F.B.I. Girl (1951) User Reviews (12)

Great Cast, Crew, Make Surprisingly Fine Lippert Thriller

[boblipton · 7/10 · 12 February 2020]

Raymond Greenleaf is the governor of a generic state. He wants to run for senator, but he has a secret. He's an escaped criminal, and a campaign of that order will reveal it. So machine fixer Raymond Burr applies pressure and gets a girl in the FBI's fingerprint file to remove his card. Burr arranges for everyone else down the line to wind up dead.

The FBI won't stand for its own personnel being killed. They get a line on the original name on the file and assign agents Cesar Romero and George Brent to the case.

There are some fine actors in this, including Audrey Totter in a good-girl role (alas, she's far more interesting in her evil roles in noirs). Other well-known players include Joi Lansing, Byron Foulger, Marie Blake (grandma in THE ADDAMS FAMILY) and O. Z. Whitehead. Under-rated B cinematographer Jack Greenhalgh gets a fine night-time river pursuit, and William Berke directs the film with a nice arc of excitement.

The Lippert organization was not known for producing great movies. They had a chain of theaters, and with the slowdown in post-war B production, they used their connections to set up a releasing organization, including some Korda films, and began their own production with talent fallen on hard times. Although none of their approximately 150 movies, most produced between 1948 and the mid-1950s, can be considered great films, they showcased interesting talent. This is one of their best.

Good cast, irreverent edge make quasi-documentary an unexpected treat

[bmacv · 7/10 · 30 April 2003]

Starting with its vistas of Washington, D.C. and one of those damned anthems, FBI Girl looks like another patriotic pageant ad majorem gloriam J. Edgar Hoover. But happily it runs low on idolatry and long on plot, and it turns out to be not only fun but a wee bit irreverent in spots, too.

Its opening gambit proves a bit of a stretch. In Capitol City in a nearby state, venerable Governor Raymond Greenleaf plans a run for the Senate. But if a federal investigating committee takes his fingerprints, his past identity as (what else?) a convicted murderer will come to light. He goes to his shadowy boss (who else?) Raymond Burr, a slick PR man who pulls filthy strings. Burr arranges for a young woman working in the Bureau to pull the incriminating file, after which she's ruthlessly rubbed out. In come unlikely agents Cesar Romero and George Brent to probe the mysterious murder; they enlist the aid of Audrey Totter, another clerk in the same department. But there's another twist: Totter's fiancé (Tom Drake), an ambitious young lobbyist, has close ties to Burr's organization....

Bizarre touches abound that seem inadvertent but together add up to a faintly subversive thread running through the movie. In an era when even long-married couples slumbered in chaste twin beds, two of Totter's roommates share a double (they seem dim-witted, as well, as do most of the low-level FBI personnel encountered). Later, these two blondes entertain Romero, who's waiting for Totter to return; they watch television, and we watch with them, as comics Tommy Noonan and Peter Marshall perform an extended routine. Now and again, the script hones a line to a sharp edge: When one of his henchmen tells Burr not to worry because when he was on the lam in Georgia, even the bloodhounds couldn't catch him, Burr purrs, `You've a stronger smell about you today.'

FBI Girl boasts a strong cast and a good plot, and it manages to rise a few rungs above most of the other cheap crime-documentary titles of its era. Its most arresting aspect lies in sketching the avaricious and powerful culture of lobbyists and spin-meisters that was starting to coalesce in the nation's capital and becoming, in effect a shadow government. Boy, oh boy – doesn't THAT date the movie.

See No Evil, Hear No Evil, Speak No Evil, Governor

[bkoganbing · 6/10 · 21 March 2011]

A Kefauver type racketeering Senate investigating committee is taking itself on the road for local hearings and that is of great concern to Governor Raymond Greenleaf. It seems as though way back in his youth and under a different name he committed a murder and if the committee uncovers any wrong doing he could be charged with its more than a stretch in Club Fed. That's because when he would be arrested and printed his prints would be on file with the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Of course the state racketeering boss Raymond Burr has a lot invested in Greenleaf and he's not about to see his investment get flushed down the toilet. He hatches a scheme to get the fingerprint card out of J. Edgar Hoover's closely guarded files. It involves getting to one of the clerks in the Justice Department, Margia Dean through her brother, Don Garner. And when that doesn't work Burr tries to use another clerk Audrey Totter who is our FBI Girl.

I have to say that with that title alone I was expecting some paranoid Cold War story. So I was pleasantly surprised when FBI Girl turned out to be a nice noir thriller. It came from the Poverty Row studio of Lippert Productions, but not bad considering the source.

Caesar Romero and George Brent play the two agents on this case and Romero provides the narration for the film. The two agents are all business and the plot follows a straight line narrative to the source of their problems. Greenleaf may have been governor, but Burr is calling all the shots and his rackets have a big investment in keeping their see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil governor in office. And he's being talked about for even higher office. And as the state boss Burr outshines everyone in the cast.

Try to catch this one when broadcast and don't be put off by the title, it's better than you think.

Sticky Fingers

[kalbimassey · 7/10 · 10 May 2021]

Could this be it? The Holy Grail, the zenith of film noir mediocrity, the quintessential 'B' movie? F. B. I. Girl is no ordinary quickie/cheapie, but comes packed with a gallimaufry of bonus features: Stilted, wooden acting, unintentionally amusing dialogue, two investigators (Romero and Brent) who are about as charismatic as a wet week-end in Widnes and a thoroughly muddled plot, involving the stealing of incriminating fingerprint records.

Ambitious, but corrupt governor, Raymond Greenleaf, in collusion with his ruthless P. R. man, Raymond Burr, decide that the best way to beat a murder rap is....er... to commit more murders. Burr, a character who exudes all the charm of a fox ravaged bin bag, orchestrates the proceedings. His first patsy is Margia Dean. She may hold a responsible position with the F. B. I., but will she be prepared to FIB?

The growing body count produces a priceless sequence. Disguised as a priest, gravel voiced hood, Alexander Pope gains easy access to the merely critically wounded, hospitalized Don Garner, hoping to add a few finishing touches to the job, but events take a wildly unexpected turn, with uproarious results.

Despite having little going for it, F. B. I. Girl works surprisingly well on another level. It never descends to the depths of the gut-wrenchingly, mind numbingly abysmal. Moreover, from its mock military opening score the movie continues along a consistently entertaining, ham-fisted plateau, even raising the temperature by a few degrees for the relatively tense, fast moving finale. All involved appear to be tinkering with the dynamics, the nuts and bolts of the genre, creating, whether by design or not, a finished work, which conveys an air of affectionate parody. Taken in this context, F. B. I. Girl ticks all the boxes and emerges as a must-see vehicle.

This all but lost docu-noir was released By Poverty Row Lippert Productions, shot in just twelve days and directed by William Berke.... This gets better and better! Watch at your earliest opportunity and neatly avert years of regret.

CODA: Startling stat. In 1951 six million Americans had police records. There must be a message (in a bottle) for all of us.

A hot-blooded film noir -- low budget but great cast

[Handlinghandel · 7/10 · 5 February 2008]

For a Lippert Production, this sports a cast of A-picture performers. George Brent and Cesar Romero are FBI men. Audrey Totter, still at her prime and looking lovely, helps the Bureau out. Raymond Burr is a villain. Tom Drake plays a good guy. And hey! It even has Joi Landsing!

The plot is only slightly more than routine: A weak governor has a criminal past. His fingerprints could reveal that. So Burr sets out to switch those fingerprints around. At any cost.

As a sidelight, this movie features three actors who are now known to have been gay: Burr was not open about it. Romero took few pains to keep it quiet. Drake, Judy Garland's "boy next-door" -- I don't know. Not much is known about his life other than that proclivity.

This coincidence has no effect on the film, which is surprisingly good for something that was obviously made on the cheap. But it's a footnote to the sociological history of Hollywood.

Raymond Burr and a Good Cast Make This Clunker Passable

[Chance2000esl · 4/10 · 18 January 2009]

Is it because of watching so much 'Perry Mason' (1957-1966) that when Raymond Burr, who plays the lead villain, Blake, is on screen we are riveted to his words, inflections, movements and gestures? For those of us who watched him as the bad guy in so many movies when we were children, such as 'Tarzan and the She Devil' (1953), the answer is no. He had real charisma and great screen presence whatever he did. Just check out his other evil performances of the era in such films as 'Rear Window' (1954), 'His Kind of Woman' (1951), 'Bride of the Gorilla' (1951), or his classic pyromaniac gangster in 'Raw Deal' (1948).

So it's no wonder that the best part of this film is watching him. The movie is helped by other fine performances by Cesar "The King of Lippert Pictures" Romero, as FBI chief Glen Stedman, the nice looking but strong Audrey Totter as Shirley Wayne the FBI clerk, and Tom Drake as her fiancée.

The problem is that the plot has holes bigger than swiss cheese, and too many of the scenes focus on the backs of people's heads. A state governor seeks Blake's aid in retrieving his fingerprint card, under his real name 'John Williams,' from the FBI in Washington, D.C. He's afraid his past criminal record as a convicted murderer will come out, destroying his chances in running for the Senate. The movie revolves around Blake's attempts to retrieve the fingerprint card, and the FBI's attempts to connect the murders of those FBI staff Blake uses to get the card with, to them, the unknown killers-at-large.

The first clerk, Natalie Craig (played by Margie Dean), takes the fingerprint card, but is killed in an auto accident. Even though later in the film when agent Donley (George Brent) and Stedman know they are looking for John Williams's fingerprint card, Donley says, "There must be 10,000 John Williams's!" and they both hopelessly give up the quest in looking for it in the files. Well, Natalie had had no trouble finding it, and neither does file clerk Shirley who later takes it to Blake. As a police procedural, this is no 'Dragnet' (1951-1959).

The governor is relieved it is over after Blake burns the card in a fireplace. As if there were only one copy of his real fingerprints in the country! What about where he was convicted? And where were any witnesses or evidence to connect him to his past life? This whole McGuffin is preposterous, but Burr has us almost believing in it in spite of all these improbables.

For too many scenes, the director and cinematographer have the characters moving from stage left to stage right where the camera is, and we see much of the dialog coming from the back of someone's head. No cut to a second camera to see their faces. The director was obviously not bothered by these shots. Jack Greenhalgh, the cinematographer, did over 200 films (mostly for Poverty Row studios like PRC and Lippert), including the classic 'Tell Your Children' (1936), which we know and love as 'Reefer Madness,' and then went on to do his other masterpiece, 'Robot Monster' (1953).

Oh, if only Ed Wood had been involved in this film! He would have added dialog to raise it to even more absurd heights, and would have overseen even worse photography, juxtaposing bizarre stock footage and a feebly weird soundtrack. Oh, wait! He did just that in his masterwork 'Glen or Glenda' (1953) featuring Bela Lugosi.

The quality seasoned acting skills of the principal players beguile you into accepting the film's premise, at least until the ending when you realize the plot hasn't made any sense. The performance of Burr, and those of Romero, Totter and Drake help the film, but ultimately it's only a 4.

"I don't like it, Glen. If we pace them they'll see us; if we pull back we'll lose them." "We'll have to sweat it out," says Glen.

[Terrell-4 · 2/10 · 18 January 2009]

Says the narrator…"Washington D.C., once just the capital of the United States, today a symbol of strength and a bulwark of hope for the entire world. And, as Washington has grown in international significance, so has the Department of Justice. Its nerve center is the Federal Bureau of Investigation…"

J. Edgar Hoover must really have had the goods on…in addition to Washington politicians and civil rights leaders…Hollywood producers. How else to explain the continuing stream of movies that sanctify the FBI in cloyingly reverential terms. In this achingly second-rate B-movie we have a governor aiming for the Senate who happens to be a murderer. The power behind this white-haired old weakling is a corrupt and ruthless man called Blake…yes, Raymond Burr. Blake plans to use one of those FBI girls in the Bureau's records division to steal the governor's fingerprint card so no one will ever learn of the Governor's indiscretion. The records appear to be stolen, the FBI girl is disposed of, but FBI agents Glen Stedman (Cesar Romero) and Jeff Donley (George Brent) are assigned to find out how and why the card was stolen. In the next 74 minutes Romero will explain the case, Brent will look like he wished he were somewhere else and the music will soar to stentorian heights every time the FBI is mentioned.

FBI Girl is one of those sad movies where, if they're unlucky, men and women who once were stars but, unable to hold on to the gold ring, now found themselves. Cesar Romero, big in the Forties and memorable as Cortez in Captain from Castile, ended up in things like Prisoners of the Casbah and Happy Go Lucky. Brent, unthreatening leading man to the big female stars in the Thirties and still interesting in The Spiral Staircase, saw himself in Tangier Incident and Mexican Manhunt. Even the second leads, Audrey Totter as a brave FBI clerk and Tom Drake as her lobbyist boyfriend, were in the down slope of their careers. The only actor worth paying attention to is Raymond Burr. It's a wonder he survived these dogs.

By the way, the FBI got their man, but only after they had to activate Operation Two.

Simple but very effective story about murder and corruption

[planktonrules · 8/10 · 4 August 2008]

This is a pretty good moderate budget Noir film. While it was produced by small-time Lippert Productions, it did have some relatively well-known names. The lead FBI agent was played by Cesar Romero and in a supporting role was George Brent. This was quite a change for Brent, as in the 30s and much of the 40s, he was a star. Here, his role is relatively forgettable--Romero is definitely "the man". In addition, Audrey Trotter plays a significant role in the film. However, although these three were bigger names at the time, the most important and interesting part in the picture was played by Raymond Burr. This was long before he gained fame from television, during the late 40s and 50s he was a perennial supporting heavy in Noir films. Here, however, his role is bigger and more interesting that ones he played in such Noir classics as BORDERLINE, HIS KIND OF WOMAN, DESPERATE and RAW DEAL. That's because instead of just another thug taking orders, here he is the schemer who makes all the decisions. And, when need be, he's tough as nails and ruthless--such as when he smacks Trotter around when she doesn't give him what he wants! The plot of the film is rather timely, as crooked politicians aren't exactly an unknown concept these days. The governor of a state (which one is never mentioned) is afraid because he's actually wanted for murder under another name for a crime he committed many years ago. With plans for running for the Senate, he's naturally worried that his true identity will come to light. So, it's up to his "fix-it man", Burr, to infiltrate the FBI and destroy his record. However, the Bureau finds out that someone did the theft but aren't sure whose record was stolen or why. So it's up to Romero and Brent to investigate--and investigation that eventually leads them to Trotter.

The film is very high on realism though relatively low on excitement. While there are some very sensational moments (especially the cool ending with Romero and his Tommy Gun), the film is much less concerned with way-out Noir sensibilities (such as camera angles and snappy dialog) and more on the realistic portrayal of procedures. In some ways, this is rather reminiscent of the radio and TV show "Dragnet" in mood and structure and that results in a very watchable and interesting film made even more so by Burr's exceptional performance.

Calling the usual suspects!

[mark.waltz · 5/10 · 15 February 2014]

Years before T.V. made him a hero with "Perry Mason" and "Ironside", Raymond Burr was a first class film villain, whether in film noir or sword and sandal epics like "Magic Carpet". Here, he's a crook who holds his finger over governor Raymond Greenleaf, and anxiously attempts to get his hands on some F.B.I. files complete with fingerprints. This leads to an interesting sequence where the F.B.I. fingerprinting system is shown in great detail and how vast it really all is. The F.B.I. girl (Margia Dean) pays for stealing a file with her life and it is up to her roommate (Audrey Totter) to aid agents Cesar Romero and George Brent in finding the killer(s). This leads to a magnificent show-down between good and evil and how ruthless ambitions from politicians like Greenleaf can lead to their downfall.

There's also a T.V. show seen in the movie which features a young Peter ("Pete") Marshall doing a comic sketch with Tommy Noonan. Marie Blake ("Grandma" Addams and Jeanette MacDonald's sister) has an amusing cameo as a drunken landlady and sex-pot Joi Lansing is memorable as a moll. The film is cleverly structured in semi-documentary style which greatly aids in its pacing. The majority of Lippert's films were weakly produced but this is probably one of their best.

solid crime-noir programmer, Raymond Burr in fine form

[django-1 · 9/10 · 8 January 2003]

As usual for director William Berke, who had been producing and/or directing low-budget crime, action, and western films since the mid-30s, FBI Girl creates a nice hard-boiled feel, moves quickly, and still plays well today. It's the story of a crooked governor who tries, with the help of his evil henchman Raymond Burr (always convincing as a sadistic heavy!), to cover his criminal activities decades before by having a set of fingerprints stolen from FBI headquarters, fingerprints that would establish his true identity. Ace FBI agent Cesar Romero (who also intrudes once or twice with narration) discovers a few details that don't add up in a seemingly unrelated case, and the plot takes off from there. The strong cast--Burr, Romero, George Brent, Audrey Totter, Tom Drake-- helps a lot, and overall it's a solid "B"-programmer from the underrated Lippert Pictures. There's also a strange sequence where some of the characters are watching the comedy team of Tommy Noonan (of Promises, Promises fame) and Peter Marshall (of Hollywood Squares fame) perform on television! That's a novel way of working them into the film (usually there would be a scene where the characters go to a nightclub; however, this was no doubt cheaper to film than a nightclub scene). Recommended for fans of post-war crime films and early Television police shows. By the way, the scene depicted on the movie poster-- of Audrey Totter standing seductively wearing a form-fitting outfit with a slit up the side and holding a gun--appears nowhere in the film (she's not an agent, but a clerk, and certainly would not be holding a gun!), but it looks great!

The lead of a dead man's fingerprint

[clanciai · 9/10 · 20 May 2020]

Outwardly this film does not promise much, it seems like some criminal entertainment on level B, but you will be in for a surprise. The great character here is Raymond Burr as the villain who is driven to constantly cover up his crimes by new and worse crimes, a masterful psychological portrait of the dilemma of politics mixed up with crime, which is the main argument of the film. It amounts to great sleuth virtuosity as the only thread the FBI agents can work on is an odd fingerprint, and the development in the film of how this science is pursued and finally brought to results makes it more than well worth watching - and learning from. It is thereby a kind of parallel to Henry Hathaway's great criminal documentaries of the 40s, like "Call Northside 777", and although on a lower level and less elaborate, this is indeed exciting and fascinating enough, especially as the criminal activities are constantly speeded up and boosted in seriousness. It's a B feature but definitely outstanding on a higher level and should be considered a classic as such.

Exciting little crime drama

[searchanddestroy-1 · 29 September 2023]

Among my William Berke's favourites with BETRAYAL FROM THE EAST, the most interesting crime films he ever made, with a good plot, a good cast and a good surprise because there are no real lead character here, no one and unique hero above the rest of the cast. It is not too long and it is tense all long the movie. Produced by Lippert Company, it is at the same quality scale as a RKO picture, a company for which William Berke also worked. The cops duo, some kind of a buddy scheme - Cesar Romero, George Brent - is a bit improbable but surprising in the good way. You can trust me, this film is not a masterpiece but a damn good B movie.