The universe of the vice movies has its classics, people like Esper, Clifton, Shyer, W. Kent, Doris Wishman (who belongs to a very different age, though the vice movies went on in the '50s and '60s, without morphing in the new and piquant exploitation).Beyond the scandals, nowadays irrelevant, the movies witness to their crew's knowledge of the trade. The very distant ancestor, at least in some respects, is Baudelaire, one of the 1st to glamorize what he meant to criticize. The movies are complex because they take a moral stance, not simply pretend to show things neutrally and factually. They are kindred to social dramas, occasionally to horror, Expressionism, Gothic, when an over-the-top approach has been chosen …; the exploitation alludes to the unacknowledged luridness, sometimes to a certain wickedness, occasionally mere naughtiness, in the conveying of the world criticized, but these traits certainly depend on the director, etc.. The best achievements are lurid, appealing. Also, they sometimes discovered beauty, even truth and soundness. Sometimes, a player steps in, making a movie meaningful.The topics were made appealing because they were taboos. So, the lurid topic wasn't sexuality, but prostitution.The heyday has been in the decade betwixt mid-'30s and mid-'40s.Eddie Kaye's drama has two of the vice movies' best players, Betty Compson and Oakman as the heads of an escort traffic; her acting is A, and if it upstages the others it also matches the movie, his, B, while Vallin and Housman have supporting roles. The movie here actually has something to convey. The director wishes it as a drama, spiced with piquant satire.The drama is popular in tone, but effective, thorough and piercing. Both comedy and drama are well conveyed, the direction is smooth, and you can tell people by how a movie elicits the sensibility's answer, whether it does; this is such a lovable movie, I can understand why some deem it addictive. Here, the topic is a glamour girl ring, escort traffic, deceit and lie.I liked the escort woman who's solicited by her husband.

I just stumbled into this grindhouse-type feature from the early '40s on the Internet Archive. This is a short melodramatic story of a female head of an escort service who has a big worry on her mind when her daughter-who's never known about her mother's profession since she's been to out-of-town schools growing up-visits her with her fiancée who's investigating to close down these adult places. It's just as well the print I saw had several splices and was just under an hour since the whole thing was mostly laughably cheesy especially whenever that daughter gets angry or sad and gets saddled with the worst lines to boot! There are some intentionally amusing moments though like when Arthur Housman does his usual drunk routine (I remember him from some Laurel & Hardy shorts) or when that receptionist talks and does some facial reactions. I think she's played by Gay Seabrook who's best known as Spanky's mother in a couple of Our Gang shorts. And, yes, there's a somewhat sexy striptease dance of one lady who shows her breasts though her nipples are covered by pasties. So on that note, Escort Girl is worth a look for what I just sighted and no more.

**SPOILERS**Shocking expose of the sleazy escort business back in the 1940's and how it destroyed those who were involved in it without even knowing it! Having nothing but the best in life young June Ashley, Margaret Marquis, didn't know that her mom Ruth, Betty Compson, was running a string of escort services, using both men as well as women, in and around L.A and its suburbs. It was when June together with her fiancée Drake Hamilton, Robert Kellard, paid her mom a surprise visit that the awful truth was to come out. What Ruth and her partner in the escort business Greg Stone, Wheeler Oakman, were to soon find out is that Drake is working undercover for the the L.A district attorney, who just happens to be Drake's dad, to gets the goods on the escort racket and put it, together with sleaze-balls like Ruth & Greg, out of business! Getting the jump on Drake in him knowing what he's planing to do Greg sets up Ruth's unsuspecting daughter June in a sting that Drake, and the D.A's office, is setting for him. Posing as a male escort-A greasy gigolo-Drake is stunned to find out that his first woman costumer is non-other then his fiancée June Ashley herself! This all leads to June to walk out on Drake feeling that he's running around with other women and Drake, who didn't know that this whole scenario was set up by the sleazy and manipulative Greg Stone, feel that June, not himself who was undercover as a gigolo, was working for Greg as one of his escort girls!The biggest fireworks in the movie are left for last with June now dead drunk, courtesy of Greg providing her all the free booze, confronting her unsuspecting, who showed unexpectedly, mom Ruth Ashley at Grege's penthouse! Thinking that Grege is cheating on her behind her back, until she realized that the "other woman" was her own daughter June, Ruth has it out with Greg as Drake, also unexpectedly, shows up! What happens next is is just too shocking and mind numbing to put down on paper! You'll have to, by getting a hold of the DVD "Escort Girl", see it, if you can keep yourself from cracking up from laughing, for yourself!

Escort Girl (1941) ** (out of 4) Ruth (Betty Compson) and her partner Gregory (Wheeler Oakman) run an escort service in Hollywood but Ruth's life is turned upside down when her daughter (Margaret Marquis) comes to visit. The daughter doesn't know mommy's real profession and it doesn't help when her boyfriend turns out to be working with the D.A. to bring down escort services. Fans of campy or bad cinema will certainly want to check this thing out but others should stay far away even though the film does feature an Oscar nominated actress in Compson. The actress was a big player in the silent era and acted in some well remembered films in the 30's but I guess you can tell how far she had fallen when she was seen in something like this. The exploitation factor is off the charts as we get all sorts of "naughty" moments including some brief nudity with a striptease (although the nipples are covered). The storyline is rather dirty but this wasn't the only film to deal with escorts as I'm sure the original producer's tried to pass this off as a "warning" or "message" film. The film is pretty straight forward for the first forty-minutes but the final twenty is where things really go crazy. When the daughter finds out the truth behind mommy's business I couldn't help but laugh at her breakdown. Also hilarious is her scenes where she's drunk because this ranks as some of the worst acting I've seen. Compson turns in a pretty good performance as does Oakman who would go onto appear in several Bela Lugosi films including The Ape Man and Ghosts on the Loose. In the end this film isn't going to appeal to very many except for fans of camp and those wanting a few unintentional laughs would be wise to check out this quickie.