Reform Girl

Hardened female convict Lydia Johnson is released from prison through the machinations of crooked political boss Kellar. She accepts $10,000 to pose as the long-lost daughter of crusading Senator Putnam, the only threat to Kellar's operations. Putnam and his wife accept Lydia with open arms, treating her with a kindness that softens the girl's tough facade. Kellar's orders are for Lydia to arrange for Putnam to be seen with a prostitute in a house of ill repute. She does so, and the senator's career is ruined in the public's eyes. A remorseful Lydia, remembering the love that Putnam showed her, resolves to redeem her "father"'s good name - even if it costs her life.

A rare pre-Code melodrama from short-lived Poverty Row studio Tower Productions, Reform Girl stars Noel Francis, a former Ziegfeld Follies showgirl and Broadway star who briefly turned to acting in motion pictures in the 1930s. Signed to Warner Brothers, she had supporting parts in two Jimmy Cagney pictures from 1931, Smart Money and Blonde Crazy. Her most significant film role was as a prostitute who tried to romance an on-the-lam Paul Muni in I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang (1932). Parts dried up for Francis after Chain Gang, and she ended up having to work in low-budget pictures like Manhattan Tower (1932) and Mutiny Ahead (1935). Following a brief attempt at reviving her Broadway career, she retired from show business in 1937 at the age of 31. Despite its obviously dated quality, Reform Girl was re-released in 1952 under the new title Vice Raid.