***SPOILERS*** It's when Kansas farm boy Steve Talbot played by future US President of the United States and leader of the Free World Ronald "Dutch" Reagan hooked up with feisty redhead Florida Juke girl Lola Mears, Ann Sheridan, that things started to get hot and heavy in the little town of Cat's-Tail Florida where they both resided. It's there that big time produce mogul Henry "The Man" Madden, Gene Lockhart, had an iron grip on the farmers in exporting their tomato's beans and cabbage to the markets all over the state. In champion of the working class Steve seeing the pain and suffering that Madden is putting the local farmers through he gets involved with maverick tomato farmer Nick Garcos, George Tobias, in standing up to Madden's bulling and greedy, in him getting all the lettuce (money) and the farmers getting peanuts, tactics.It's when Nick & Steve are about to bring their crop of green beans to market up in Atlanta Georgia, out of Madden's reach, that Madden sends his goons lead by the violent but simple minded Cully, Howard De Silva, to stop his shipment of beans from getting there. With Steve preventing Madden and his goons from stopping the shipment he together with his partner Nick end up selling the prized green beans at a record price of $4.50 a crate resulting in something like a $15,000.00 profit. As for Steve's girlfriend Lola, a hot tomato herself, she in fact dumps him in order to get back to her true love being a Juke Girl at a local Atlanta saloon. But not after receiving her share of the cut, in the sale of green beans, of $3,800.00 from a grateful Nick.***SPOILERS*** Just when you think the movie is about to end on the up side things rally get wild with a drunken Nick trying to get back in the good graces, or bury the hatchet, with Madden that he gets into a drunken spat with him ending up getting his brains beat in, in self defense, by an outraged and terrified , in him getting killed himself, Madden. With all the evidence leading straight to both Steve & Lola a lynch mob is incited by the bird brained Cully to drag both Steve & Lola out of the county jail and hang them on the nearest tree. It's only when Steve's friends Danny & Yippee, Richard Whorf & Alan Hale, get Madden to confess his crime to the lynch mob that they not bothering to have him stand trail, and finding out his killing Nick was in self defense but not murder, lynched the terrified and defenseless man on the spot. Making Cully & Co. far worse criminals as well as murderers then the late Henry Madden ever was!

Considering how distant Cesar Chavez and Ronald Reagan were in philosophy, what would have the founder of the United Farm Workers thought of the Gipper starring in a film about migrant workers? I wonder if Chavez ever saw Juke Girl? A title by the way which one would never guess was about agriculture. When I first saw the title on the list of credits for Ronald Reagan, I thought it was some Forties musical with swing dancing.It's far from that. The title role is played by Ann Sheridan and she works in a roadside bar and dance club favored by the itinerant farm workers in that area of Florida. Two such migrant workers are Ronald Reagan and Richard Whorf who arrive in town. Whorf goes to work for the local wholesaler Gene Lockhart who pretty much sets prices his way as the farmers have nowhere else to sell their produce. Having lost a farm to the dust bowl in Kansas, Reagan's sympathies go out to farmer George Tobias who is trying to beat Lockhart's monopoly. The two friends become adversaries, but the friendship is strong, how strong everyone in the cast finds out before the film is over.Juke Girl with its deceptive title is a far cry from The Grapes Of Wrath, both book and film. The Joad family is on the road, not just the male breadwinner. Some of the actions Reagan takes in this film could never have been done by Tom Joad who carried responsibility for the whole Joad clan on the road. The players perform pretty much according to type. Ann Sheridan has some juicy lines, like the character she played in Torrid Zone had moved from Central America to Florida. Gene Lockhart who specialized in portraying particularly craven individuals is within his element, this may have been the most craven part Lockhart ever played.Juke Girl is hardly the sociological treatise that The Grapes Of Wrath was. But it's entertaining enough for the fans of the players in the cast.

A depression story that while it entertains fails in the long haul. A too good looking Ronald Reagan plays a Tom Joad character by the name of Steve Talbot. All he wants to do farm but the local boss Madden , played against type by Gene Lockhart, doesn't want to see the farmers organize and who is aided by Steve's best friend Danny, Richard Whorf, and Madden's top henchman Cully, Howard Da Silva. And of course there is Steve's love interest Lola, Ann Sheridan. What hurts the story are the good looks of the leads. These are not the worn out physically depleted characters seen in The Grapes of Wrath. This cast looks like they just stepped right out of the latest pages of a Hollywood Magazine or Vogue. Apparently staring in this picture had no impact on the young Ronald Reagan who as president had little to none of Steve Madden but lots of Henry Madden. I guess if nothing else this film proves Reagan a good actor who was able to read the lines not live them.

Surprisingly vigorous programmer showing why Warner Bros. was the blue-collar studio of record. Had the occasional goofy humor and contrived climax been improved this could have been a sleeper. Reagan is lively and likable as the quick thinking ex-farmer-- no wooden soldier here. Whorf and Sheridan are appropriately intense, helping to inject a gritty feel. Reagan's friendship with Whorf is more interesting than the predictable romance with Sheridan. Whorf, an opportunist, splits from his hoboing buddy by siding with the crooked wholesaler (Lockhart) because he sees a lucrative future with a powerful employer. Reagan, on the other hand, is an idealist, willing to risk his future to help the victimized farmer (Tobias). In my book, the dynamic between them makes up the movie's core because it often presents a real-life choice.A number of nice touches. The bar scenes are atmospheric and staffed beyond programmer expectation. In fact, the settings as a whole from the hobo jungle to the honky-tonk street show genuine care—note even the "Madden" labels in the background of Madden's (Lockhart's) office. I suspect that producer Hal Wallis, a leading Hollywood producer, had a lot to do with this level of detail for what amounts to a very unglamorous production. Note too how the wholesalers collude to cheat the farmers. I expect that resonated with audiences still recovering from the Great Depression. All in all, the movie's much better than its rather misleading title suggests. (In passing—note presence of voluptuous Faye Emerson {Murph} who later achieved New York celebrity by marrying one of the Roosevelt sons and scandalizing early TV with a series of plunging neckline guest-show appearances. Also, for uncompromisingly fierce look at trucking and wholesalers, catch noir classic Thieves' Highway {1949}).