialist Joseph Newman. It's a bit hysterical in tone, but well put together, with William Daniels as the director of photography, and a sterling cast, including Jeff Chandler as O'Keefe's editor, Raymond Burr and Mike Mazurki as heavies, and Marjorie Rambeau as the sinister head of the ring. It's a bit dated, but very watchable. -
SnoopyStyle5 November 2023Paula Considine (Gale Storm) goes to the police for her missing sister Mary. Newspaper reporter Mark Sitko (Dennis O'Keefe) is snooping around for a story, but she doesn't want it to go public. He notices that she's being followed by lowlife private eye Kerric (Raymond Burr). It all leads to a baby selling racket.
This is a crime noir B-movie. It's a bit of ripped-from-the-headlines story-telling. It has some noir style. Mostly, it feels like a police TV drama. I love the start with Kerric. As the movie advances, I like it less and less. It's the jokey tone slipping out of the investigation with the authorities. I rather they do more a dark serious tone. Also, there is no way the police would risk putting a reporter undercover just in case he gets made. -
ulicknormanowen11 August 2021Like in Robson/Lewton's "the seventh victim" (1943) ,a girl comes to town in search of her elder sister;helped by a reporter and a policeman, the search begins,full of pitfalls ; without their help ,it would be like finding a needle in a haystack .
A somber film noir : one learns in the first fifteen minutes that the sister committed suicide (a murder made to look like suicide ,because she was found at a wheel of a car whereas she had not her driving licence )As for the baby ,he's disappeared ,victim of a ring who practices trade in children .
The baddies are particularly successful, more than the stars:Raymond Burr , a sinister-looking crook who doublecrosses his accomplices ;Mike Mazurki ,as the cynical sadistic doctor ;and to top them all,Marjorie Rambeau ,the respectable old lady with a cane who smoothly speaks to the unwed mothers :she's almost hitchcockian (see " notorious" (1946) and later the second version of "the man who knew too much" (1956))
An action-packed thriller,which is still relevant in 2021. -
MartinTeller3 January 2012A gal goes searching for her missing sister and uncovers an illegal baby trade ring. This is unique subject matter for noir, at least I can't recall having seen it before. The film is slightly too light-hearted in tone for the topic, but it's otherwise a pretty good flick. The dialogue is snappy and witty, the story unfolds at a good clip, and the cinematography is quite strong, especially during the more suspenseful scenes. Dennis O'Keefe isn't the most compelling leading man but he has a good stack of noir credits (Raw Deal, T-Men, Woman on the Run) and a sharp line delivery. This is my first experience with Gale Storm, who didn't really impress me but was definitely at least okay. Raymond Burr makes a memorable appearance as the shady private detective. And who do you get when you need someone to beat up Burr? The even more menacing Mike Mazurki, naturally. The score is quite good, too. Unfortunately there's some incredibly unnecessary narration to point out the blatantly obvious, but it's a minor flaw in a solid film.
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jordondave-280855 November 2023(1949) Abandoned CRIME DRAMA
Paula Considine (Gale Storm) stops by to the police station to report her missing sister, Mary. She is then helped and aided by reporter, Mark Sitko (Dennis O'Keefe) who notices a dirty private investigator, Kerric (Raymond Burr) had been following her. And they all go to the morgue, only to find out Paula's sister had already been pronounced dead, labelled as a suicide. Except that, Paula believes her sister is incapable to take her own life, motivating the reporter Mark to seek assistance from his friend who happens to be the DA named McCrae (Jeff Chandler), together exposing a possible illegal baby racket. An illegal operation that involves many people that includes an old lady who hands out bibles, Mrs. Donner (Marjorie Rambeau), another sleaze name DeCola (Will Kuluva) and his right hand man, Hoppe (Mike Mazurki)
Depicting a particular time when there used to be a baby racket except that this is a fictional setting, with a superficial ending. There is though some scenes I can do without, which even with the running time of 1 hour and 19 minutes. I thought what Paula had done was kind of dumb to go out on her own without informing the police about it. -
bmacv4 September 2001In Abandoned's opening shot, that iconic edifice, the Los Angeles City Hall, looms menacingly into the night sky. From then on, it's a fast, rough ride through a brutal baby-adoption racket. Gale Storm is best remembered (if at all) as TV's My Little Margie, but she co-starred in a few noirs like Underworld Story and Between Midnight and Dawn; Abandoned is the best of them. She's come to town hunting for her vanished sister, knowing only that there's an out-of-wedlock baby girl involved. Storm links up with Dennis O'Keefe, a newspaper man, and Raymond Burr, a private detective supposedly hired by the missing girl's father back east (an enigmatic specter hanging over the story: Storm confides that her sister left home because "he wouldn't leave us alone"). Turns out that Sis was murdered for developing maternal instincts after having giving the baby up. The web of baby-nappers includes grandmotherly but lethal Marjorie Rambeau, some even less savory characters behind her, and, of course, Burr. Abandoned, despite its Hollywood-"happy" finish, stands as one of the grittier offerings in the noir cycle (Burr's being tortured with matches is one especially painful speck of grit).
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Thanks to William Bowers' snappy dialogue, William Daniels' harsh and shadowy cinematography (there's one shot of twilight in what looks to be Hancock Park that should be bottled as Eau De Noir), and director Joseph Newman's rapid pacing and handling of action (including a great fight scene between Raymond Burr and Mike Mazurki) this is a most watchable and entertaining noir. Indeed, perhaps too much so for a story centered around illicit baby selling. It's almost as if there is a guard on the set to prevent darker elements, from incest to loneliness (Why is Dennis O'Keefe hanging around the Missing Persons Bureau at night?), from penetrating the viewer's consciousness. Fortunately, there is Margorie Rambeau's wonderful performance as a kind of fallen Pasadena matron turned mother/child abuser, complete with cane that helps with locomotion and breaking up of brawls among her employees, to remind us that we are in the land of moral rot. B minus.
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mark.waltz25 November 2019If there's someone with dollar signs instead of pupils and evidence of a soul in their eyes, they can be bought, even within the medical community. The baby racket is an old plotline source that goes back to the silent era, but with a film noir touch to its theme, it becomes a different ballgame altogether. Gale Storm plays a young woman determined to find her sister, and what she turns up, along with reporter Dennis O'Keefe is something more sinister than just the proof her sister was murdered.
It's with the gift of a Bible that the calling card is made, through generous socialite Marjorie Rambeau who runs a private "charity" to find homes for the babies of unwed mothers. But her methods are sinister, even beyond the fact that these are illegal adoptions, even having a nurse planted in the hospital to ensure that the adopted mother's name is used on the birth certificate.
Raymond Burr as a private detective on Rambeau's payroll, Jeff Chandler as a cop pal of O'Keefe's, Meg Randall as an unwed mother to be, Jeanette Nolan as another cop and Mike Mazurki as (what else?) a criminal henchman are all decent. The best line comes from Burr who says that he misses the old days when he was just involved in blackmail. Unfortunately, there are several implausibilities that keep this from being fully believable even though the overly dramatic narration indicates that this could (and has) happened in any city. It's obvious that the unnamed city is Los Angeles, a predictible detail from a movie made just across the Hollywood freeway in Universal City. -
youroldpaljim30 September 2001Note: This review may contain a SPOILER!!!
Decent, worth viewing melodrama about a reporter who helps a girl from a small town search for her missing sister in the big city. The search leads to them uncovering a black market baby racket. Stand out performance from Raymond Burr as a seedy private eye involved in the racket. He was always quite good at playing heavies in these kind of films and he is excellent here. Also look for a very young looking Will Kuluva as a mobster. The film gets a little a far fetched though towards the end; Why would such clever crooks try to bump off a girl and make it look an suicide the exact same way they bumped off her sister. Certainly any good police force would suspect foul play rather than suicide.
The ads for this film show headline reading "GANGSTER FOUND SHOT." No gangster is found shot in the film. Perhaps this is an example of "ads first, movie later"? -
ArtVandelayImporterExporter27 November 2023Obviously no major Hollywood studio was going to release such a gritty movie in 1949. The subject matter is babies born out of wedlock, then sold off by a nefarious baby broker.
Raymond Burr as one of the henchmen carries his weight, so to speak. So does Marjorie Rambeau as the baby broker. Will Kuluva nearly steals the movie as the mobster in charge of ''protecting" Rambeau's racket.
That brings us to the good guys, in reverse order of billing:
Jeff Chandler as the straight-arrow but barely competent inspector in the DA's office. Maybe the writers intended Chandler to most or less function as O'Keefe's setup man, but the character is a cardboard cutout.
Gale Storm - apparently known as a 1950s TV comedienne - does very well as the damsel in distress. Was she pregnant during sh00ting or did she have the world's ugliest body? I'm pretty sure her overcoat stays buttoned up the entire movie.
And lastly we have headliner Dennis O'Keefe as the nosy newspaper reporter who - as we've seen in hundreds of movies - does more investigative work than the coppers. That's fine, as move tropes go. But the screenwriters also infused his dialogue with snappy one-liners. One or two in a movie can be fine. But it becomes a little much after a while in this movie. He's got more zingers than Rodney Dangerfield, and it sands the edges off a gritty story. It starts to feel like an SCTV spoof starring Dave Thomas as the reporter and Joe Flaherty as the cop. Andrea Martin would have played the dame.
The end result is a movie with extremly adult subject matter, a torture scene and an anti-climactice fight. And a very unsatisfying ending.
As if often the case, I enjoyed Eddie Muller's intro and outro to the movie on TCM's Noir Alley more than I did the actual movie. -
A young woman comes to town searching for her sister, who has been lost for some time. They find her at the morgue. Cause of death seems to have been suicide by gassing herself to death in a car. The sister refuses to believe and accept that. Fortunately there is a reporter at hand (Dennis O'Keefe) and they start digging. It proves the deceased sister Mary had a child without a father, caused it to be adopted, then wanted the child back, and was killed for it. There the story starts.
It's a great film with brilliant cinematography and a dialogue for Hollywood to be proud of, there were many films of Hollywood produced like this with the same extremely poignant dialogue, and they are all enjoyable forever. This is one of them and a perfect example as good as Henry Hathaway's best, in the same kind of documentary style, telling a story directly out of reality, without defining the location, like a page out of the "naked city". Dennis O'Keefe was never better, and Jeff Chandler is always more than reliable. Raymond Burr as the ominous crook turning soft and paying for it adds to the brilliance, while perhaps the cinematography gets the first prize. -
I discovered this gem in Leonard Maltin's Turner Classic Movies guide. He'd only given it 2 1/2 stars, but I'm so glad I gave it the chance to prove itself. As others have already detailed, the cinematography, script and performances all make this relatively short film highly enjoyable, and suspenseful. Give it a try if you're looking for a serious topic dramatized in a slightly noir styling with a crime ring at the center of it.
(Here are a few more words to satisfy the IMDB requirement for a 600 character review. I'm keeping mine short and simple since others have already provided many fascinating facts, descriptions and details.) -
AAdaSC15 July 2018Reporter Dennis O'Keefe (Mark) decides to investigate the death of a woman's sister who had recently given birth. He does this because he fancies her. God knows why. The lady in question is Gale Storm (Paula) and she's a wet fish. She is definitely not leading lady material. Anyway, this film is about tracking down a gang who deal in illegal adoptions. It's quite topical given some high profile children who have been snatched subsequent to this film. It's interesting to note just how long this criminal activity has been going on for in such an organized manner. Interesting topic, boring film.
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If you ask a dozen film experts about what constitutes a movie that is 'film noir', you will likely get a dozen different answers. But a couple things will be constant...the toughness of the plot, the violence of the screenplay and the terrific camerawork and shadows. In this sense, clearly, "Abandoned" would qualify as Noir.
When the film begins, Mark, a nosey reporter (Dennis O'Keefe) notices that a lady is being followed. It seems that a very shady private dick (Raymond Burr) is following Paula (Gale Storm) and Mark intervenes. After chasing away the evil detective, Mark learns from Paula that she's in town looking for her sister...who has been missing for some time. The trail, it turns out, leads to a baby selling racket...and one which apparently killed this sister and stole her baby! Can the pair manage to get a lead on who is behind all this?
I loved the camerawork...particularly in the early portions of the film. The angles and shadows are great...and very moody. I also loved the incredibly violent and gritty ending where evil clearly is punished big time! Overall, a well written and acted film that never is dull and is well worth your time. -
nickenchuggets25 April 2024I've been seeing a couple noir movies in the past months that involve kidnapping in some way, and while this was already a pretty taboo subject for a film in this era, this one goes even further and makes the entire plot about it. The movie is pretty confusing but has two good actors, Dennis O'Keefe and Raymond Burr, who do noir better than most in the genre. Before the racketeering and black marketing starts, we see a girl named Paula (Gale Storm) who has arrived in LA trying to locate her sister who's gone missing. Paula's sister had recently had a daughter before her disappearance. A reporter named Mark Sitko (Dennis O'Keefe) offers to help after overhearing Paula's panic inducing situation. As Paula and Mark leave, they run into a private eye named Kerric (Raymond Burr), who tells Mark he has been hired by Paula's father to help look for her sister. Although how he was employed is never explained, Paula later confesses to Mark that her sister ran away because her father was abusive. Later on, Mark gets some horrible news and apparently Mary (Paula's sister) has killed herself with carbon monoxide inside a stolen car, but Paula can't believe this: her sister doesn't know how to drive. Mark's boss, Chief McRae, tells him he will get the cops to help with Paula's case, but only if Mark is able to come up with evidence that there exists a black market for babies in which they are sold and their mothers are killed. While Kerric attempts to shadow Paula, she and Mark arrive at a Salvation Army home where they find Mary was staying. Another woman (who claims to be Mary's friend while she was there) says one day an elderly woman came there and offered to buy Mary's baby, which she refused to agree to. Once Mark has what he thinks is enough evidence, he devises a trap to bait out the baby brokers. The cops set up hidden microphones outside the home of Mrs. Donner (the old woman who owns the organization), Mary's former friend poses as someone who wants to sell her child, and Paula and Mark pretend to be its future adoptive parents. Meanwhile, Kerric meets with Little Guy DeCola, the mobster responsible for killing Paula's sister. Kerric tries to act tough, but is reminded of his place when DeCola says he will have him murdered if he steps out of line or crosses Mrs. Donner's operation. Kerric can't take the heat and calls up Paula. He says he is willing to sell her her sister's baby as long as she gives him 1500 bucks. After getting in a car with him, she is taken to a boarding house where the kid is, although she is told she can't leave for a whole day. As soon as Kerric steps outside, he is violently beaten and taken to Donner and her thugs. Kerric is tortured and burned with matches until he admits that he double crossed Donner's plans and gave Paula Mary's kid. He is then beaten to death, and Donner attempts to cover her tracks. She and her thugs visit the boarding house and force Paula and the baby into a car, which then drives to an under construction country club. Mark pursues them there, shoots Donner's guards to death, and Donner is killed when she attempts to drive away and overturns her car. Paula and the baby are then rescued, and the black market is liquidated. This movie was quite hard to follow, but I was at least glad to see Burr playing a much more active part in the story when compared with the last film I saw him in. He still played the hoodlum with a temper people know him as here, but at least he's not being confined to one room for 80% of the runtime. I really can't think of many other noirs (let alone movies in general) that feature an old woman as the antagonist, although Guilty Bystander with Zachary Scott does have this (and coincidentally also has to do with a kidnapping). For once, Burr is not playing the main villain, which is fine with me. I thought Gale Storm (what a name) was not really the best leading actress they could have picked. She doesn't really have much expression throughout the film. Her sister was killed so she has somewhat of an excuse, but there's probably a reason she wasn't in many noirs. To summarize, Abandoned is a unique movie that fails in some ways most other noirs succeed in, such as not having an old woman as the main villain or involving kidnapping, but I would say it paid off.
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masonfisk20 December 2023A 1949 breezy film noir starring Dennis O'Keefe. O'Keefe, a reporter, has a hell of a story dropped into his lap when he runs into a woman, Gale Storm, who's searching for her sister. Getting bad news from the morgue, we find out Storm's sister was pregnant & came into the city to have her baby but the pair can't find any hospitals who'll vouch for the birth. Leaving the morgue O'Keefe sees Raymond Burr, a thug he recognizes, & questions him as to his tail. Thinking Storm's sister was involved in something bigger, O'Keefe contacts a police detective, Jeff Chandler, & fills him in & since at this point there's no smoke to this purported fire encourages him to do a little more digging which turns out to a substantial baby mill run by Marjorie Rambeau & Will Kuluva w/strong arm support by muscleman Mike Mazurki. Finding a fellow pregnant woman, Meg Randall, who knew Storm's sister, they device a plan to use Randall as a lure for Rambeau's services which would've gone off w/o a hitch if not for Burr's meddling which spurs on a great last minute dash to save Storm from the bad men (& women). O'Keefe is tops here w/a quip & sharp eye on detail who manages to be on the up & up throughout the narrative who never devolves into sleaze mode just to get a story w/great support by Storm whose pain we feel trying to get to the bottom of this case.
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searchanddestroy-18 April 2024I am not sure that such topic would have been talked about in THE UNTOUCHABLES series, starring Robert Stack. I am not sure at all. The plot is not uninteresting though, it deserved to be evoked. It is a drama, social drama, with film noir elements and atmosphere, but certainly not a crime flick, except in the end. Even the opening credits let you expect a rough, tough crime flick. But no, everything seems to be fixed to announce something else. Good directing, acting, especially from a professional film maker such as Joe Newman. It is not boring and remains really worth watching. Jeff Chandler in an earlier performance, and Mike Mazurki's presence also justify to waste 79 minutes of your precious time. Only the last minutes are really action oriented, as in any crime movie.