The Company She Keeps *** (1951, Lizabeth Scott, Jane Greer, Dennis O’Keefe) – Classic Movie Review 10,979

Jeff Bridges makes his film debut as a baby in the 1951 drama The Company She Keeps starring Lizabeth Scott and Jane Greer. The six-month-old Jeff was supposed to cry and apparently wasn’t much of an actor, so his mother suggested they pinch him to get him to cry.

Director John Cromwell’s 1951 RKO Radio Pictures drama The Company She Keeps stars Lizabeth Scott, Jane Greer and Dennis O’Keefe, and is produced by John Houseman. The writer is Ketti Frings, both story and screenplay.

Jane Greer plays Mildred Lynch, who is released from prison after serving two years on a cheque-forging charge, then changes her name to Diane Stuart and moves to Los Angeles.

Lizabeth Scott plays parole officer Joan Willburn, who finds Diane a job at a hospital but of course no good deed goes unpunished and Diane steals Joan’s boyfriend Larry Collins (Dennis O’Keefe) after he comes to the hospital to visit a patient.

Parole officer Joan (Scott)’s fiancé, reporter Larry (O’Keefe), then falls for parolee Diane (Greer), after Joan (Scott) clears Diane (Greer) when she endangers her parole by helping another paroled woman (Fay Baker). Diane hides the relationship from Joan and hides her past from Larry.

Director Cromwell directs with style, delivering a deliciously acted, extremely professional if soapy melodrama that remains intriguing, borderline fascinating – even though it often tips over into the unbelievable or sometimes even the ridiculous.

The three stars, Nicholas Musuraca’s black and white cinematography and Leigh Harline’s score carry the day though, and it ought to have been a hit for the RKO Radio Pictures studio, but, according to studio records, it flopped at the box office, resulting in a loss for RKO of $315,000.

Jeff Bridges (born 4 December 1949) makes his film debut as a baby. The six-month-old Jeff, playing Diane’s infant son, was supposed to cry and, according to Jeff in 2013, Jeff’s mother suggested they pinch him to get him to cry.

The uncredited cameos are Beau Bridges as Obie, Kid at Train Station, Jeff Bridges as Infant at Train Station, and their mother, Dorothy Dean Bridges as Mother at Train Station, and John Cromwell as Policeman.

Jeff co-starred again with Jane Greer 31 years later in Against All Odds (1984).

The cast are Lizabeth Scott as Joan, Jane Greer as Diane, Dennis O’Keefe as Larry, Fay Baker as Tilly, John Hoyt as Judge Kendall, Irene Tedrow as Mrs Seeley, James Bell, Don Beddoe, Bert Freed, Marjorie Wood, Marjorie Crossland, and Virginia Farmer.

Runtime: 82 minutes. It was released on 6 January 1951 in the US.

Jane Greer (September 9, 1924 – August 24, 2001).

Howard Hughes owned both RKO and TWA, whose logo is featured prominently on the plane in the airport sequence. Hughes spotted Greer modelling in the 8 June 1942 issue of Life magazine and sent her to Hollywood to become an actress.

Dorothy Dean Bridges was married to Lloyd Bridges from 15 October 1938 till his death on 10 March 1998, with four children. She died on February 16, 2009, age 93.

John Cromwell’s film the previous year Caged (1950) was also about a woman sent to jail.

© Derek Winnert 2021 Classic Movie Review 10,979

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