WITHIN THE LAW (1939)

This is an MGM B-movie remake of a 1930 Joan Crawford vehicle, PAID, and even though I haven't seen the original, this still felt like a rehash of familiar material. However, an interesting cast makes it worth watching. Ruth Hussey is a shopgirl who is accused of shoplifting jewels from the store she works for. We know that the person who did it was about to be caught and dumped the jewels in Hussey's locker. But big boss Samuel S. Hinds is tired of being soft on shoplifters so he prosecutes Hussey to the fullest extent of the law, despite her claims of innocence. She gets thrown in jail and spends her time studying the law, planning to get her revenge in a legal fashion when she gets out. Three years later, she meets up with Rita Johnson, a blackmailer she had become friends with in prison, and winds up being the legal brains of a petty crime gang headed up by Paul Kelly. They set Hinds' department store up to arrest Johnson on charges that they can't make stick, and that's just the beginning of Hussey's revenge, which includes marrying the boss's son (Tom Neal) under false pretenses. However, after a double cross and a declaration of genuine love, Hussey redeems herself, Hinds apologizes for his errors, and even Johnson gets a happy ending. Hussey is fine, but she's upstaged by the sexy, spunky Johnson, perhaps best known as the murdering wife in HERE COMES MR. JORDAN (the role that Dyan Cannon made her own in the 70's remake HEAVEN CAN WAIT). Neal is something of a plastic-looking pretty boy here and isn't terribly effective. The studio may have been grooming him for a persona for which he wasn't suited--he was much better as the tough guy loser in the B-classic DETOUR a few years later. Also notable are William Gargan as a cop and Paul Cavanagh as a double crossing gangster. There is a joking reference to MGM star Myrna Loy and *two* references to their hot property of the same year, GONE WITH THE WIND. [TCM]